Diapered 24/7 for $80 a month

Every time I have heard being diapered 24/7 being discussed one of the biggest points that has been made by others for me to overcome was the price of doing so. I've usually heard $2,000 or so per year which currently doesn't work for my budget. But I bought a case of tranquility atns at 96 diapers for $80 and I am 2 weeks into 24/7. I often go a week or two but have never gone longer because the cost seemed like too much, but I was using abena or better before.

After being diapered 24/7 for 16 days without any failing I notice I'm still not quite halfway through my atn case and since cost has always been the problem for me I was just wondering, does this work? Does anyone else try to cost reduce going 24/7 here? Or is anyone else 24/7 with tranquility atns?

I know they are often looked down upon because they are lower quality than abena or molicare or dry 24/7 or bambinos but I have been very happy and enjoying these ATNs none the less.

So how cheap can 24/7 really be? And has anyone else wanted and tried 24/7 but stopped only because of the price of it? $80 a month would definitely fit into my budget while no other diaper so far has. Do any better quality diapers absorb so much that they are $80 a month or less?

iv heard a lot of good things about ATN's. Their on my shopping list.

That's a very good and interesting question. While I don't wear 24/7, there are many on this site that do for various reasons. I'm sure that depending upon one's financial situation, the quality of diaper you most often wear is definitely the greatest variable as a function of cost. Those whose budget is typically an ongoing issue would tend to cheaper, less absorbent diapers based on their needs and possibly having dedicated savings specifically so they can make bulk purchases in order to get more for their money. Others who would have a more disposable income likely would take less issue with price, and make their buying decisions based on other factors such as discreetness or comfort.

As far as your other questions, Tranquility ATNs are typically regarded as somewhat of an in-between: Way above store brand, not even close to Bambinos or Dry24/7.

Absorbancy actually has less to do with how long you can wear a diaper and more to do simply with how much the diaper can take. Wearing a wet diaper for greatly extended periods of time not recommended as diapers are meant to be changed at ones convenience after it has been 'used'. Obviously the construction of premium diapers may seem to contrast this notion; however, their target market is somewhat different than lower quality diapers. Highly absorbent diapers are typically meant either for nighttime use (hence dry247.com specifically mentioning staying dry all night, also the use of a butterfly/moth as a logo; which is a symbol of restful sleep); or ABDL's such as yourself (example: Bambino, AwwSoCute).
So the TL;DR of your last question is this: The manner in which you would [supposedly] be using more absorbent diapers in order to bring price down would suggest that you would potentially put your own health at risk, so no; what you currently have is quite close to ideal.

I use mostly cloth and do diaper loads of laundry. I would have my nighttime prefolds, which I wear only at home with plastic pants, then I wear my Dependeco diapers during the day when I'm out and put them in the dirty diaper bin when I get home if they are wet. this is the best for me currently since i live with my mom and we shop at Costco and buy are washing detergent in bulk. So I'm currently not paying for laundering. When i move out this may change, but we'll see. I do have disposables to that I wear on occasion or in a pinch like going over night somewhere.

I did some calculations using the pricelist of save-express. I also assumed, that I would need 4 diapers a day, that is 120 a month. Here's the list, all in size M, prices in Euro and USD, shipping excl.:

Abena Abri-Form M4 XPlus: 103.89€/111.98$
Attends M9 (CF): 61.20€/65.97$
Attends M10 (CF): 69.60€/75$
ID Expert Slip Super: 78€/84$
Molicare Comfort Maxi: 63€/67.91$
Molicare Super Plus: 80.40€/86.67$
Tena Slip Super (CF): 58.80€/63.39$
Tena Slip Maxi (CF): 84€/90.55$
Tena Slip Original Maxi: 79.20€/85.38$
Comficare M10: 129.60€/139.70$
Seni Standard Plus: 52.80€/56.92$
Super Seni Trio: 73.20€/78.90$
Super Seni Quattro: 86.40€/93.14$

This is shipping excl., but if you're in the UK and order 2 months worth of Tena Super, for example, that would be 9 [email protected]€ and 33.27€ shipping, which is still only 78.69€ per month(or about 3.5€ extra per bag; if I buy at a pharmacy, they usually charge 5 to 10€ extra just for buying in a pharmacy). So yes, in diapers alone, 24/7 really isn't that expensive after all.

