A rash of savings: Get the cheapest nappies/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

Sarahjo_3

Hi
I use reusables on my daughter of 20 months and have been doing so since she was two weeks old.
I would advise visiting https://www.realnappynetwork.co.uk which gives a list of agents advising on and selling nappies in your area. This is by far the best way of finding out about reusable nappies as you can look at them all (and most agents have a wide selection, far better than shops which only have one or two different kinds) and also get face-to-face advice about which nappies will be best for you and your baby. Some agents also offer free follow-on support and advice once you are using real nappies.
I can highly recommend https://www.teamlollipop.co.uk as agents - all the agents have experience of using nappies on their own children and are friendly and helpful. :j
HTH
Sarahjo

lynneinjapan

happi wrote: »

Has anyone tried the reusable nappies by a company called Little Lamb? I'm thinking of buying some as they seem like really good value for money, but would appreciate any thoughts before going ahead.
Cheers.

I've used a couple of Little Lambs and have been quite pleased with them - except that I prefer nippa-fastening nappies to aplix, otherwise I'd probably have bought a few more. The size 1 lasted my baby (fairly long & slim) until she was about 5 months old, much the same as my size 1 Tots Bots. The design is very similar but my size 1 one had a separate, rather than sewn-in, booster tongue, and the LLs have a microfibre core so they dry faster than the Tots. The size 2 that I have is second-hand and the previous owner removed the aplix, which suits me fine and is apparently quite easy to do. The tabs on the size 2 (the one I've got, at least) are narrower than on the equivalent Tots, which makes them a better fit under some types of wrap (e.g. Nature Babies).

roadsidetree wrote: »

is it possible to get some sample re-usable nappies from anywhere? ideally i am after the velcro thingy. the ones that we bought from mothercare came with huge safety pins.

unfortunately our local council neither gives samples nor the one off payment

Little Lambs run a promotion every now and then where they give away free nappy samples for the price of postage. Go to http://www.littlelamb.co.uk/ (I can't get it to load atm but it might be OK for you).

It's usually aplix rather than velcro that's used on nappies - basically the same thing but (I'm told) able to withstand washing at higher temps. But it's more economical to get nippa-fastening nappies and a few Nappi Nippas - nobody in the know uses pins any more! - then you can just use folded terry squares until your baby reaches about 10lb and then go straight to size 2 nappies, skipping the size 1s altogether. A nippa is a stretchy T-shape with a gripper claw on the end of each arm - much easier and safer than pins, and it will grip any fabric with a terry-type pile.

chunkychocky

glendaed wrote: »

Aaaaaargh! I am 18 weeks pregnant, and new to washable nappies. Having read all the links, I am now even more confused! Where do I start, are all these names that are mentioned websites or in the shops? Can anyone give me a basic summary of what the options are? ( I like the idea of the throaway liners) Any advice for a virgin nappy washer would be much appreciated!!!

Aaarghh!!! I can't see the article. It just keeps on telling me that it has timed out.

Anyway I just wanted to let you know that https://www.friendlybaby.co.uk has a really useful advice section that would answer your initial questions and then they seem happy to provide more tailored advice by email after that.

HTH

CC

Elle00

Hi all, I'm new to the forums this very day! Hope no-one minds me adding some input to this important discussion but I've had a little bit of experience first-hand with these not so long ago.

I read the article and as expected, the theory is flawless (I love this Martin chap - helping me prepare for the future he is). However, parents should be aware that in practice things can be very different with reusables if you're not careful!

My own experience was that I firstly tried a wrap system purchased second hand. In theory I spent just £50 and I had all I would need from birth to nine months. But in practice, I then had to fork out around an extra £5 a month for washing products and utitilities plus I had to spend £10 on a nappy bucket and £4 on Tea Tree Oil for said bucket (essentials). I found they leaked regulary which meant washing bed linen and clothes far more frequently than usually necessary plus I had to change my son's nappy every 2hrs in the early days which was exhausting. Then just two months into use I realised the nappies were all leaking at every change instead of the usual every few changes. Only after a little research did I realise that you MUST NOT tumble dry the waterproof outer wraps as it ruins the outer coating... So that was those ruined.

Next I decided not to pay out for the fancy outer wraps again and to instead try the old basic terry nappies and pants. I sold the undamaged wrap system elements and got £28 back. Then I went to Boots and got two packs of terry nappies for £20 and three triple packs of outer pants for £9 (these need to be changed more regularly than cloth nappy outer wraps). In theory this was a good thrifty purchase; the nappies washed and wore well, but the plastic pants tore so easily I ran out after just ONE WEEK and they didn't even fit properly. They leaked like anything, chaffed my poor baby's thighs and meant I had to regularly wash excess clothing and bed linen on top of all the nappies.

