How To Save Money On Diapers When You Are Broke

I remember like it was yesterday that amazing, terrifying, nervous and excited feeling of seeing that positive sign on my pregnancy test.  My world was about to change forever. To be honest, it was freaking scary! My husband and I were working on $500,000 of debt at the time and adding baby expenses to our lives almost seemed like too much.  We knew diapers would be a big expense so we had to figure out how to save money on diapers fast!

I started scouring the internet for the basic necessities babies needed.  We weren’t going to be buying everything in sight for our little one. Wipe warmer…umm, no.  Our child could deal with room temperature wipes. Bottle warmer? No. Our baby could deal with room temperature formula.  We were going to cut corners anywhere we could and keep all the baby accessories to a minimum.

When looking at our options for diapering, there were cloth diapers versus disposable.  Cloth diapering may have worked out to be cheaper in the long run, but I have to tell you, the thought of trying to hose off diapers into the toilets, washing and drying them, sounded like pure torture.

Cloth diapering was not going to be for me.  Just like breastfeeding was not for me. Is it cheaper than formula?  Absolutely! But, it was just not something that was good for my mental state.  After carrying around a small parasite for 10 months, I needed my body back!

So, knowing we were going to be doing disposable diapers, I still wanted to know the cheapest way to accomplish that.  I have yet to find a better way to do this and after having two kids, we will do it the same way with our next.

When you are not swimming in extra income, every penny you spend needs to count.  I have found, using our baby registry with Target, to be the very best way to save a crap ton of money on diapers.

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How to actually save money on diapers.

When you set up a baby registry with Target, they will then give you two 15% off coupons, one for in-store and one for online, to “complete” your baby registry.  This is the most amazing thing.

When you set up your registry, you need to make sure you are registering for an obscene amount of diapers and wipes.  Because, you need them on your registry, so you can “complete” it at a discount. The lovely thing about this is, diapers never expire.  So if you don’t use them all or have too many of one size, you can exchange them (always keep your receipt), or you can re-gift them (I have done this many a time).

Insider tip:  Register for anything and everything you could possibly want.  I’m talking about, if you need a new TV and have been holding off for a while, put it on your registry!  You will get it for 15% off. We put a freaking Dyson vacuum on ours, waited until it was on sale and then used our registry coupon to get it at a steal!  Go nuts!

What a typical registry for diapers should look like.

I register for the Up & Up brand (this is Target’s brand), the giant boxes.  Now, some babies may be allergic to certain things and have sensitivities. What I tend to do is register for Pampers Swaddlers for the newborn and one box of Size 1.  Then I change to Up & Up. Worst case scenario, you need to return them/exchange them for something else. I have yet to have a problem.

Size & Quantity:

• Size newborn:  2 boxes
• Size 1:  2 boxes
• Size 2:  4 boxes
• Size 3:  4 boxes
• Size 4:  4 boxes
• Size 5: 5 boxes (I did this for my son, but only ordered one for my daughter – I knew she would be smaller)
• Size 6:  1 box (again, I did this for my son, but not for my daughter)

This has been enough diapers to last me an entire year for both of my children.  We never have to run out to the store for more. It’s amazing!

For baby wipes, I will order one jumbo box of Pampers sensitive skin wipes, then I will order 6 jumbo boxes of Target’s Up & Up sensitive skin wipes.  This is usually sufficient for the year.

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When to actually purchase your diapers to save the most money.

The key to getting a really sweet deal on your diapers (and wipes), is to wait until there is a good sale on the diapers to couple it with your “completing your registry” 15% off coupon.

Examples of sales:

• Spend $40 on “Baby” products and get a $10 gift card
• 10% off Giant Packs of Up & Up Diapers
• Buy any 3 Giant Packs of Up & Up diapers and receive a $20 Target gift card

Keep an eye out for when these sales are happening.  If it is a better sale with in-store purchase, then do that.  But, if it is a good sale with an online purchase, I tend to prefer that route.  Having all those diapers delivered to your home is way easier than you having to haul all of them.

Your UPS guy may not love it, but I promise the delivery is worth it!

The one additional discount you need to maximize your savings.

Make sure you have the Target REDcard.  This is a card that is linked to your debit account, do not get the credit card version.  This card will give you an additional 5% off every single purchase, and it gives you FREE two-day shipping.  It’s pretty awesome.

Steps to take to save money on diapers.

• Register for all the diapers and wipes in the world.  Start saving now for the purchase.
• You will get your “complete your registry coupon” after the date of your shower has passed (you will put that information into your account when you create your registry).
• Wait for a deal on diapers.
• Snatch up diapers and wipes at a sweet discount and use your REDcard to have an additional 5% off savings.

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Examples of the total cost for me so you know what to save for your diapers!

• With my son, I was able to get over 2,000 diapers for ~$271.16
• With my daughter, I was able to get over 2,500 diapers for ~$336.53

This means depending on the deals you are able to find, you should be anticipating spending anywhere from $250-$350 for diapers for your little bundle for his/her entire first year of life.

This breaks down to $0.10 – $0.13 per diaper.  That is a freaking steal!!

With our third, as soon as we find out we are expecting, I will be starting to save $50/month (basically a diaper sinking fund) for 7 months to load up on diapers before arrival.

Insider tip:  My daughter was born in December so I knew I was going to be able to have Black Friday deals to couple with my in-store 15% “registry completion” coupon.  

I kept an eye out for what deals there were (and then registered for those items – you can add things to your registry at any time).  For me, this included baby food! I added any and every baby necessity that was on sale for Black Friday to our registry to save even more money.

Target has also started this program where if you are in-store on Black Friday and make a purchase, you then get a coupon for 20% your entire next purchase.  It’s amazing!!

We ended up getting a car seat at Black Friday prices + our 15% coupon + 5% REDcard, AND then we had an additional 20% off for our next purchase.

You just can’t beat that.  If you are having a winter baby, I recommend holding out to buy anything until Black Friday.  It will be worth it!

Babies don’t have to be expensive.  It just takes a little planning to get some good deals on the necessities.  If you are doing disposable diapers, it just takes saving $50/month for 7 months to save enough to buy diapers for your child for an entire year!  This kind of savings is amazing!!

There is no better way to save money on diapers when you’re broke than planning ahead.  You are planning to save, big time!

Do you have any other money saving tips for diapers?

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