When we first started looking into cloth diapering, I was overwhelmed. The costs for some brands and styles of cloth diapers are pretty significant – even used, they are still pricey.

And you can’t just walk into Wal-Mart, Target or Babies R Us and expect to find many options. You’re only options at these stores are the old-timey cloth diapers that require pins and rubber covers.

I won a free BumGenius 3.0 all-in-one diaper in a blog contest. It’s very nice, and retails for about $20. Most of the prices for new diapers hover around $20. But some can get much, much pricier. When you consider that you need at least 24 cloth diapers, well… that can get very, very expensive.

Knowing we would need lots and lots (and lots!) of diapers, especially in the beginning, I turned to craigslist. We were able to find a few good deals. I managed to get us several for around $5-$7 a diaper. There were several different styles, though many were one size fits all. They will last a whole lot longer than the ones that are only sized small, medium and large.

Since there weren’t that many options on craigslist, I turned to an online cloth diaper community – diaperswappers.

You can buy and sell used and handmade cloth diapers and accessories and chat in the forums. This site, while useful, is extremely overwhelming. At least it was for us. Still, after playing around some, I was able to find us some more good deals cloth diapers in our range of $5-$7 per diaper.

We also found some diaper covers at yard sales for $1 a cover, and some old-fashioned cloth diapers for a few cents. And I ordered us some Snappis (these are little rubbery things with teeth that replace the need for pins), and my mom plans to teach me how to use the old-timey cloth diapers.

I’m estimating our initial output into cloth diapers at around $125. That’s not too bad, when you consider the average cost of disposables to be about $1,600 over two years. I realize that we will need to have more diapers in our stash, and am waiting to see which styles I like best before I invest in ones that I don’t like.

Here’s a great diaper cost calculating tool that covers all types of cloth and disposable diapers.

Trent, over at The Simple Dollar did an excellent breakdown of the cost of cloth diapers versus disposables. He offers up his estimates on the amount of money invested in washing and drying cloth diapers. I’m hoping that we will end up spending less when it comes to washing and drying, by utilizing a Wonder Washer and a clothesline or drying rack.

Have you had any experiences with cloth diapers? Any sage advice for a novice like me?

My next post will be all about the environmental cost of disposable diapering. After that, look for some info on cloth diapering lingo and abbreviations.