On top of this you NEED to use a disposable nappy at night unless you want your baby to develop nasty rashes and soak the bed linen on a daily basis! No reusable lasts the night that I have even heard of let alone used myself. I note that reps often site nappies with EXTRA padding last for a whopping 8 or 10hrs; but as my baby slept for 10hrs through the night from 7wks old and 12 - 14hrs through the night from 12wks old to present that's not very helpful now is it?

After four months I tore the nappies up to use as muslins, chucked the pants in the bin and went out a bought a pack of disposables. I haven't looked back since.

Four months using reusables cost me (this includes deducting resale income and adding on one disposable per night) £95.93. If I had used disposables from the word go it would have cost me £80.96 (that's without deducting the frequent special offers you get in supermarkets).

So not only did I endure all that extra work load, leave my baby sitting in his own pee for hours on end, struggle to get regular clothes to fit him and gag on numerous occassions scrubbing dirt off soiled garments... I actually wasted £15 in just four months!!!

The cheapest nappy out of all the different reusables and disposables out there in my experience is.... Huggies! Yes really. Tesco maxi fits are 12p each and I found I needed 7 or 8 of them in a day. Huggies economy packs maxi fits (4+) are 16p each and I only use 4 or 5 a day. So with Tesco I spend £5.88 a week and with Huggies I spend £4.48 a week - plus I do less work!!! I regularly make savings on this at my local supermarket thanks to the persistantly recurring "2 for £16" or "£1 off" deals they do on the economy packs too. Boots offer triple club card points on Huggies but this works out at a 36p "saving" per economy pack. If you bought them from the supermarket you'd pay £1 less than in Boots which leaves you 64p better off each time!

In my experience, if you can make terry nappies work for you for a year you could pay £14 for your tea tree and bucket, £40 for your basic terry cloths and £78 for your plastic pants if you bought one pack a fortnight and were mindful not to tear them too frequently. Add on an extra £60 for laundry expenses plus £45 for a nightly disposable and you could get through a year spending £237 using this method.

A complete wrap system at £195 plus disposable liners at £12 for the year OR 12 reusable fleece liners at £17 plus 20 night time boosters for £32, £60 laundry expenses and £14 for your bucket and disinfectant sounds ideal working out at £319 what with all the lovely "convenient" systems out there at the moment. But where the crunch comes is when you start noticing your inner liners have worn out after only five months... Then you realise none of the regular baby clothes fit properly (note just how big the baby's bums are in the advertising photos on reusable nappy sites) and you'll also find that if you get sucked in, you will wind up buying fancy new super-whatever wraps that your friend at the coffee morning has just bought. Bingo, you've spent a whopping £750 in just one year and the resale value is actually only £65 despite what the nappy rep told you thanks to all the worn out, torn or stained nappies you're left with at the end of it all.

Using a good disposable you need only change your baby 6 times a day for the first two months then 4 times a day thereafter (remember one nappy goes 12hrs when they sleep through the night - I'm not being cruel!). That works out at £230 for the year.

Overall, if you use and continue to use terry nappies beyond the first year until potty training (which usually happens early at 15 - 24m with resuable nappy tots as they're much more aware of what they're sitting in!) then yes you probably will save yourself anywhere between £100 and £300 overall. If you use outer wrap systems, well, frankly I think you have to get it right every time as well as enjoying an element of good luck to make any savings over using disposables.

On top of this, a considerable amount of parents abandon cloth nappies of both varieties the minute their baby turns into a toddler. If you want to know why, watch an 11m old trying to walk with THAT between their legs!!!

I feel suitably bad for having written this considering the adverse environmental effects this kind of unpopular opinion can have. But I have to be honest as I feel the cost of living has gotten out of hand these days and we consumers have to work together to fight back. If the councils really want us to use reusables then they can stump up more than a lousey £40 towards the cost of using them!

Sincere apologies for my essay but maybe my experience will save someone a few quid. I write on a product review site usually and you should see my ridiculously long piece on preparing for a baby on a budget if you think THIS is long ;oP Elle x.

jessanna

Elle83 wrote: »

Hi all, I'm new to the forums this very day! Hope no-one minds me adding some input to this important discussion but I've had a little bit of experience first-hand with these not so long ago.

I read the article and as expected, the theory is flawless (I love this Martin chap - helping me prepare for the future he is). However, parents should be aware that in practice things can be very different with reusables if you're not careful!

