Its ironic that in the last sentence I was writing about how much I had and then I start to write about buying more things. However in my defence, and in protection of my carpet, I would say that nappies are essential when raising a child (unless you do elimination communication and I am not even going to go there). And although it involved getting more things, using cloth eliminates the throw away part of the whole deal.
We are a disposable generation. We think nothing of the packaging, the chocolate biscuits lying in plastic casing encased in plastic wrap. We think nothing of throwing out our old appliance when it stops working and buying a new one at half price at Briscoes in the “our owners MIL’s dogs birthday sale”.
My foray (well addiction if I am to be perfectly honest) into cloth nappies opened up a world for me. I have found people who run their business from home, who make their own nappies, who have the same concerns I do regarding living sustainably. Daniel and now Caitlin's little bottom now wiggles its way in the world covered in lime green or red nappies. He carries his wet nappies to the laundry and pops them into the nappy basket and he flings the clean ones off the sofa when I am folding the washing. He takes the nappy off his teddy and tries to put it on again. There is soft material against his skin. They look gorgeous on the line. Caitlin will soon be sporting her own set of brand new cloth nappies as she outgrows the small ones.
I am sure many people are rolling their eyes at the moment as they read this. Maybe its because life as a SAHM can sometimes get a bit monotonous so I have to find something that is fun? I don’t know. I know when I wanted to use nappies, it was years before we had Daniel and I was talking to a woman I vaguely knew from work, on the train, and she was pregnant and telling me that you could get cloth nappies at this shop in town that were just as good as disposables but reusable. When I got pregnant I did some internet searching (some, hehehehe, I spent hours) and found a whole new world. It took some sorting to find what I thought would work for us. Dion, being a good and loyal husband gave me leave to choose what I like because I knew more about the baby thing than he did. I should add that I didn’t really know anymore than him, except what I had read. I changed my mind several times but now, 30 months on and about 900 washes later, my nappies are still going strong and so am I.
So cloth nappies kind of started it.
Even before nappies though things happened that kind of forced us to take a look at how we lived. I mean, you can’t go spending several hundred dollars at the supermarket when you only get several hundred dollars a week. As my working hours declined, my cooking from scratch hours increased. We don’t buy biscuits, cakes, chips (well rarely) or fresh pasta. We don’t buy as many luxuries because I can make them and they taste good. Fruit bread or buns? Breadmaker. Cheap but really flash pasta meal – make the pasta. Need to bring something… banana cake or chocolate brownie. Need to stretch the meal? Breadmaker again. And with the cost of living increasing then it makes even more sense.
I recently read a post about a woman who spent $85 a week on her child at the supermarket. Her child is about 8 months old. When Daniel was that old he went through a “only eat canned cereal phase” which cost us $7 a week, plus maybe another $7 for the custard he loved. That is all. Cloth nappies are already there, cloth wipes, breastfeeding, all of that reduced our costs in having a child. If I had to buy nappies over and over again I would spend a minimum of $20, which makes about $2500 for the same length of time… even if the net result on the earth is the same I am still saving money… that has got to be a good thing.
