Stop diapers from draining your bank account

Diapers. Until I became a parent I had no idea just how many diapers one kid would use or how expensive they are. During the past 21 months, we have spent a small fortune on diapers. The newborn phase is the worst. When you're a new parent, you tend to buy the pricey brands (no matter how many moms tell you the cheaper ones are just as good). Couple that with the fact that newborns can easily go through 12 diapers a day (this was a total shocker), and you're spending $75 a month or more on diapers alone for the first couple of months. Mommas, if you'd like to save some money on disposables, follow these tips.

Use cloth

I know. I didn't do cloth diapers with my son, but I still recommend cloth diapering to everyone. Why? If I had been home with my son from the newborn stage, I would have chosen cloth diapers. They're friendlier for the environment, they're washable, and they're much, much cheaper! To buy all the diapers your baby could need for the duration of time he or she is in diapers, you could spend about $400 and be set. You can easily spend more than $1000 in disposables during your child's diaper years. Of course, some people run wild with cloth diapers, too, and buy loads of different designs. Still, cloth diapers can be used for more than one child making them a complete steal over using 'sposies.

Subscribe & save

Amazon Mom can save you 20 percent on diapers and wipes if you use their Subscribe & Save services. They'll send you packages of diapers and wipes every month, and in return for signing up, you get a discount on the service. They'll often run coupons for this service in parenting and baby magazines making the savings even better.

Go generic

I was reluctant to do this at first. I had heard horror stories about exploding diapers, leaks, ruined clothes and soil-covered mommies all because of using generic diapers. Still, after basically throwing hundreds down the toilet, I decided to give the store brands a try. They work just fine. If your child has sensitivities, you may need to stick with a particular brand, but in our case, almost any brand will do. We save about $7 a box by choosing store brands over name brands.

Do you have a tip for saving money on diapers? Share it in the comments.

Photo courtesy alberth2 via Flickr.