My own experience was that I firstly tried a wrap system purchased second hand. In theory I spent just £50 and I had all I would need from birth to nine months. But in practice, I then had to fork out around an extra £5 a month for washing products and utitilities plus I had to spend £10 on a nappy bucket and £4 on Tea Tree Oil for said bucket (essentials). I found they leaked regulary which meant washing bed linen and clothes far more frequently than usually necessary plus I had to change my son's nappy every 2hrs in the early days which was exhausting. Then just two months into use I realised the nappies were all leaking at every change instead of the usual every few changes. Only after a little research did I realise that you MUST NOT tumble dry the waterproof outer wraps as it ruins the outer coating... So that was those ruined.

Next I decided not to pay out for the fancy outer wraps again and to instead try the old basic terry nappies and pants. I sold the undamaged wrap system elements and got £28 back. Then I went to Boots and got two packs of terry nappies for £20 and three triple packs of outer pants for £9 (these need to be changed more regularly than cloth nappy outer wraps). In theory this was a good thrifty purchase; the nappies washed and wore well, but the plastic pants tore so easily I ran out after just ONE WEEK and they didn't even fit properly. They leaked like anything, chaffed my poor baby's thighs and meant I had to regularly wash excess clothing and bed linen on top of all the nappies.

On top of this you NEED to use a disposable nappy at night unless you want your baby to develop nasty rashes and soak the bed linen on a daily basis! No reusable lasts the night that I have even heard of let alone used myself. I note that reps often site nappies with EXTRA padding last for a whopping 8 or 10hrs; but as my baby slept for 10hrs through the night from 7wks old and 12 - 14hrs through the night from 12wks old to present that's not very helpful now is it?

After four months I tore the nappies up to use as muslins, chucked the pants in the bin and went out a bought a pack of disposables. I haven't looked back since.

Four months using reusables cost me (this includes deducting resale income and adding on one disposable per night) £95.93. If I had used disposables from the word go it would have cost me £80.96 (that's without deducting the frequent special offers you get in supermarkets).

So not only did I endure all that extra work load, leave my baby sitting in his own pee for hours on end, struggle to get regular clothes to fit him and gag on numerous occassions scrubbing dirt off soiled garments... I actually wasted £15 in just four months!!!

The cheapest nappy out of all the different reusables and disposables out there in my experience is.... Huggies! Yes really. Tesco maxi fits are 12p each and I found I needed 7 or 8 of them in a day. Huggies economy packs maxi fits (4+) are 16p each and I only use 4 or 5 a day. So with Tesco I spend £5.88 a week and with Huggies I spend £4.48 a week - plus I do less work!!! I regularly make savings on this at my local supermarket thanks to the persistantly recurring "2 for £16" or "£1 off" deals they do on the economy packs too. Boots offer triple club card points on Huggies but this works out at a 36p "saving" per economy pack. If you bought them from the supermarket you'd pay £1 less than in Boots which leaves you 64p better off each time!

In my experience, if you can make terry nappies work for you for a year you could pay £14 for your tea tree and bucket, £40 for your basic terry cloths and £78 for your plastic pants if you bought one pack a fortnight and were mindful not to tear them too frequently. Add on an extra £60 for laundry expenses plus £45 for a nightly disposable and you could get through a year spending £237 using this method.

A complete wrap system at £195 plus disposable liners at £12 for the year OR 12 reusable fleece liners at £17 plus 20 night time boosters for £32, £60 laundry expenses and £14 for your bucket and disinfectant sounds ideal working out at £319 what with all the lovely "convenient" systems out there at the moment. But where the crunch comes is when you start noticing your inner liners have worn out after only five months... Then you realise none of the regular baby clothes fit properly (note just how big the baby's bums are in the advertising photos on reusable nappy sites) and you'll also find that if you get sucked in, you will wind up buying fancy new super-whatever wraps that your friend at the coffee morning has just bought. Bingo, you've spent a whopping £750 in just one year and the resale value is actually only £65 despite what the nappy rep told you thanks to all the worn out, torn or stained nappies you're left with at the end of it all.

Using a good disposable you need only change your baby 6 times a day for the first two months then 4 times a day thereafter (remember one nappy goes 12hrs when they sleep through the night - I'm not being cruel!). That works out at £230 for the year.

Overall, if you use and continue to use terry nappies beyond the first year until potty training (which usually happens early at 15 - 24m with resuable nappy tots as they're much more aware of what they're sitting in!) then yes you probably will save yourself anywhere between £100 and £300 overall. If you use outer wrap systems, well, frankly I think you have to get it right every time as well as enjoying an element of good luck to make any savings over using disposables.

On top of this, a considerable amount of parents abandon cloth nappies of both varieties the minute their baby turns into a toddler. If you want to know why, watch an 11m old trying to walk with THAT between their legs!!!

