How to Save Money on Diapers
During the first couple years of your baby’s life, the seemingly neverending cost of diapers will inevitably add up (along with all the other child rearing expenses…). If you are trying to find ways to save money on diapers, I am here to share 6 easy things you can start doing right now, and it won’t involve clipping coupons or require much time.
These 4 easy things to do will make buying diapers super easy!
1. Never pay full price for diapers!
In this post, I’ve compared name brand and store brand diaper prices at various retailers so you can easily know where to find the lowest everyday diaper prices. For your convenience, I’ve included a table below that shows the best regular price for various name brand and store brand diapers, by size. (I got this data by looking at the prices of 7 different retailers and was updated December 2020.)
So what you need to do, is decide what brand and size you need. Then you can use the built in tool below to determine the cost of each diaper. You can find more detailed instructions about using this handy diaper price calculator here. After determing th price for each diaper, check the above table and see if its below the best “regular” price.
Remember, the best “regular price” is the lowest price I could find for that diaper in that size at 7 different retailers. It didn’t account for sales. So you definitely don’t want to be higher than that number and ideally, you want to be lower!
2. Stock up!
Find a designated place in your house to stockpile diapers and wipes. When you find a good sale, try to buy at least 3-4 months worth! If you only buy one box at a time, you will always be at the mercy of the retailers and won’t be able to guarantee that you can buy diapers when they are on sale!
Buying diapers on sale can literally save you hundreds of dollars per year! Also be sure to tape your receipt to the box just in case you need to return them for the next size up!
3. Don’t be afraid to try different brands!
Some babies are incredibly senstive to certain brands of diapers, but some are not! Don’t be afraid to try out a few different brands. Remember every penny you save per diaper, adds up to a savings of roughly $30 per year! (Assuming 8 diapers a day, 365 days a year.)
I would suggest that instead of buying a box from each brand, see if some friends or neighbors with babies can lend you a couple diapers from the brand they use. You could even ask a mom at daycare if they’d be interested in swapping a couple diapers or see if they’d give you a couple. You could always offer to pay them just so you don’t have to buy a whole box!
4. Use cheaper diapers during the day and higher quality ones at night!
If you have had a baby, you most likely have been through those nights where they wake up crying because they soak through their diaper. (For me, this started around 6+ months old, simply because they woke up so frequently in the earlier months that they were changed usually multiple times a night.) The kiddos are cold and wet and their crib sheets are soaked.
This is not fun for any one.
My solution to this is to use high quality diapers that cost a little bit more at night time. There are “overnight diapers”, but our family had good results at night with both Pamper’s Baby Dry and the Aldi Little Journey’s brand, neither of which was an overnight diaper.
During the day, my kids go to daycare. Therefore they get changed every 2-3 hours. Because of this, their diaper never really gets used to its “full potential” (if you know what I mean!)
Therefore my kids wear Up & Up diapers (Target store brand) during the day (which are awesome and one of the cheapest!) and then typically a more expensive diaper at night. This method alone has saved us a lot of money and some sanity.
5. Specifically How I Save Money on Diapers (and you should too!)
Because my kids are a little older and have dropped “night feeding,” we are currently only using Size 5 Up & Up brand diapers and we don’t use special over night ones anymore. (Yes, both my 1.5 year old and 2.5 year old are in Size 5!) If I paid full price for these diapers, it would cost approximately $818, assuming they each wear 7 diapers a day at $0.16 each for 365 days. I always buy diapers (and wipes) when Target has a sale where they give a giftcard in return of a certain purchase amount. Typically I buy when I receive a $25 giftcard with a $100 purchase. Additionally I use my Redcard (Target credit card) to get 5% off the total price. So if I made 8 – $100 purchase, I would instantly get $200 of giftcards in return and 5% off $818 is approximately $40. That would mean I save $240. So a year of diapers costs me $578 for 2 kids, meaning I spend only $289 on diapers a year per kid!
One super important tip about Target promotions! If you are going to be making a BIG purchase, let’s say the total is $205. If the deal is that you get a $25 giftcard with a $100 purchase on diapers and wipes, then you will need to make two separate purchases to score two giftcards. You won’t get two giftcards if you ring up your cart as one $200 purchase.
(If you want to know how good of deal that is, I have a chart comparing the cost of a year of diapers for the various brands.
Conclusions:
I hope this post has taught you how to save money on diapers. Life with littles is so busy, I hope I saved you some time, so you can enjoy your time with them more.
Stay savvy,
