How a Cheap Mama Saves on Diapers

Diapering our children for the first few years of their lives can be extremely costly.  With my first child, Superman, I would never have dreamed of putting his delicate tushy in anything other than brand name diapers.  I quietly suspected that the generic diapers were probably just fine but all of that marketing really had me believing that more expensive = better product.  So I grabbed the brand name box of diapers each time I was at the store, trying to ignore the fact they they were significantly more expensive and trying not to add up what the cost difference would be if multiplied over the lifetime of my diapering days.

The second time around, though, things were different.  I was a full-fledged Cheap Mama and determined to save money on this baby expenditure.  I'll never forget the first time I bought a pack of generic diapers.  I actually felt like a bad mother; like I had just committed a mortal mothering sin by buying something other than the best for my child.  Even my husband balked at the idea of putting our precious angel's skin next to anything other than the brand name stuff.  I can now say that after 18 months and about a million diapers later, generic diapers are just fine! 

That's not to say one generic brand may not work for a particular baby but I guarantee that you would be able to find another generic brand that would work just fine.  My SIL who has 4 children uses generic diapers on her baby boy but has found that the Target brand UP & Up won't work because they don't fit my nephew's body correctly.  (This is my personal opinion but I think boys are harder to diaper than girls.  It's a trajectory thing and some diapers just won't fit right to contain the fountain.  But I found that to be true even with the brand name diapers!)

My advice, if you're trying to be a Cheap Mama too, would be to go ahead and take the plunge!  Buy the generic!  Give it a try and you'll find that they are not composed of wood chips, are soft and absorbent and even have cute little pictures just like the brand name ones.  You will also be skipping torward the checkout lane knowing that you just cut your diaper spending in half!