Living on a budget with babies: How to buy the most inexpensive diapers

HOUSTON – The average family spends about $2,500 on diapers from the time your baby is born he or she is potty-trained. But there are ways you can spend much less.

Consumer expert Amy Davis has two children in diapers. She said she has done her research to find the lowest price for the diapers her family wants to buy.

She said you can save by buying the store brand, stacking coupons or even using cloth diapers.

In a comparison, Davis picked Huggies Little Movers - Size 3. It’s a middle-level disposable diaper.

We compared 6 retailers for prices – Diapers.com, Walmart, Target, Costco, Sam’s Club, and Amazon – and adjusted prices to show you the cost per diaper. Davis said that's the same way you should shop -- because as your baby grows, bigger sizes will cost you more.

Diapers.com

Here's what we found: Size 3 Huggies were most expensive when we checked on Diapers.com. It’s 23 cents a diaper when you sign up for the subscription service where the diapers show up at the same time every month or how often you schedule them.

Costco and Sam’s Club

The same diapers are 22 cents each at both Sam's Club and Costco, and that is not factoring in the cost of your annual membership to shop at the warehouse stores.

Walmart

Walmart will cost you 22 cents per diaper. No membership is required.

Target

Target beats Walmart by a penny per diaper. Diapers are 21 cents when you sign up for a subscription to have the diapers mailed to you at regular intervals.

Amazon

Amazon ties Target at 21 cents per diaper when you sign up for Subscribe and Save for a five percent discount. But we found the lowest price by signing up for Amazon Prime. That costs $99 per year. Signing up for Subscribe and Save and Amazon Family gets you 20 percent off diapers on every Amazon order.

Doing it this way makes the same diapers 18 cents each.

And if you think we're just talking pennies, consider this: a year's worth of diapers at 18 cents a pop is 302.40. The same diapers at 23 cents each will cost you $84 more at $386.40. And with that savings, you have almost paid for the Prime membership price. 

Price comparison