Cloth diaper total costs after 1 year

Probably the main reason why I wanted to cloth diaper in the first place, was saving money. I mean, who doesn't like saving money? But little did I know, was that buying cloth diapers can easily become addictive. There are so many companies, so many color and prints, so many different kinds of diapers to try, that it can get out of hand if you're not paying attention. It's kind of like this for me, but I try to keep my diaper purchases limited to only co-ops and Black Friday. I've talked about Black Friday before, but co-ops are a true revelation. For real.

When I was first researching the best brands to get, I'd heard the brand "Alva" mentioned quite a bit. Alva is a diaper made in China, and sold ultra cheap... about $5 a diaper, which is amazing. But I assumed the quality was lower and didn't want the hassle of cheap diapers. However, we were gifted an Alva, and once it started fitting Matthew, it quickly became one of my favorites. Don't get me wrong, it is a lower quality diaper when compared to one that was made in the US, but it works and has held up great so far. So I started looking in to buying more of them, and came across a co-op group on Facebook. The hosts regularly hold a buy where the members can order diapers/inserts/wetbags, and the more items purchased, the prices drop. On some of the bigger buys, the diapers get as cheap as $2.50! Insane!

And how it works, is once the buy is closed, every person who ordered sends money through Paypal to the host, and then the host orders everything. The diaper company then sends all the packages (usually about a dozen big packages) to the host, where then they sort, package, invoice for shipping, and then ship all the individual orders. The whole process takes a month or two, so you can't go in with an immediate need and expect it on your door in 3 days. I haven't bought any Alvas yet, but I have bought 2 other kinds of cheap Chinese diapers... JC Trade (aka Cartoons) and Happy Flute. The Cartoons have mostly been a flop, as they leak through the rise snaps, which should NOT happen. The Happy Flutes are awesome though, so I might look into buying more at some point. But next up on my list are the Alvas. There will be a buy coming up in the next few weeks, so I'm making my list!

Anyway... I've been lax in keeping up with my total cost list, but I've finally finished my inventory sheet and came up with how much I've spent so far. The number is about where I expected it to be, and while cd'ing could have been cheaper had I done things a bit differently, I'm fairly happy with my stash.

The total was $781.66. But I'm at the point now where I'm starting to sell off the ones I don't like enough to use constantly, so within the past week or two, I've gotten back about $80 of that. So the total is right around $700 now. I'm pleased with the rate of return on the diapers... averaging about 80% return, which is pretty good for used diapers. I have more waiting to be listed, too, so that total number should drop even more, although when I buy the Alvas, what I make back might be mostly negated. We'll see.