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May 21, 2013

{Flats Challenge} Day 2 - What do you use for such a time?

Today is day two of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge that is being hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. This is a week where I will be only using flat diapers on BG and hand washing each and every one. I will also hand wash all covers and anything else I use to diaper BG. It runs from May 20-26.
Yesterday I talked about why I have wanted to participate in this event. Today I want to give you an idea of what I using this week. How much would something like this cost a family? Now, keep in mind, I am all about frugality, and I did not let that get in my way, and I had fun finding the cheapest things I could.
Bear with my as we go through some pictures of my supplies.
So, I have most of my supplies in one location. The diaper caddy holds most of my flats, that I have pre-folded. My flats consist of receiving blankets and flour sack towels from Target. I also have some doublers (smaller flats) in side pockets for naps and such. Liners if I really want to use them, but usually we go without. Also, two wetbags (Kushies brand) and a pockets with my pins and snappis. I bought the pins at Baby R Us because Walmart and Target both did not sell pins. I love that I was able to find cute pins for my girl. They did also have solid blue and solid white pins.

I also have a wooden bucket that holds all of our cloth wipes and a solution spray. Many of these wipes were made by me. I cut up one or two old receiving blankets I found at a consignment sale for really cheap. I also found the cute fabric that you see in the picture on clearance at the store and bought it to make more wipes. I do have a few in there from a store, but they were sent to me for review on here, so they were free. I like free.
Here you see pictures of my washing bucket (plunger and lid are upstairs, though I have not been using the lid). Also, I have found that using the iron can really soften the flats when they are line dried. It works! The Iron was a great find on Freecycle.
Here are my covers. The two light pink were made by me with some fleece I found in the remnants bin at JoAnn Fabrics. Remnants are 50% off, always. The two one size covers are from a great store (Assunta Store) and really low cost. I really like them a lot! There are two covers missing. A Thirsties cover and another cover made by me (You will see it soon on BG). The last cover is a gDiaper. The "g" has since come off since it has been in our possession since LJ was in diapers.
There you have it! These are my supplies. There are some flats not pictured because they are still drying. I washed them last night and they are still  very wet, because it is very humid around here right now. The sun is shining at the moment, so I am going to hanging them outside to get them drier faster.
My Cost Breakdown:
Iron - FREE
Ironng Board - Bought for the house years ago (no cost remembered)
Bucket - About $5 at Walmart
Plunger - About the same as the Bucket ? I truly do not remember the cost from two years ago (say $5)
Cloth Wipes - Mostly FREE ( say $5 for the fabric I bought for the cute ones)
Wipes Solution - FREE (reviewed item on here) normally $10.50 at Kelly's Closet (affiliate link)
FST from Target - FREE from Freecycle
Receiving Blankets - Mostly FREE (bought maybe 4 for $3 at consignment sales years ago)
Fleece covers - $6 for the fabric tat can still make 3-4 more covers
One size covers - $5 each at Assunta Store (not affiliate, but I love their store!)
gDiaper - paid for itself years ago
Pins - $3 at Babys R Us
Snappis - $5? No clue as they were bought when LJ was still diapered
Total cost that I remember: $53.50 to cloth diaper my daughter. This is enough that I could cloth diaper her full time as well. If you wanted to factor in costs I may not be thinking of, I would maybe round to a max of $75.
As you can see, I have found ways to get things for very low costs. Yes, I can sew, but it is something that is very easy to do and can save you much money in the long run. I use Freecycle as much as I can. If I am looking for something specific, I ask, otherwise I just keep my eyes open when seeing what others post.
Now, to leave you with a picture of BG sporting her red cover that her momma made. :)

Do you think you could do this? If you are unsure, talk to me, I think we could easily find how you can do this. You can save the money you would normally spend on disposable and use it for other things that have to be paid, like bills. Let's chat it up in the comments!

Until next time... Happy Diapering!

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