How to Score Cheaper Diapers

Two of favorite bloggers are teaming up - Common Sense with Money and Coupon Cravings - to write a great post about saving money on diapers. It was too good not to share over here for Mommy Monday. All credit goes to them:

Ever since I wrote about my diaper stash a few months back readers have been asking me for tips on how to save money on diapers. I narrowed down the list of things that keep people from saving money on diapers to these six culprits:

1. Not Knowing the Per Diaper Price: When you start bargain shopping for diapers it is very important that you calculate the price per diaper to make comparisons. Manufacturers vary the number of diapers based on pack size and on whether it’s a premium or basic diaper. Knowing the price per diaper will give you a baseline to know your target per diaper price. To check the number of diapers per pack by brand check out this chart.

2. Comparing Apples to Oranges: I used to compare the price I paid per diaper at the warehouse clubs to the per diaper price at a store like Target. What I was overlooking is that warehouse clubs usually don't carry premium diapers.For example, Sam's Club carries Huggies Snug & Dry Fit diapers. These are the cheaper Huggies diapers. It is not a fair comparison to compare the price you pay for these diapers with the price you pay for Huggies Supreme, for example, at other stores. In other words, make sure to compare apples to apples or premium to premium when you compare diapers against each other.

3. Not Signing Up With Manufacturers: Using coupons is a step forward towards cheaper diapers. While the coupons you find in the newspaper inserts are helpful, greater savings can be found if you sign up with the manufacturers to receive coupons directly from them. Here you can sign up with Huggies, Pampers and Luvs.

4. Ignoring Store Promotions: Take advantage of stores that double coupons or allow you to stack a store coupon with a manufacturers coupon on the same item for greater savings. Also, some stores accept competitors coupons. Many stores also have a "Baby Club" and regularly mail out coupons to their members.

5. Not Playing the Drugstore Game: Shopping at CVS or Walgreens allows shoppers to accumulate ExtraCare Bucks or Register Rewards that can be used to lower the out-of-pocket expense of buying diapers.

6. Not Exploring Alternatives: Being brand loyal is an easy way to make sure you spend a lot of money on diapers. I recently reviewed Walgreens brand diapers and my review received a lot of positive feedback from other users. I have also used CVS diapers with great success as well. Other alternatives include exploring cloth diapering and elimination communication.

If you have a baby you will agree with me that diaper expenses are the one of the biggest budget busters when a baby is added to the family. But with a little bit of work and armed with the right tools it doesn't have to be that way.

Thank you Mercedes and Erin for this informative post!