Actually, it's pretty easy being green

"Green" has become big business in the last few years. Which is good and bad. Good in that being environmentally friendly is, well, good. And bad because some products that claim to be "green" are not.

But if you want to go green, it's not really all that hard.

One way to go green (and save green) is to buy used/refurbished. We bought a refurbished washer on Tuesday after our washer died. B had fixed the beast, but it broke again and he was pretty sure it was the transmission. So off we went to Appliance Warehouse, where we found a 7 year old washer (energy star!) that was 1/10 of the price of a new washer. Score.

So they recycled our old washer for us and we have a working washer that cost less than a student loan payment.

Another way we save (a LOT) is cloth diapering. A lot. Sooooo much.

How much?

Well, the average household spends about $3,000 on diapers per child. So for two kids, that's $6,000.

Six THOUSAND dollars.

We have spent about $600 on cloth diapering supplies, overnight disposables, and travel wipes. That's an OVERestimate of cost.

So by cloth diapering, we save approximately $5,400.

Yeah. You read that number correctly.

PLUS, some of our diapers have pretty good resale value. After Griffin is potty trained we may recoup some of our cost by selling our used cloth diapers.

So we'll save even more. I know people who have saved more than us - using prefolds is cheaper than buying the pocket diapers. It is entirely possible to buy ALL your cloth diapering needs for less than $200.

And we haven't seen an increase in our water or our electricity (a small increase in electricity, but you get that when you have kids anyway). We do 2-3 loads a week. It's pretty easy.

And for a savings of over $5,000 - it's worth it. For us anyway.