Earth Day seems like a GREAT day to talk about cloth diapering. The way I look at it, cloth diapering is all about saving green. I decided to cloth diaper to save money, but it definitely has the benefit of being more environmentally friendly than disposable diapers. 
I’m happy I can say I’m doing my part to keep the Earth in the best condition I can for future generations. I’m not so sure how much money I am saving anymore, since buying all the cute prints can be addicting. Yes, there are lots of 20% off sales today, but that is still 80% that I have to pay, plus extra shipping charges for another diaper I don’t really need. Baby‘s My stash is up to 40 cloth diapers in various styles and various brands. Lately, I’ve been on a GroVia kick and have been wanting to get a cloth diaper in each of the prints and solid colors that they have available. 
I guess I’ve become a cloth diaper collector…yeah I know, they are just poop catchers, but fluff butts are so cute! Alas, I’m not the only one who has been sucked into buying all the cloth diapers. The Chesapeake Bay print swim diaper in the picture is a special print swim diaper, of which I was able to snag 2 of at retail price ($14.95), are now selling for $67 each on eBay!
I just wish I would have started using cloth with my oldest, instead of starting when Baby was 7 months old. I think I’ve spent about $400 on all my cloth diapering items, including the washing supplies. I was lucky enough to score some pretty sweet deals on Black Friday and received some diapers from family and friends as gifts for Baby. I didn’t invest all of that money up front either. 
After trying out cloth diapers through The Rebecca Foundation’s Cloth Diaper Closet for 3 months, I was able to save up the money that I wasn’t spending on disposables to start my own stash. I started with just 6 “china cheapies” I ordered off of Amazon for less than $30 and a waterproof diaper pail liner for about $12. Then, I ordered the same set of diapers in different prints so I wouldn’t need to do laundry daily. For the same cost of 2-3 months of disposable diapering supplies, I was able to get 12 cloth diapers with microfiber inserts and 4 bamboo booster inserts, plus the pail liner. When I switched to cloth wipes, I just cut up receiving blankets that I no longer used into squares, I didn’t even bother sewing the edges and haven’t had any issues with the threads unraveling. Next, I ordered 2 GroVia O.N.E. diapers to use overnight to get Baby out of disposables completely.
I could have stopped there and would have only have spent about $120 on diapering supplies and another $24 for the Powdered Tide to launder them. 
However, I wanted to increase the days between laundering to 3 days, so I decided to get more diapers and now am addicted to all the cute fluff as you can see by my stash shot! The good news is, if I ever can let go of my precious diapers, I should be able to recoup 1/2 to 3/4 of the cost through resale.
There are cloth diaper options for every budget, and many cloth diaper loan programs that are a great way to save some money to buy your own diapers. With all the different styles and manufactures of diapers, there will be one that fits you baby well and you will fall in love with. 
Buy used diapers instead of new to save even more money…there are always for sale posts on online cloth diapering groups or Craigslist. So whether your goal is to be green and keep disposables out of landfills, or save some green buy having reusable diapers, cloth diapers are the way to go. To help you decide what to try first, I will do a follow up post in the near future of the all the different kids of cloth diapers out there to choose from. I never knew there were so many options, or that cloth diapering would be the “hip” new trend. Anyway, I must go stalk the Earth Day sales before all the other cloth diapering mommas crash the server or buy all the diapers!
-Mussgo Momma