A New Adventure

Kamrynn is finally napping, and I should be folding laundry and cleaning out the closet, but I need to get some thoughts down:

After trying several different types of diapers, I decided I wasn't going to pay $20 a diaper for something I didn't TOTALLY LOVE, and ordered about $35 in fabric to sew my own cloth diapers.  I can handle a sewing machine, making quilts is super easy, but patterns are lost on me... zippers too now that I think about it.  (Paula - that woombie I'm making for you might take several tries!)  I decided I would design the Perfect Diaper, and sell it because it would be better than all the other dipers out there and everyone would want it.  It would have velcro closures, be super easy to wash, not need stuffed, contain leaks and blowouts, keep her bottom dry, be trim, and inexpensive.  I've made two so far.  The first one was actually just a repair of one of the cheapies I bought that failed.  The second one the leg holes are too big and did not contain poo.  :(  We even had a name for our diapers - Catchers.  Trevor wanted them to be named Poo Catchers and our logo be a baseball mitt with a pile of poo in it.  I figured out if I could sew one per hour and sell them for about $12 each I'd make just under minimum wage for our state.  Could be worse...I could also have to pay for a sitter!  Six dollars an hour to sew diapers and take care of my kid.  Sounded good to me.

Unfortunately, it takes me an entire day to make one diaper.  Yes.  One.  I did not realize exactly how much time is actually spent taking care of Kamrynn.  So, scratch that idea.

Fast forward about 5 weeks: 

Still thinking and wanting to create the Perfect Diaper.  I finally have a pattern that I'm hoping will work.  Waiting for some velcro fabric I ordered to get here so I can finish it.

As I was drafting my pattern, I was still thinking about selling diapers... and how expensive they are and that Kamrynn is going to be needing Mediums soon and it sure does take a long time for me to sew them and how can I get more diapers for less money.  My solution:  Wholesale!  I sold Mary Kay for a while, and know there is a 50% mark up so I figure there's atleast a 20% markup on diapers.  I talked to Trevor about it and we're currently looking into opening an online baby store.  I know there are lots of those out there, but ours will be better.

We're going to start small.  We have $400 to invest.  I know it's not much, but I think it will be enough.  I found a WAHM (Work At Home Mom) webhosting/eCommerce place that is reasonable, have emails in to Fuzzi Bunz, BumGenius and GroVia and have a list of other companies to talk to.  Once I know how much the mark-up is, I can do the math and see if our $400 is going to be enough to get this started and if this is even going to be worth while on such a small scale.  We'll write up a business plan, purchase a federal business number, open a PayPal business account, order the diapers, pick up some flat rate shipping boxes, set up the website, and wait for the first order to come in.

I'm still going to design the Perfect Diaper.  Kamrynn may be the only baby who will wear the Perfect Diaper, but it WILL exist.  ;)

OK, off to the laundry and closet!

Help me win some free diapers!!!!

Cheap Diapers!

Snappy Diapers is selling the "old colors" of FuzziBunz size SMALL for the same prices as the "seconds" sell for on other websites.  I ordered 1 red, 4 light blue, and 1 pink as we dont KNOW forsure that it is a girl.  The remaining diapers are PINK....  so if you're having a girl!!!!

http://www.snappydiapers.com/item_21/FuzziBunz-Perfect-Size-Diapers-Clearance.htm

Seconds are at:  http://www.fuzzibunzseconds.net/store/Default.asp
These have slight defects or irregularities from the factory, but are still very usable.

Laundry Detergent

When using cloth diapers, it is essential to use the proper type of laundry detergent to prevent buildup and maintain optimum absorbancy.

