Cloth on a Budget - Starter Kit

I decided to create my own starter kit for my cloth nappy adventure, which I did with careful research, relentless shopping and hours of trawling the Internet for the best deals and prices. My goal was to have a variety of choices with enough nappies to not be constantly washing and for a low price. I'm happy with what I have, I hope that if you're considering cloth on a budget, that you find the following helpful.

Flat.

6x Terry Nappies - Bright Bots £18.95 for 6. Fill Your Pants.

Not the cheapest way to buy terries (though terries are the cheapest) , but I love the colours, they're a very good size and have good reviews. By buying a pack of six, also, I reduce waste should I decide that terries aren't for us.

9x Muslins - £3.50 for 3. Morrisons. £6 for 5. Sainsbury's.

Terries can be bulky on little newborns and although I had a lot of Muslins from when Moo was a baby, I decided to pick up a few more for use as nappies or to boost absorbency with some of the others.

  

Bright Bots.

Shaped.

2x TotsBots Bamboozles - £8.99 each. Fill Your Pants.

5x Little Lamb Bamboo - £25 for 5. Fill Your Pants.

5x Lollipop Bamboo - £22.50 for 5. Cloth Nappy Shop.

I bought the most of these because they are sized and I had heard good things about them all. I have bought three different brands, all bamboo, to see what I like for when they are outgrown and what is best for night times.

Left; Lollipop. Top; TotsBots Bamboozles. Bottom; Little Lamb.

Pocket.

Babyland - £2.99. eBay.

2x Baba+Boo - £9.25 each. Baba+Boo. Please note one of mine was gifted for review purposes.

CoolaBaby - £5.50. eBay.

When I first started research pocket nappies, I was convinced these were best and planned to buy 24 in total of varying different brands. After doing more research I decided to keep my options open but I wanted some 'easy to use' nappies for my husband and other relatives.

Top; CoolaBaby. Middle; BabyLand. Bottom Baba+Boo.

All in one.

Bambinex - £7.99. Zuilily.

Frugi for TotsBots - £14.44. BabiPur.

Another 'easy option' for other people more than for myself. The TotsBots Fugi is my most expensive individual nappy purchase, however it was too cute to resist and 15% off. I earnt some money through eBay and so purchased it with that.

Left; Bambinex. Right; TotsBots Frugi.

Wraps.

TotsBots Easy Fit Wrap. £8.99. eBay.

2x Smarty Pants wraps. £18 for 2. Fill Your Pants.

Little Lamb wrap. £6.50. Cloth Nappy Shop.

Lollipop wrap. Included with Lollipop shaped nappies.

 Top; Smarty Pants. Left; Little Lamb. Right; TotsBots Easy Fit.

Accessories.

Nappy Bucket - £5.99. eBay.

Nappi Nippas -  £4 aprox. eBay.

Net bags - £3 for 2. Baba+Boo.

Bamboo boosters - 5 Free with code BOOSTED. Fill your pants.

Flushable liners - £4.99 for 200. Boots.

Dry bag - Free with Lollipop shaped nappies.

Top; Nappi Nippas. Bottom; Bamboo boosters. Right; Bucket, net and flushable nappy liners.

Total spend; £182.57

I could've got this a little cheaper, however I opted to go for some more expensive brands ie TotsBots and Bright Bots, partly because they came so highly recommended.

So this is what I have to work with at the moment, twenty-four in all which apparently is enough to wash every-other day. There will be a certain degree of trial and error in regards to all of them but hopefully it won't take long to figure out what works for us and when Bear grows out of the shaped nappies at around nine months, we will sell them on as 'pre-loved' and replace either with the next size up or a different type depending on what suits us best as a family.

I'm not an expert, I don't pretend to know everything about cloth nappies, I'm still learning, but I hope that if you're looking to start cloth on a budget that this has given you an idea of what you can get for your money.

Clare

Cloth on a Budget - Intro

For some reason, with this baby, I became adamant that I wanted to use cloth (reusable) nappies. When I had Moo I was under the illusion that they were all still terry cloth and safety pins...my step-mum has a story of her youngest brother and a safety pin from a nappy that has always made me feel more than a little bit queasy.

It wasn't until I started my journey as a parenting blogger that I discovered that actually, they've come along way since the days when even you or I were children! There are a lot of different types; flat, shaped, and all-in-one and so many brands ranging from budget to higher-end. 

Seriously, my husband even joked that I'm so obsessed and talk about it that much that anyone would think I was on commission.

I'm not.

I am interested in the environment and conservation, however for me, the deciding factor on this decision was primarily financial. As a family, we do not have a high disposable income, and my blog reflects that. Money saving is important to me and the foundations of what makes up Little Pink Teacup. There are a lot of guides out there on different types of nappies, how to pick what's best for you, how to wash/dry and everything else. I'm going to be posting a series of updates about cloth nappies on a budget as I research the best prices and try my hand at a little bit of everything. If you're interested in cloth but are worried about the initial start-up cost, my recommendation to you would be to spread the cost. There are a lot of trial kits available from all the online retailers, some with just one brand, others with a variety of different brands and types for you to explore and find out what it is you like.

I've created my own starter kit which you can view here, which I have tried to do on a low budget and with the idea in mind to try a little bit of everything whilst still having enough nappies to use.

If purchasing is something you really want to do when you have made a definite decision, then try looking up local nappy libraries in your area or finding a nappy agent or 'guru' who represents a shop such as Fill Your Pants and can meet and show you all the different types and brands that their company has to offer, you don't have to buy and at least you've seen them all.

There is one more option, offers such as this that give you the chance to try nappies at home with a deposit. If you're not happy, they simply refund the deposit upon you sending the nappies back. There are a few of these offers dotted about, the one I've linked to, I think, is the best value for money.

The sites I found to have the best offers and prices were...

Fill Your Pants - great all round prices, good trial kits.

Babi Pur - Great prices on TotsBots.

Grow Up Green - Best prices for accessories and flat nappies!

Cloth Nappy Shop - Great prices on Little Lambs and Lollipop and fantastic customer service!

Clean Green Nappy Co - Best prices on TotsBots Easyfits.

Lizzie's Real Nappies - Good value trial kits, do a fab pre-fold kit for £23.

Baba+Boo - Lovely British company that do lovely pocket nappies for only £9.25 each and their net bags laundry bags are only £3 for two!

Clare