Last fall, Johnny potty trained and we switched Maureen from formula to cow's milk within a couple of weeks. My husband breathed a sigh of relief and commented that by ditching both the diapers and the formula, we were saving a lot of money.
So I was intrigued when a member of an online forum I belong to said that she doesn't really think it's cheaper to have a potty trained child or wean from formula. Since she potty trained her two-year-old three weeks ago, she's not buying diapers, but she is buying more toilet paper, and things like underwear, toddler wipes, and Clorox wipes. And while her son doesn't drink formula anymore, she buys more food in general, and kid-friendly food like raisins, Cheerios, juice boxes, Goldfish crackers, kid yogurt and lollipops. She feels like when costs go down in one area, they go up accordingly in another area and everything just evens out.
I do agree that costs go up elsewhere, but I still think, overall, our bills are lower now that we have only one child in diapers and are using milk instead of formula.
A box of 108 size 4 diapers costs about 20 dollars and it lasts two weeks. A package of 24 double-roll toilet paper costs 5 dollars and lasts at least a month. Our water bill has gone up, because the toilet gets flushed more and Johnny washes his hands more, but I haven't seen a huge difference. Part of the increase is also due to the fact that he no longer bathes in the toddler tub and because I stopped recycling water over the winter. Now that the weather is getting warmer, I'll go back to recycling water and I'm sure we'll see that reflected in the bill.
Johnny has enough underwear to last two weeks, and it's so little, it doesn't really create extra laundry. I'd say we've spent about twenty dollars total on underwear. I don't buy flushable wipes and I don't buy Clorox wipes. I do wipe the toilet and the floor around it about every other day, but I do that with rubbing alcohol and paper towels and a huge bottle of rubbing alcohol is less than a dollar.
As for formula, we switched Maureen over to cow's milk a couple of weeks before she turned one because she seemed to be tolerating the cow's milk products okay and I was tired of paying for formula, not to mention mixing it. At that point, she was going through two large cans a week, in addition to the solid food she was eating. Those two cans cost about 50 dollars a week. She stopped eating jar baby food around ten months, and I saw our bills drop after that as well. Making your own baby food can save you tons, but I was never interested and found it more convenient to buy Gerber.
In comparison, we go through 4 gallons of milk a week for the entire family, and that costs 14 dollars. I don't buy a lot of convenience products like string cheese or juice boxes, and the only thing I can think of off the top of my head that I wouldn't buy if we didn't have kids is chicken nuggets. Instead of spending about 150 dollars per week, we now spend about 75 to 100 dollars per week for our family of four, depending on how often I buy meat.
Our grocery bills are obviously more than when it was just the two of us, but not by much, because I've gotten better at meal planning and shopping sales. And part of the increase is also due to the higher cost of food. I also make a lot of stuff from scratch, and that saves an incredible amount of money. Since I'm a stay-home mom, I have time to bake bread or make chicken stock.
Other bills have gone up because of the kids. Our health insurance premiums are more, because there are more people covered, and our utilities have gone up because I'm home with the kids all day. I don't think anyone would debate that having kids costs money.
However, I still think that potty training is cheaper than diapers and that milk and table food are cheaper than formula and jar baby food.
Opinions?
So I was intrigued when a member of an online forum I belong to said that she doesn't really think it's cheaper to have a potty trained child or wean from formula. Since she potty trained her two-year-old three weeks ago, she's not buying diapers, but she is buying more toilet paper, and things like underwear, toddler wipes, and Clorox wipes. And while her son doesn't drink formula anymore, she buys more food in general, and kid-friendly food like raisins, Cheerios, juice boxes, Goldfish crackers, kid yogurt and lollipops. She feels like when costs go down in one area, they go up accordingly in another area and everything just evens out.
I do agree that costs go up elsewhere, but I still think, overall, our bills are lower now that we have only one child in diapers and are using milk instead of formula.
A box of 108 size 4 diapers costs about 20 dollars and it lasts two weeks. A package of 24 double-roll toilet paper costs 5 dollars and lasts at least a month. Our water bill has gone up, because the toilet gets flushed more and Johnny washes his hands more, but I haven't seen a huge difference. Part of the increase is also due to the fact that he no longer bathes in the toddler tub and because I stopped recycling water over the winter. Now that the weather is getting warmer, I'll go back to recycling water and I'm sure we'll see that reflected in the bill.
