When you’re cloth diapering on a budget, you can save money by buying cheap cloth diapers accessories. You can save even more by making your own detergent, cloth wipes, and more!
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When I first started the Cloth Diapering on a Budget series, I had a Facebook reader comment that my numbers were an incredibly low estimate. She suggested that cloth diaper users would want newborn prefolds, wet bags, detergent, etc.
She is exactly right. If you can afford them, you’ll definitely want all of the above, but guess what? I left out all of these things in my budget series because honestly, they aren’t necessities. You can certainly cloth diaper without them… our great grandparents did.
Use a Pillowcase as a Pail Liner
One of my last accessory purchases myself was a pail liner. Why? Because they cost around $15 for some of the cheapest and I just thought it was a bit unnecessary. I used a pillowcase as a pail liner for a couple of years before I ever bought a PUL pail liner.
Granted, a PUL lined pail liner is honestly a little better at keeping in smells and wetness, the pillowcase works just fine – especially if you’re washing every other day. Just throw it in with your laundry and you’ve got a super cheap cloth diaper accessory.
Cloth Diaper Detergent
While you will definitely need to wash your diapers in something, you don’t necessarily need to buy specific cloth diaper detergents. In fact, the best cloth diaper detergent, in my opinion, is one that we use on our regular clothes too.
Give Accessories Dual Purposes
Let's say you do want to purchase newborn prefolds because they fit better. You can easily make those purchases last longer by using the prefolds as extra inserts and doublers as your child gets older. This eliminates the need to buy extra inserts later in your cloth diapering journey.
Another great way to do this is use your wet bag for many different things. Actually I came up with 11 different ways to use a cloth diaper wet bag in addition to it's normal job of holding dirty cloth diapers.
DIY Cloth Wipes
If you're on a budget, chances are you don't want to be spending money on disposable wipes. Cloth wipes are much cheaper than disposables, but can still add up in your budget. Mindy shares the tip "Bargain fabrics or old receiving blankets made great cloth wipes." One receiving blanket could be cut up into enough wipes - so there you are... free cloth wipes!
While cloth diapering accessories may sometimes seem like necessities, most of the time they aren't. If you're cloth diapering on a budget, be sure to look at these great ways to make cheap cloth diaper accessories work for you!