I feel suitably bad for having written this considering the adverse environmental effects this kind of unpopular opinion can have. But I have to be honest as I feel the cost of living has gotten out of hand these days and we consumers have to work together to fight back. If the councils really want us to use reusables then they can stump up more than a lousey £40 towards the cost of using them!

Sincere apologies for my essay but maybe my experience will save someone a few quid. I write on a product review site usually and you should see my ridiculously long piece on preparing for a baby on a budget if you think THIS is long ;oP Elle x.

It's interesting to hear your opinion on real nappies but I have to disagree. In my opinion real nappies have been fantastic. Admittedly, in the early days, I used prefold nappies which were, as you suggested, not very absorbent and had a tendency to leak a lot. After getting advice however from both https://www.lizziesrealnappies.co.uk and https://www.thenappylady.co.uk I found a couple of brands of 'shaped' nappies which suited me and my baby really well. I never had any leaks and found the nappies to be really absorbent. I used Tots Bots Bamboozles and Tots Bots rainbows with Motherease Airflow wraps - this combination worked really well for me. They cost around £200 initially, but this has saved me loades of money compared to disposables (even taking washing costs into account). A further advantage of real nappies was that my baby was potty trained at around 22 months. I'd encouarge parents to give real nappies a try - but be sure to get good advice - don't be tempted to spend a lot of money on nappies without this advice - otherwise you'll be throwing your money down the drain (excuse the pun)! Also check out the incentive schemes offered by your local councils - you may be able to try out some nappies for free.

Balamory13

These disposable nappies are great quality and value. :j I tried them when my first child was a few months old, as they were £5.69 versus a typical well known brand of 8.99 or thereabouts for sizes 3 4 and 5 - sizes are directly comparable witht the two leading big brands, in my view. Was very pleasantly surprised and haven't looked back! In fact, about once a year, Lidl put them on offer for about £3.69 and when my second child was born, I sat down and worked out how many nappies I might need at each size, over the next year or so. I ended up buying £110 worth of nappies in all three sizes and I wasn't far wrong in judging the usage. My child was over 18 months before I needed to go shopping for nappies again! and it was great not having to remember to buy nappies each week, for a whole 18 months! Only drawback was the storage but luckily I had a cubby hole space that they fitted into perfectly - or slide them under the bed!:j They also offer a range of pull ups for older children. They do not offer newborn or size 1 and 2 but as any mother knows, you only need about one packet of each of these sizes before baby is into size 3 anyhow and you'll probably get enough free ones with Bounty

BernadetteN

I do hope ELLE83's experience of reusables is very much a minority view.

I have used the same cloth nappies on all 4 children. The total cost for around 9 years of nappy use, including initial start-up costs, extra nappy covers, liners, washing powder, washing machine wear and tear, electricity is around £500-£600. I challenge anyone out there to put disposables on their babes for 9 years for less than that. Plus my nappies are about to be given away to a friend's newborn so the costs will diminish even further.

mentat72

Bexley Council are partnered with the REAL Nappies programme for anyone interested.

http://www.littlelamb.co.uk/shoppage.php/template/ReusableNappiesVoucher-Bexley.html

http://www.bexley.gov.uk/service/environ/recycling/wastenappies.html

kctc1869

Hi there, having problems with washable nappies, got a 11week old son who i am breast feeding and having major leakage from the nappies. anyone else had this problem? the company with whom we got the nappies have taken ages to respond, had to send one back to be looked at, reply to that was manufacture problem with elastic in legs so had to return the whole set (15 nappies) that was 4 weeks ago! got refunded postage in nappy liners !! great use when we actually have no nappies!!! kept ringing and getting reply that they have been dispatched , then the next minute they have not and there has been a problem. anyone got any advice? tried double liners and smaller wraps. still awaiting nappies but losing all faith in them.

Maybeanotherday

Hello just thought I would let you know that Bradford council are offering a free starter pack incl bucket,instructions and 5nappies for free if you are a part of bradford council. The downloadable form is avalible on bradford website.

Also I have bought all I need for my newborn off Ebay and www.usednappies.co.uk for £90!!!

Please bear in mind although you are buying second hand nappies they have been washed and can be again when you recieve them. All the ones I have bought are in tip top condition. PLUS the more times the nappies are washed the more absorbant they are

Note about used nappies.co.uk this site works a similiar way to ebay,but generally you get a better bargain as the site is not yet full with members. I got a full tot's bot's package for £45 incl postage!
They use paypal and cheques as a form of payment and MOST of the sellers are stay at home mums although there is the odd shop.:money: