Cotton Babies Shares the Love

Jenn Labit over at Cotton Babies recently wrote a post about how you can cloth diaper your child for free or nearly free.  I'm sure it was helpful to many parents who are on a tight budget and struggle to get the diapers they need for their child.  I know I would have appreciated a post like that when I first started out with cloth, before I found my own ways to get diapers for free.

But she hasn't stopped there.  In addition to these helpful free diapering tips, Cotton Babies is now working towards starting a program that will give used cloth diapers to families who really need them.  If you or someone you know is struggling financially and can't get the cash together to get the cloth diapers they need, send them to this link to fill out the Spread the Love Survey.

Look at my Baby Girl!!!

I was so delighted today when I went to the Happy Heiny's website to vote for my daughter's picture (and also Nathaniel's since his mommy let me know he was there) and I saw THIS on their front page:

When I won January's contest, they told me that they loved my daughter's pictures and to look for her on the front page sometime soon but I thought that was just something they say to all the HH winners.  Apparently she is as cute to everyone else as she is to me.  It probably helps that she's wearing a snapping diaper and they are featuring their snap closures on the front page, and that I conveniently put her to the side rather than the middle of the picture (I was just following the rule of thirds suggested for a good picture).  In any case, my little Bunny is a temporary baby model and I'm a proud mama!!!

Don't forget to vote, btw.  Enter your baby and vote for my Bunny and all the other adorable babies on the site.  Let me know if you're baby is there and his/her name so I can vote for him/her as well. 

Free Stuff

I cashed in my Stash Cash at Diaper Junction.  1,000 points from 10 guest blogger posts = $75 and FOUR DIAPERS!!!

Stash Cash doesn't cover shipping...

...but I held out to cash it in til I had $75 so it qualified for free shipping! I paid a little more than $75, though so all in all I paid $3 and some change (+ the blood, sweat, and tears poured into those blog posts).

I ordered

1 platinum Rumparooz OS diaper with snaps
1 root beer Rumparooz OS diaper with snaps
1 periwinkle Fuzzi Bunz OS diaper (they only come in snaps)
and
1 rose Thirsties Duo wrap size one with snaps

I didn't need any of them because I can't even remember how many diapers I have anymore-well, I possibly needed the Thirsties because I only have a couple of diaper covers...

...but since I'm learning how to make my own wool diaper covers I really didn't need it.

What I DID need was a couple of swim diapers.  And some mama pads. (which I could also make, but it's so much easier to buy them!)

But I really REALLY love Fuzzi Bunz OS diapers so I just had to have another.

And I've heard so many good things about Rumparooz that I had to have some of them too.

So that's what I got.

I'm going to have to put in a couple of more guest blogs to get those other things.

Oh, and thanks to Franklin Goose's AWESOME offer of $5 store credit for every one of their items you review,   I ordered 1 more Rumparooz OS diaper (amethyst) with the review money, as well as a safety strip to run around the sharp corners of my hearth, and some cute, wooden blocks that Bunny will eventually grow into.

If you haven't gone to Franklin Goose's website, set up an account, and reviewed the items you've used, then do it because you have til March 31st.  I was amazed at how many of their things I've used.  16 total which added up to $80 store credit!!!

I just love free stuff!  I mean, nothing is ever REALLY free--even winning a giveaway (which I never seem to do) because you work for it in other ways, but we use the currency we have!

$10 off some diapers

The very first store I ever bought my cloth diapers from was Diapers.com.  In fact, I bought just about all of my BumGenius One Size diapers from this store.  I have to say that my experience with Diapers.com was highly positive.  Mostly, the $10 off coupon that they offer for your first time order of diapers was my favorite (from an order of $49 or more).  I was sorely tempted to pretend to be another  first time customer with my husband's email account and the address of the church where he works,  but I wasn't convinced it would be an entirely kosher move so I didn't do it. 

They have a program at Diapers.com.  If I refer someone to buy their diapers there, they get $10 off their first order of diapers at $49 or more, and I get referral bucks.  It's a win-win situation.

So if you're interested, use this referral code:
BECC7547

If you're ordering cloth diapers then the website may not recognize them as being "diapers."  There is a quick fix to this.  Call the customer service order and they will fix it. 

The absolute BEST thing about diapers.com is their speedy delivery.  I usually made orders of Fridays and my diapers arrived on Saturdays.  No, seriously.  So give it a try.  Here's my code again in case you missed it:
BECC7547

Good luck!  

Free Shipping Giveaways Coming Soon!

I love free shipping. 

LOVE IT!

I love it so much I keep a list of cloth diaper (and other) sites who offer free shipping.

...and I rarely buy from anyone but the vendors on that list unless there's something specific I want that none of them have, or I manage to find an item at another vendor that is cheaper INCLUDING the cost of shipping!

Why?  Because to me, paying shipping costs is like raising the price on the things I thought I found a good deal on which makes it so they are not worth my while.

I'm on a tight budget.  This is why I've chosen to cloth diaper in the first place! Usually, I cannot afford to spend the lump sum that most stores require for you to qualify for free shipping.  Usually, I can only buy a diaper here and there. 

And so I have chosen to bend over backwards to avoid paying shipping by always stopping by the stores listed in my sidebar first.  You should try it too.  I've bought stuff from most of them and they're all so GREAT!!!

So, I wanted to celebrate my love of vendors who offer free shipping with a series of GIVEAWAYS.  I'm still very new to this public blogging thing, so I'm going to be doing a very small giveaway event featuring  3 or 4 shops who offer free shipping. In fact, if you're a vendor stopping by and you'd like to be included, just drop me an email or comment and I'll be more than happy to include you. 

So, be on the lookout.  In April you will see a series of giveaways coming your way featuring some of the amazing stores in my FREE SHIPPING list to the right.  It's gonna be great!!!

SHE WON!!!!

 Every month since I've discovered it, I've entered my daughter's photo in the Happy Heiny's Photo contest.  Why, you ask?  Well, because the winner gets a whopping $50 to spend in their store! Yes, you heard right.  All you have to do is put your adorable little baby in a Happy Heiny's diaper, and submit your photo at their website.  Then, you vote on all the babies, and send the link to all your family members, friends, neighbors, mailman, etc. so they can vote too.  At the end of the month, the people at Happy Heiny's choose one photo from the top five as the winner, and then that winner gets $ for diapers!!!!  I was so excited to get an email today saying that my daughter's photo won for the month of January! Woo hoo! $50HH for me :-D

The funny thing is, I started entering this contest back in October when my daughter wasn't even two months old and we didn't have more than 10 cloth diapers to our name and I really needed more diapers. I finally won now that I have more diapers than I can count (partially due to the fact that I've started making them :-P)  In any case, I'm so obsessed with my cloth that I'm certainly not upset to get more!   I bought two One Size pocket diapers with snaps--one in kelly green and one in purple, and one Medium Sherpa fitted.  It came up to a grand total of $48.40.


I'm so excited!!!  I'll definitely be posting pictures of my precious baby modeling them when they come!

Since I didn't realize she'd won the January contest, I went ahead and entered Bunny into the February contest (which she didn't win) and the current contest for March with this cute photo:

 So if you want to vote for her again (and all the other cute babies) then go for it.

And if you own a Happy Heiny's diaper and want to enter the contest, let me know which baby is yours and I'll head on over and root for you.

So go enter.  And if you don't win this month, then be persistent.

What have you got to lose?

You just might end up with some pretty, awesome diapers!