5 Weirdly Effective Ways to Save $90 a year on feminine hygiene

This article is for the ladies and the men who share their monthly budgets with them. One area that you are literally throwing your money away, is hiding in your bathroom. Maybe it's lurking under your sink or maybe it's hiding in a drawer, but if a lady in your household is between the ages of 13-51 and using certain monthly products you are throwing away up to $90.72 yearly per woman! By switching to a more eco-friendly, comfortable and natural option, you can save $62.64-$90.72 per year per lady.

How much do disposable tampons and pads cost?

On Amazon, the cheapest maxi-pads without Prime cost $7.34 a box (24 count), which means that the average use of 20 pads a month costs $6.12 ($73.44 a year). Tampons cost $6.87 per box of 18, which means the average use of 20 tampons a month costs $7.64 ($91.68 a year).

What to do with disposable pads and tampons?

You can either pass the disposables on to a women's shelter, Freecycle, or your local Buy Nothing Project or you can phase out of them as you figure out your options and use them up.

As you phase them out, try composting them and save yourself some cash on your trash bags too. Detailed instructions for composting them are here.

What are your cheaper and more natural options? Here they are, organized by cost per month:

Sea sponge tampons

Each tampon lasts 6-12 months each and costs $0.08- $0.16 each (use 1-2 per month=$1.92-$3.84 per year). Here is an article about the pros and cons, as well as how to care for them. One advantage with this option is that you can carry an extra unused one with instructions for a friend in case they ask to borrow a tampon. These would be a great way to introduce them to a more affordable and natural option.

Disposable tampons cost $91.68 a year, so by switching to sea sponges you would save $87.84-$89.76 a year.

A menstrual cup

A natural rubber menstrual cup can last up to 10 years and costs about $0.28 per month (or $3.36 a year). I prefer natural options over synthetic, and the rubber option can be composted by leaving it in a sunny spot for two weeks to break it down and then putting it into your compost bin.

There are also silicone options for those with rubber allergies, and this one costs about $0.08 per month ($0.96 a year). One advantage is that you can just keep your cup in your purse/diaper bag and don't have to worry about restocking it for 10 years.

Disposable tampons cost $91.68 a year, so by switching to a rubber menstrual cup you would save $88.32 a year. With a silicone menstrual cup, you would save $90.72 a year.

The other major advantage of either kind of menstrual cup is that most women don't need to change it more than once a day, the heavier flow would only be a handful of times.

It also doesn't have the same risk for Toxic Shock Syndrome either, making this a much healthier option than sea sponge tampons or reusable tampons.

When you have finished using them, recycle silicone ones discretely here for Canada & USA and here for the UK.

Reusable tampons

You can also buy reusable tampons, either crocheted, knit, or folded cloth. If you buy 20 reusables (assuming you don't want to wash them more than once a cycle) at $1.45 each (ask for a bulk discount though) and use them for 5 years, you would spend about $0.50 a month on tampons. You can soak them in a container of water and add a squirt of hydrogen peroxide, changing the water daily until you wash them.

Disposable tampons cost $91.68 a year, so by switching to reusable tampons you would save $85.68 a year.

Cloth menstrual pads

Cloth pads can last several years, the average is about 5-10 years if you rotate through 10 pads. Here is a great post on the pros and cons of cloth pads. If you want to figure out your customized savings, use this calculator.

As an average example, if you buy 10 cloth pads and use them 5 years, you will spend about $0.90 per month on just the pads ($10.80 a year), not including detergent and water. If you squirt your pads with hydrogen peroxide and toss your pads in with another load, then your only costs will be the pads themselves. Many people combine pads with towel loads, family cloth/cloth diaper loads, or even just clothing (which probably gets the same kind of mess on it anyway).

Disposable maxi-pads cost $73.44 a year, so by switching to cloth pads you save an average of $62.64 per year.

Save Money on Cloth Pads

You can, of course, make your own pads to reduce the cost further. You can also use these 7 tips to make cloth pads last longer. Another factor to consider is how often or if you have children will affect how much you use your pads.

I've been pregnant or breastfeeding for most of my 6 1/2 years of marriage (when I started using cloth pads), so I've only needed pads for about 1/3 of that time. (Having and raising children does cost more than any savings on feminine hygiene products though, so this is a just another blessing of having kids.)

Another thing to consider is if you use pads as a backup for tampons, menstrual cups or sea sponges. They won't need to be changed as often in this case, and so will last longer.

Period panties

These are designed to be worn as either back up for other methods to keep your clothing mess-free, catching incontinence leaks, for postpartum bleeding, and for catching water breaking in the last trimester of pregnancy. These last the same as regular undergarments, so plan accordingly, one pair per day.

This is an optional reusable to purchase (about $1.42 a month for 6 days of coverage for about 2 years) but can be very helpful for those with heavy flow who want to keep their clothing tidy. This would also be a great gift for a pregnant friend you're close to that you would know their size and comfort level with such a gift.

According to this article, a typical woman dirties at least one $5 pair of undergarments per month anyway so you would save about $3.58 a month ($42.96 a year) on keeping your regular undergarments clean.

With so many different more affordable options, why are you still throwing your hard-earned money away? By switching to a more eco-friendly and natural option, you can save $62.64-$90.72 per year.

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