Johnny has enough underwear to last two weeks, and it's so little, it doesn't really create extra laundry. I'd say we've spent about twenty dollars total on underwear. I don't buy flushable wipes and I don't buy Clorox wipes. I do wipe the toilet and the floor around it about every other day, but I do that with rubbing alcohol and paper towels and a huge bottle of rubbing alcohol is less than a dollar.
As for formula, we switched Maureen over to cow's milk a couple of weeks before she turned one because she seemed to be tolerating the cow's milk products okay and I was tired of paying for formula, not to mention mixing it. At that point, she was going through two large cans a week, in addition to the solid food she was eating. Those two cans cost about 50 dollars a week. She stopped eating jar baby food around ten months, and I saw our bills drop after that as well. Making your own baby food can save you tons, but I was never interested and found it more convenient to buy Gerber.
In comparison, we go through 4 gallons of milk a week for the entire family, and that costs 14 dollars. I don't buy a lot of convenience products like string cheese or juice boxes, and the only thing I can think of off the top of my head that I wouldn't buy if we didn't have kids is chicken nuggets. Instead of spending about 150 dollars per week, we now spend about 75 to 100 dollars per week for our family of four, depending on how often I buy meat.
Our grocery bills are obviously more than when it was just the two of us, but not by much, because I've gotten better at meal planning and shopping sales. And part of the increase is also due to the higher cost of food. I also make a lot of stuff from scratch, and that saves an incredible amount of money. Since I'm a stay-home mom, I have time to bake bread or make chicken stock.
Other bills have gone up because of the kids. Our health insurance premiums are more, because there are more people covered, and our utilities have gone up because I'm home with the kids all day. I don't think anyone would debate that having kids costs money.
However, I still think that potty training is cheaper than diapers and that milk and table food are cheaper than formula and jar baby food.
Opinions?
Posts
5 comments:
Even though it has been many years since I had a child in diapers and drinking formula, I do agree that toilet paper is a lot cheaper than diapers and it is definitely cheaper to buy milk than formula.
This sounds like a rhetorical question to me, but I'll play along....
How many clorox wipes was she using? (I've never had to buy any for either of my kids. I still use a spray bottle & rag just like before.) And seriously, two 5 packs of underwear a year, is a total cost of $15 and is a lot cheaper than $40/month in diapers. It's also cheaper than my stash of cloth diapers ($100-ish, suppose you go 2 years per kid, and 2 kids is still $25/year).
I suppose I probably am buying more toilet paper, but I haven't noticed a difference. As for food--yes we buy more food with kids eating table food than we did without. It adds up for us to about $25/week difference and that is for both kids. In contrast, my daughter's formula was $250 a month.
My kids didn't really eat baby food for long, so I never really felt that as an expense.
I was very relieved when my kids were potty trained & off formula.
Interesting topic, and I think it could go either way, depending on a lot of things.
I breastfed my daughter, so I don't know about formula, but I also buy her organic milk and it's 7 dollars a gallon. I don't drink milk, but she loves it and drinks maybe 3 gallons a week by herself.
She was almost 4 before she was fully potty trained, and at that point, was wearing the largest size diaper available. We live in a tiny town, there was one store that carried them, and they were incredibly expensive compared to the smaller sizes. However, she could go hours at a time without going to the bathroom and she was one of those kids that only had a bm every couple of days. So even though she was in diapers, for the last year I changed her infrequently. That box of diapers lasted awhile.
If you buy those products that are meant to be convenient, like clorox wipes, you are paying mostly for the packaging, and if you use them a lot, I can totally see them costing just as much as diapers. I personally think Clorox wipes are a waste of money, you can buy a bottle of walmart bleach cleaner and a package of rags and have it last a lot longer than the wipes.
My daughters daycare provider uses the toddler wipes, the kind that come in the special pop up box, because she cares for several toddlers and it makes her life easier. But those things are expensive!
Formula is $50 a week???? Yikes!!! Can you give a baby milk right off the bat??? JK, but seriously that seems like robbery!!!
I agree with Jen, this seems to be a rhetorical question. ;)
I can't wait to have mine out ofdiapers and off formula!!!
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