We actually have a well so our water cost is way less than families with city water. Yes, we pay for the power and maintenance, but it's not much at all. Disposables are so expensive it's definitely cheeper to use cloth. I could wash a whole days worth of diapers for the cost of 1 or 2 disposable. (I did the math once, I don't remember exactly what it came out to though.) I went with cloth for many reasons though, not just because of the cost difference.