Diaper Prices

One of my readers and good friend requested I write a post about budgeting for baby. Which in turn led to a brief conversation about name brand diapers versus no-name diapers. There seems to be alot of pressure on new moms about buying brand name diapers. To be honest, I did.

After my little girl was born we bought Pampers diapers size newborn because thats what they used in the hospital. The next few months I bought the Kirkland diapers from Costco because they seemed to be a good price for a decent amount of diapers in a box. But, since the nearest Costco is 50 minutes  away, I ended up switching to Pampers. Pampers has a promotion called Gifts To Grow. You receive a code from all the Pampers products you buy, save them up and redeem them for different products. I got caught up in the whole Gifts To Grow program and wanted to collect as many codes as possible and see what I'd be able to get from them. (I'll tell you more about this a little later in my post.)

That being said, if I had to do it all over again, I would have used the Parent's Choice diapers from Walmart. Someone gave me some as a gift, and they were honestly just as good as the Pampers or Kirkland. They are also, anywhere from $10-$20 dollars cheaper depending on what sales are going on. My daughter never got a diaper rash from them, and I found them to be just as leak-proof as the other brands.

Now, back to the Gifts To Grow rewards. After a year of collecting, I entered all my codes online to find that the prize I could redeem them for was really only worth around $25! Seriously!? Not worth it at all! Especially considering I would have saved that much after purchasing 2 boxes of Parents Choice diapers instead of the Pampers diapers. I should have saved my money from using cheaper diapers and just bought the $25 toy myself!

My advice for any expentant moms out there... don't feel guilty about buying the "cheaper" diapers. As long as your baby doesn't develop a rash, then go ahead and put them in no-name brands. Some babies will even develop rashes using the most expensive brands of diapers, so use what works for you, your baby and your budget.