You can win, child: Save money on diapers and avoid leaks

May 25, 2019 / By / Leave a Comment

You can win, child: Save money on diapers and avoid leaks | Honeycomb Moms | Credit: Laura Marques / Unsplash

You can win, child: Save money on diapers and avoid leaks | Honeycomb Moms | Credit: Laura Marques / Unsplash

THIS PAGE MAY HAVE AFFILIATE LINKS THAT ALLOW YOU TO PURCHASE ITEMS. IN SUCH CASES, HONEYCOMB MOMS MAY EARN A COMMISSION WHEN PURCHASES ARE MADE.

I’m just going to say it. We’re pretty great. Not only are the Honeycomb moms gifting you our best tips for saving money on diapers, but we’ve done a pretty crafty evaluation of how popular brands hold up to the generics on leaks.

After all, we’re not talking about generic Oreos. Effectiveness matters when it comes to diapers. Who wants to make changing pee-soaked sheets part of her daily routine? Not I.

So, first we evaluated costs of disposable diapers at eight stores — Aldi’s, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Costco Wholesale, CVS, Sam’s Club, Target, Walgreens and Walmart. I won’t make you wait for it. The wholesale stores, Sam’s Club specifically, fared much better and more consistently with price, meaning you can likely get a decent price even without collecting coupons and hopping on promotional deals.

Our next step in this divine diaper review was to evaluate different brands of diapers for leaks. We wanted to go a step further than just listing our own experiences, so we used reviews from the Sam’s Club website to be a bit more systematic.

Will I get more leaks with generic diapers?

Unfortunately, our snapshot revealed what you may have suspected all along. More expensive diapers yielded fewer leaks.

To get to this conclusion, we determined a leak rate for popular diaper brands that Sam’s Club provides. We did it by dividing the number of people who reported leaks with diapers on the Sam’s Club website by the total number of site reviewers who mentioned leaks at all, whether to say their children did or didn’t experience them.


Bulk buys at Sam’s Club get you a cost of 22 cents a unit for Pampers Swaddlers, 11 cents a unit for Luvs Ultra Leakguards, 14 cents a unit for the generic brand, Member’s Mark, and 20 cents a unit for Huggies Little Snugglers.

We found that while only 8 percent of reviewers who talked about leaks reported getting them with Pampers Swaddlers; 54 percent reported leaks with Luvs Ultra Leakguards, 46 percent reported leaks with Member’s Mark diapers and 30 percent reported leaks with Huggies Little Snugglers.

Great, more money gets you better quality, but I’m sure you’re thinking, there has to be a way around this. At least, you should be thinking that, and the good news is there is a way around it. In fact, there are five.

5 tips for skipping the leaks and saving on cost

Save money on diapers, You can win, child: Save money on diapers and avoid leaks

1. CLIP THOSE COUPONS.

Honeycomb mom Sacandice Burnett swears by Huggies, so she collects coupons in the mail and digitally via sites like Coupon Surfer and Coupons. She finds the best deals at CVS and Walgreens that way. An economy pack of Huggies Little Snugglers was 17 cents a unit at CVS earlier this month. That deal is long gone though, and you definitely don’t want to shop for diapers at Walgreens or CVS without discounts. Normal pricing can be more than twice that of other stores. (Credit: Fancy Crave / Unsplash)

Save money on diapers, You can win, child: Save money on diapers and avoid leaks

2. GO THE WHOLESALE ROUTE.

If you’re not clipping coupons, a wholesale store is generally going to give you the most bang for your buck. You can even skirt individual membership fees when having your diapers delivered through Instacart.

Whether Sam’s Club or BJ’s Wholesale Club is your bulk store of choice, pricing is about 20 cents a unit for Huggies Little Snugglers, 12 cents a unit for Luvs and 21 cents a unit for Pampers Swaddlers.

If you’re a Costco Wholesale shopper, your choices are between generic diapers at 16 cents a unit and Huggies Little Snugglers, at 20 cents a unit. (Credit: AJ / Unsplash)

Save money on diapers, You can win, child: Save money on diapers and avoid leaks

3. MIX AND MATCH.

At night, my husband and I use cloth diapers or name brand disposables, both of which we got as gifts. During the day, Aldi’s diapers are our mainstays at 9 cents a unit. They are thin but have a wetness indicator and contain aloe and vitamin E to nourish the skin. You have to buy a 416-count generic diaper bundle from Walmart to get the same price, and that option is seldom available online. Plus, your baby might outgrow them before you get to use the whole pack. (Credit: Chuttersnap / Unsplash)

Save money on diapers, You can win, child: Save money on diapers and avoid leaks

4. COST COMPARE IN THE AISLES.

If you’re grocery shopping and don’t feel like hitting up another store for diapers, Walmart has the Pampers Swaddlers line at 19 cents a unit compared to 21 cents a unit at Target.

At Kroger, the overnight line of Pampers Swaddlers has great leak protection and is often cheaper than the regular Swaddlers, Honeycomb mom Sydnea Rutland said.

“I’m the cheap lady doing the math in the diaper aisle to compare cost per diaper,” she said.

(Credit: Jomjakkapat Parrueng / Unsplash)

Save money on diapers, You can win, child: Save money on diapers and avoid leaks

5. TRY THE GENERICS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Be prepared to change diapers more frequently to avoid leaks, and your baby still might get diaper rash, which was the case for Sydnea’s baby with Target’s generic brand.

But if your infant isn’t rash-prone, you might want to test out the generics.

BJ’s and Sam’s clubs carry generic lines at 14 cents a unit, and Sam’s Club is running a special at 11 cents a unit through July 15. Costco’s is 16 cents a unit. Both Target and Walmart have generic diapers at 12 cents a unit. Honeycomb mom Jerusha Washington said she buys the Walmart brand a size larger than needed to avoid overnight leaks. (Credit: Rawpixel / Unsplash)

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