Is Potty Training A Money Saver?

MdMommy2Two — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:04:46 -0500

Last fall, my son potty trained and we switched the baby from formula to cow's milk within a couple of weeks. My husband breathed a sigh of relief and commented that by ditching both the diapers and the formula, we were saving a lot of money.

So I was intrigued when a member of an online forum I belong to said that she doesn't really think it's cheaper to have a potty trained child or wean from formula. Since she potty trained her two-year-old three weeks ago, she's not buying diapers, but she is buying more toilet paper, and things like underwear, toddler wipes, and Clorox wipes. And while her son doesn't drink formula anymore, she buys more food in general, and kid-friendly food like raisins, Cheerios, juice boxes, Goldfish crackers, kid yogurt and lollipops. She feels like when costs go down in one area, they go up accordingly in another area and everything just evens out.

I do agree that costs go up elsewhere, but I still think, overall, our bills are lower now that we have only one child in diapers and are using milk instead of formula.

A box of 108 size 4 diapers costs about 20 dollars and it lasts two weeks. A package of 24 double-roll toilet paper costs 5 dollars and lasts at least a month. Our water bill has gone up, because the toilet gets flushed more and Johnny washes his hands more, but I haven't seen a huge difference. Part of the increase is also due to the fact that he no longer bathes in the toddler tub and because I stopped recycling water over the winter. Now that the weather is getting warmer, I'll go back to recycling water and I'm sure we'll see that reflected in the bill.

Read more at <a href="http://greatwallsofbaltimore.blogspot.com/2008/04/is-potty-training-money-saver.html">The Great Walls of Baltimore</a>

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Is Potty Training A Money Saver?