How Much Money Could you Save by Switching to Cloth Nappies?
Are Reusable nappies more expensive?
It's true there is an initial cost to using modern cloth nappies: whilst each disposable nappy sells for a few pence, reusable nappies cost pounds. However, once you’ve stocked up, you don’t need to buy more and they only add a few more loads of washing to your routine. Some councils offer cloth nappy incentive schemes with vouchers or cash back to help parents buy cloth nappies. This can be a postcode lottery so Bells Bumz has launched the FIRST Nationwide reusable nappy incentive scheme regardless of where you live in the UK.
When deciding which cloth nappies to buy, the most important thing is to choose ones which suit your circumstances. We can help you find the best reusable nappy for your lifestyle with our cloth nappy questionnaire. Want to know how much you could save with cloth nappies? Use the savings calculator to work out how much you could save by switching to cloth nappies. Did you know that 20-30 cloth nappies could replace 5000 disposable nappies! Modern cloth nappies could save you money, even when you consider the cost of washing a few extra loads a week. You can then use our handy calculators to find out how many cloth nappies you need to use reusable cloth nappies for your baby. Then you can use our cloth nappy questionnaire to find our which cloth nappies will suit you and your baby, from newborn to toddler to beyond we have a cloth nappy to suit your needs.
The cost of reusable cloth nappies does vary but we have a number of reduced price bundles and kits to get you started.
Our Bells Bumz Full Kit contains everything you need to cloth full time at £320 including postage (RRP over £400!!)
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If you were to wash and tumble dry your reusable cloth nappies every other day for 3 years this would cost around £350 including water, electricity and washing powder in "standard" washing machines and driers (not the most or the least efficient), air/line drying or using a dehumidifier or heat pump tumble dryer would reduce these costs significantly! Using the cost of our Full Kit this brings the total cost of the cloth nappies to £670. This is based on the Ofgem price cap from April 2022. However. if you then go on to use your Bells Bumz modern cloth nappies for multiple children, with our family lifetime warranty you can be confident they will last, and you will not have to buy more cloth nappies reducing the overall cost for multiple children.
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The average baby uses 5000 disposable nappies with the market leading brand costing 25p per nappy which is a cost of £1250, this means that for one baby by switching to cloth nappies you could save around £580 this saving increases when using reusable cloth wipes, and wet bags instead of disposable nappy bags. For two children you would then go on to save around £1480 (more with the washable cloth wipes and wet bags) and for three children this would be around £2380!! Remember if your air dry as oppose to tumble dry or have an efficient washing machine these savings increase as well!
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You are also saving a huge amount of plastic waste, with disposable nappies contributing around 438kg of plastic waste annually per child, that is around 1314kg per child which is around 1 car! Disposable nappies also use our earth resources such as wood pulp, cotton and the manufacture of polymers uses over 1500 litres of crude oil and contributes the equivalent of 550kg CO2 for one babies nappies! Switching to cloth nappies generates much less waste (20-30 cloth nappies, that can be reused and repurposed), uses much less resources and contributes 40% less CO2 even when all the washing and drying is taken into account.
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Finally, remember, using cloth nappies doesn't have to be all or nothing, you can start with one cloth nappy - have a look at our cloth nappy incentive scheme, or use cloth nappies one day a week, or use cloth nappies part-time. Find what fits with your family and your baby and switch to cloth nappies at an amount that suits you.
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When you have finished using your cloth nappies these can be sold (there is a preloved market for cloth nappies), donated or repurposed. We take donations for our Bells 4 Change scheme.
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