I hold my monthly costs down living on a fixed income by wearing cloth two thirds of the day.
I wear one A+ level 4 disposable for a morning/daytime diaper. I can get 6 to7 hours of use
out of them if I don't have a #2 accident. That's when I'm prone to having one. I get a case
of 64 every two months for $84.50. The rest of the time I'm wearing cloth. I wash diapers
everyday by hand as I don't have access to laundry facilities. I air dry them and my prefolds
I hang them outside in good weather. I buy one jug of Arm & Hammer with Oxi Clean for $5.00
that lasts a month. where I live my water is free. Being retired time isn't a factor in doing laundry
on them. It takes me about 15 minutes to wash them daily.

That's really cool that there may be a lot of options to do it cheaply. I might try some of those. I thought it would be more expensive from my 24/7 attempts with Abenas and dry 24/7s.

Mixing in cloth sounds like a great idea oleman. I might try that if I run out and want to keep wearing 24/7.

I also wear a lot of cloth diapers, so the initial cost is large, but afterwards it can be very cheap. Another option is to use Walgreens brand certainty diapers. They are about 18$ for a pack of 40 and if you use baby diapers as booster pads, it actually works quite well and comes out at a slightly lower price I believe, but the tranquility diapers are not too bad, so that works too.

I use cloth as boosters. I bought Tena Ultra 160 for $16 at Goodwill. Otherwise I buy an $11 pack of 18 Tena pull-ups about every 10 weeks. I would never do 24/7 at $80 per month.

I'll have to try using cloth as boosters, That sounds like a really good idea.

the mass produced disposables, even if changed frequently, are almost always cheaper than the premium diapers. I think you'd need a to wear a bambino for a full 24 hours without changing to have it reach the point where it evens out with buying diapers from a drug store. They're simply working on much better economies of scale, so they can end up offering diapers at prices close to 50 cents per diaper, whereas the largest bulk order of Bambinos still comes out to around $1.50 per diaper.

I bought a pack of ATNs last August. I do not remember the size but it was under $20. I liked the plastic and decorating them really cute. I also like the way the padding stays in place better than the Tena Ultra. The padding shift does not bother me but it is weird when I take a wet one off and all the padding falls instantly to one end. I am sure an active person would hate that. If you can afford ATNs and enjoy decorating them, then they will work out great.

ArchieRoni said:

the mass produced disposables, even if changed frequently, are almost always cheaper than the premium diapers. I think you'd need a to wear a bambino for a full 24 hours without changing to have it reach the point where it evens out with buying diapers from a drug store. They're simply working on much better economies of scale, so they can end up offering diapers at prices close to 50 cents per diaper, whereas the largest bulk order of Bambinos still comes out to around $1.50 per diaper.

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I'm not sure what exactly defines a premium product. Abena and Tena are definitely premium products, Bambinos certainly too. On that scale, the mass produced ones certainly will take the victory. But there is also a whole lot of non-premium products, which are so cheap that they are always going to be more expensive than the premium ones in the long run.

The worst experience I ever had was a diaper, that had to be changed every 3-4 hours and costed something around $0.45 per piece. Compared to that, even your Bambino suddenly looks very economic.

I've also found many mass produced diapers to be so cheaply made that I don't believe they would save money at all. I looked around and found ATNs for 71 cents per diaper and they can actually hold multiple wettings unlike many other mass produced diapers. I've been quite surprised how much they hold, compared to them the other non premium ones I have tried pale in conparison. But I asked about the premium ones because XP medical for example lists their absorbency plus as tied for the cheapest they sell per ounce held. So it was things like that that made me wonder if any premium diapers were about the same price to go 24/7 with.

So a lot of great people have responded but I still haven't heard from the cost cutting disposable diaper only wearing 24/7 people. What is the experience this group has had? If this group is here to respond. What are the diapers you choose? Around what if it's appropriate to ask are your diaper costs?

Top tier Fitright disposables are cheap, and hold two-three wettings if you don't flood. I can get 80 for $50ish.

BabyJ316 said:

Top tier Fitright disposables are cheap, and hold two-three wettings if you don't flood. I can get 80 for $50ish.

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Do you use those for 24/7? Two or three full wettings for that cost sounds promising

I have. I don't do 24/7 often. Look at Fitright Restore from hpfy.com......... Cheapest I've found.

My elderly mother on a very limited fixed income needs diapers and I sometimes find them at thrift stores at a reduced price. I always have to look and so far have kept up with her needs. Now myself, I'm a man of the cloth

There have been threads on ADISC before about how going to better diapers can save money. Cheapest store brand diapers may be around $0.60US, while brands like Abena or Dry 24/7 run about $1.40US. The difference is that the better diapers last three times as long as the cheapest, so you need less diaper changes and save money. I know that if I have to go to cheap store brands I go through six to eight diapers a day, while with Abena and A+ (from XP Medical) I use two diapers a day.

I don't necessarily go for the printed diapers unless I find a reason to treat myself.