Are washable sanitary pads cheaper?
It's a fact, washable sanitary pads are more environmentally friendly . And if, for some, this is reason enough to make the transition, unfortunately, when we have a slave's wage, it is not necessarily the living conditions of the Earth in 274 years that will convince us to change our habits. Finally if, in the marvelous world of Mickey, there is Daisy who regularly makes this kind of decision. But we, the Scrooge gang, we also need to count the exact number of gold coins that we will save!
Artemis Menstrual Panties
Selene menstrual panties
The cost of menstruation: the club of menstrual panties, panty liners and washable sanitary napkins versus the disposable band
To calculate the cost of our rules in disposable protection, I used the little simulator that Le Monde made available to us. On average, a woman uses 5 sanitary napkins per day for 5 days, i.e. 25 sanitary napkins, ie around 6€ depending on the brands and the absorption. We multiply all that by 13, the number of times a woman has her period per year on average, and we obtain approximately 80€ per year with disposable pads.
Let's move on to washable sanitary napkins. They cost between €10 and €15, and eventually, the ideal would be to have 20/25 to cover the entire cycle. In fact, 10 will do - just clean a few during the cycle. They last an average of 5 years. The cost of our periods with washable pads is therefore around 30€ per year.
In the category of washable protections, you can imagine that period panties are our darling. For a cycle, 3 period panties will suffice at the beginning. It is possible to wash one while using the other, and Smoon menstrual panties dry super quickly thanks to their super innovative fabrics and because only the absorbent area is doubled. They last between 2 and 5 years depending on use and compliance with washing instructions. Let's take 3 years for our example. The pack of 3 is at 90€. The cost of our menstruation all year round with period panties is 30€.
We therefore save around €50 per year with washable protection, and this without even counting the underwear which will not be stained (and therefore not bought back) thanks to menstrual panties .
Is the saving worth the effort?
A saving of around €50 per year… When I realized that all I was earning was two restaurants a year, the Scrooge in me was a little disappointed…
Girls for whom money is really difficult at the moment, it is defendable. I'm talking about the real hassle, the one where even when you're invited to a restaurant, you don't eat much, for fear that your body will get used to it and that it will ask you for food again.
Those for whom having a difficult week means giving up their weekly red label rib steak, saving €50/year is not necessarily an argument. As far as I'm concerned, the €80 a month I was spending on cigarettes didn't convince me to quit smoking.
Free yourself from the need to buy
So don't get me wrong, there are plenty of great reasons to switch to washable pads , but I'm not going to cover them here. Here, the Scrooge gang wanted to know if it was worth it financially! It's rarely cheaper to upgrade to a greener option. In our case, we don't spend more and we even save a few gold coins.
But above all, for me, stopping disposable towels (and cigarettes) did not come from the strict need to save, but from a pressing desire to consume less and consume better. It's exhausting to always need to buy. With washable sanitary pads, you buy once and for all, and never again find yourself without sanitary napkins when the English arrive (and I'm not referring to Brexit).
By Sophia
