Laundry

Laundry.....piles and piles of laundry. That's the main chore I do around my home....well, that and cooking.We have six in our family. Six generates a mountain of laundry. I do a little bit each day to stay on top of it all. I "used" to save it all for the weekends but that never really worked for me because each week I felt like I gave a whole day of my life to only the task of laundry. So as one frugal thing I do, I make my laundry soap. I know in blog land there are lots of recipes and it's nothing new....but here on the real planet Earth, I find that people I know are almost shocked when they find out I do this. It really wasn't but a generation (maybe two) ago that our grannies did this very thing. It is pretty easy too and saves oodles!! Yes we'll crunch the numbers......because that's how I like to rock it! I like to see in black and white just how much green I will save :) Here's a link to a nice video if you're a visual learner! here and another here

Liquid Laundry Soap:
1 bar soap (We like IVORY)
1/2 cup borax
1/2 cup washing soda
3 gallons total water

Chop, grate, or slice to melt 1 bar soap into large pan filled with 1
gallon water- do not boil-only because it will make bubbles-LOTS of them (ask how I know ;) )! Once dissolved add borax and washing soda-stir to dissolve....add 2 gallons water, pour into containers....can use right away...product will "gel" in a few hours. I have made many a batch of this now and for some unexplained reason, sometimes it does not gel. I don't know why....but it works just as well....just wanted to share incase you run into the same troubles. Use 1/2 cup product per full load- 1/4 for small half loads. You can use more or less depending on the hardness or softness of your local water supply. I store mine in some large Tupperware type containers but you can just use your old liquid bottles...I honestly think this would be better as you can just shake it before use. Here's what mine looks like:

I use a BIG cheap stock pot from Dollar General to do this in and usually IVORY soap....I'm sure you could use whatever soap you like....but maybe not a heavily moisturizing one as it may have extra oils added that could be left behind on clothes. I store it in 2 plastic Tupperware type containers on my shelf.....it does separate in time but usually one good stirring will keep it all back together...you could do a half batch if you don't do much laundry. I have seen recipes on the Internet that skip the borax and just use soap and washing soda....I haven't tried that yet but if that product can indeed be skipped then it would be that much LESS expensive. I wash mostly in cold water. Here's how I calculated the cost per load:

This may sound confusing but here's what I think it cost:

My washing soda cost $2.99 a box and there's about 6 cups of product in there....I use 1/2 cup per batch so that's about about 25 cents for the half cup....then I got my IVORY soap for about 50 cents a bar on sale....the Borax @ $3.99 has about 8 cups of product and again I use 1/2 cup per batch so that's again around 25 cents per half cup (you divide the product price by number of cups per box to get the price per
cup then divide in half to get the half cup cost.)....so add that all up.

.25 washing soda
.25 borax
.50 soap
+___
$1.00 total

Now I use about 3 gallons of water for my total batch so 3 gallons has 48 cups of water ....we're trying to find out what 1 cup of finished product costs.... so $1.00 divided by 48= 0.02 cents per cup....BUT you only use 1/2 cup per load so divide 2 cents in half.....it looks like about 1 cent per load...WOW! Oh and at 1/2 cup per load you'll get 96 loads out of one 3 gallon batch! We do about 10 loads a week so one batch will last about 2 months for us. Here would be our yearly savings if we used ALL each month compared to homemade. We would need 2 Bottles of ALL each month: 2 ALL @ $7.99= $15.98 a month or $192 per year 1 homemade every 2 months @ $1.00 or 6$ per year $192-$6= $186 saved per year. It may not sound like that much but that is just one product and just like cooking from scratch or buying generics the yearly costs all add up together!!Like pop... We choose generic and buy in liters. We get our liters at .59 cents each and typically buy 5 a week so we spend $2.95 a week , $11.80 monthly, $141.60 yearly on our pop. Name brand liters are about $1.89 each in my area....so lets see the math. $1.89 x 5 (liters) = $9.45 a week, $37 monthly, $453.60 yearly. So by choosing generic we save $312 yearly on our pop. Again it may not seem like that much but remember that's only ONE item out of my cart. Plus with the four children that $312 could be better spent elsewhere or simply saved with less hours obligated for DH to work each year. Your price for the laundry soap may vary depending on how much you pay for your products. Oh and another savings I know and have used for many years now is plain white vinegar for fabric softener....just put it in a Dawny ball if you use one or the softener dispenser on your machine...it works great and things don't smell vinegary when dry...you can also just cut your fabric softener sheets in half to instantly save 50%, they work just as well!!

You can make powdered laundry soap too but I never liked that as I could never get the soap chopped small enough so it left little "bits" on my clothes because it didn't dissolve properly. But here is that recipe if you want to try...a food processor is probably best for this but I don't own one. This type takes less storage space.

Powdered Laundry Soap video link here
1 cup washing soda
1 Cup Borax
Soap (1 bar)
In processor chop soap. Add rest, mix to combine.Put in an air tight container. That’s it! Use 1 T for normal loads....2 T for large or xtra dirty ones. If you have very hard water add about 1/4 cup more of the washing soda. I know you can also make dishwasher soap with the same ingredients and if you have them on hand, why not! Consensus is that this either works for you or not. It did not work for me. It left a cloudy film on my dishes.....even with a vinegar rinse. I think it has to do with water quality. I may try other combinations later. There is tons of information on the Internet if you want to learn more or try different recipes....good luck!

Dishwasher Detergent Video link here
1 cup borax
1 cup baking soda (can use washing OR regular for this)
Mix together the borax and soda.That’s it! Use 2 T per load. Once every week or so fill the rinse aid receptacle with vinegar.