Diapers: Disposible vs. Cloth

So I had a bright idea last week when I was shopping for a plastic diaper cover for Katya. She soaks through her diapers almost every night so I am trying a cover to keep it in; it is working some nights and not others. Anyways, my bright idea was to consider cloth diapers for baby Reagan to save money. I started to get excited about the idea and felt good about the creating less garbage side of it too (it is crazy the amount of diapers one kid goes through and thinking about those sitting in landfills for eons is a little disturbing). Then I started to do some research....
DAMN! It is really not cheaper!

I got some great tips and info from Anige including which brand of cloth diapers works best for them. The Fuzzi Bunz brand she likes sounds awesome and I really do feel that if I go cloth, I am going to want what works best and not just want is cheap. They are 17-18$ a pop! There are 3 sizes and you want about 3 dozen at a time so that equals 900$ just to buy the darn things. Then you have to factor in having disposables on hand for vacations and for night time when they are older (cloth just does not hold a kid who sleeps through the night) and the extra money it costs in water and electricity or gas to launder them. I figured out by switching Katya to cloth (which then Reagan would use when she is that size) and Reagan in cloth would be about the same expense, if not a little more than disposables. And this is with laudering myself, no diaper service.

There are other brands, including one that is suppose to grow with baby therefore you end up buying less (they are still about 17$/diaper). Angie has not had great luck with these (lots of leaks, not that good of a fit) so I am hesitant to try them. They would be more like 400$ to buy which would mean we would save a few hundred bucks over the few years K and R are in diapers. Of course, if we have a thrid baby we would already have the diapers so that would save 900-1200$ over the 2.5-3yrs that baby is diapered no matter what. I hope to have 3 kids but we are not positive we will.

I am bummed! My whole idea was to save money, which I might or might not. But once I got the idea in my head I started liking the enviornmental benefits more and more. There are arguments against this, (extra energy usage and chemicals used to wash) but I think that it is still probablly better then pilling up the plastics in landfills (plus there are chemicals in disposables to help them absorb more). I am going to try out a few types that Anige has and maybe I will find a cheaper option that works for me.

We shall see...