I’m going to devote two posts in this series on what I wish I knew to save a bit of money in a cloth diaper investment.

W A I T  F O R  S A L E S

Black Friday diaper sales are probably the most cost effective way of building up a diaper stash, especially if you go the brand name route. A lot of brand names have great resale value, whether the prints are limited edition or not. The big companies usually have the same sale at almost all retailers – this past year GroVia diapers were buy 2, get 1 free, and bumGenius diapers were buy 5, get 1 free. Many retailers have at least 15-20% off almost all their inventory, and many throw in a bonus item, like a free diaper, for orders from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. Dirty Diaper Laundry always has a long list of online stores, big and small, and what their sales are. You can also do a google search for “black friday cloth diaper sales” and several other websites will also have listings of the deals to be had.

This year I scored 3 Diaper Safari pocket diapers for $9 with their 3 for $10 sale that they allowed you to combine with their 10% off sale and free shipping. That’s $3 each! In fact, throughout the year diapersafari.com has great sales on their diapers; I’ve seen several buy one get one free deals that you can keep up to date with on their facebook page.

Following online diaper shops on facebook gives you the inside scoop on flash sales, and many frequent giveaways just for leaving facebook comments. Here are a few shops to check out:

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I went the Amazon.com route for most of my diapers, because it was just easier from a registry perspective, but a lot of these small shops offer points that go towards free items, they will usually offer 15-30 day trials, and some have registry options and stock more items that just diapers. If you have a local brick and mortar shop in your area though, I would strongly encourage you to support them, especially if you are just starting out – many offer great 101 classes. Very likely they will also have an online storefront to stay in business and will have a facebook page and sales, too, so all the more reason to “go local.”

T H E R E ‘ S  M O R E  O U T  T H E R E  T H A N  J U S T  P A S T E L S  A N D  S O L I D S

Big brands generally have good resale value – bumGenius, for instance, will run about $17 new, and can be sold when you’re done for $12+. An initial look at all the cloth diaper options will make it seem like most of your stash will end up being solid colors, but there are prints to be found! One of the drawbacks to the tried and true bumGenius diapers are that most of the color options have traditionally been pastels, and pastels aren’t for everyone. Lately they’ve come up with some cute designs and have ventured into some jewel tones. Some people cloth diaper because, let’s face it, the prints can be pretty darn cute. I did a round up of some limited edition prints of off the beaten path diapers in my last diaper post, which can sometimes have profitable resale value. Here I’ll feature some prints from the big brands. Some are more “limited edition” than others, while some companies still have prints available from previous years’ releases. I love this pirate themed diaper, “Jules,” by bumGenius. It’s pretty hard to come by right now and is fetching a fair price on eBay. My friend, Mrs. Argentina, and I always joke about the “Irwin” diaper, because we called it the dinosaur diaper, but then we realized there were all kinds of animals on it that had nothing to do with dinosaurs. I later realized it was made in tribute to the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin.

My next post will focus on investing in cheaper brands.

Do you have any favorite diaper prints in your stash? What kind of deals have you been able to get?

Mrs. Chipmunk’s Cloth Diapering Series part 3 of 3

1. If I could buy cloth diapers all over again....Part 1 by Mrs. Chipmunk
2. Stripping Diapers by Mrs. Chipmunk
3. If I could buy cloth diapers all over again….Part 2 by Mrs. Chipmunk