Good Choices:

• Arm & Hammer Essentials Free
• Allens
• Green Mountain Free and Clear
• Bio-O-Kleen Liquid
• Charlie's Soap
• Country Save
• Dropps
• Ecos Free & Clear
• Envirorite
• LifeKind
• Nature Clean
• Nellie's
• Oxy-Prime
• Penguin Sport-Wash
• Plannet
• SensiClean
• Sun & Earth
• Trader Joes

Stay Away From:

• All Baby Care
• Arm & Hammer
• Bio-O-Kleen Premium Plus Powder
• Cheer
• Dreft
• Gain
• Ivory Snow
• Krikland
• Melaleuca
• Method
• Purex
• SA8
• Seventh Generation
• Shaklee
• Surf
• The Laundress
• Tide
• Wisk

The Diaper Bag

The bag itself:

• Durrable and Well Constructed
• Easy to Clean/Wipe
• Comfortable to carry for intended duration
• Wide, non-slip shoulder straps
• Insulated bottle pockets
• Key Clip & Cell Phone Pocket on exterior
• Adult Neutral Color
• Not to big, not too small
• Combination of zippered and snapped compartments

What goes in it:

• 2-4 Diapers, depending on age of child and how long you'll be out (up to 1/hour)
• Wipes & wipe solution or disposable wipes
• Changing Pad
• Wetbag or Wet/Drybag
• Cloth Safe Diaper Rash Ointment
• Hand Sanitizer
• 1-2 Change of clothes
• Extra Pacifier
• Burp Cloth
• Bib
• Blanket/Nursing Cover
• Kleenex
• Camera
• Toys
• Snacks & Bottle of water for Mom
• Clean Shirt for Mom (or dad)
• Breast Pads
• Cell Phone
• Keys
• Emergency Contact Numbers (Peditrician, Daddy, Grandparents)

Disposable Diapers

Although we are going to cloth diaper, it does not save money to cloth diaper a newborn unless I wanted to do the old fashioned prefolds with plastic pants and safety pins (or now days, a thing called a "Snappy").

My mom gave me a bunch of coupons for dispoasable diapers.  I proceeded to Wal*Mart with the intention of purchasing enough Newborn sized diapers to get through the first month, at which time baby should fit into the cloth diapers.  I got out my calculator and began to calculate which package of diapers was least expensive per diaper with the coupons.  Turns out, it was about $0.20/diaper!  Of course these were Huggies and Pampers, so I'm not sure about the store brand, but $0.20/diaper!  To catch POOP and be thrown away! 

Lets do some calculations:
$0.20/diaper X 10-12 diapers/day=$2-$2.40/day X 7 days/week= $14-16.80/week X 4 weeks/month= $56-$67.20/month
Good thing that's only for one month!

I did not buy any diapers.  Not because of the price (I cant cloth diaper a newborn for less than that), but because they were out of the kind I wanted:  Huggies Pure and Natural and Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive (Staying away from anything with DryMax and it has been causing rashes).

I did buy some Huggies Natural Care Wipes though (with coupon), enough to last through the first month.  Then I'll probably go with cloth wipes too because I was suprised how much wipes cost!  Who would have thought!

Safety Pins & Plastic Pants

We have decided to coth diaper.  Trevor was onboard when he learned that we could spend $300 on diapers instead of $1200 from birth to potty.  Diapers previously required safetypins and plastic pants....  Not anymore!  We will be going with "Pocket Diapers" and a few "All-In-Ones" because they are super easy to use!  So far, it looks like BumGenius and FuzziBunz brands have the best reviews.



I like the snaps and elastic sizing on the FuzziBunz (velcro wears out), but I like the way the pocket closes on the BumGenius.  We'll probably use a combination of both: FuzziBunz durring the day, and BumGenius durring the night with minimal lighting (no snaps) and for when others will be changing baby as they are just like disposable.  Idealy, I'd like to make a stash of diapers with the pocket closure of the BumGenius and the snaps and elastic of the FuzziBunz.

FuzziBunz One Size Diaper:


BumGenius 3.0 One Size Pocket Diaper:

All-In-One diapers are very similar to the above diapers, but the absorbant pad is sewn directly into the diaper.  This allows less work because removing the pad for laundering and stuffing for diapering isn't necessary.  The drawback is they are harder to get clean and take longer to dry.

I, like alot of people, thought you had to soak the diapers in a diaper pail until they're washed.  Here's a video on washing cloth diapers:



Really, not too bad.  The mess Pampers is having with their new diapers is great encouragment for sticking with these!