Frugal Laundry

You all know how expensive laundry detergent is. Well, it's not THAT bad. You can usually find a sale on detergent for $1.99 for 35 loads. But did you realize that you will RARELY get 35 loads out of that? I fill my washer full and I fill the detergent in the cap up to the top line or almost the top line, and I will get way less out of it. SO if you are figuring the cost to be like $.05 a load or something, figure again. I started by marking my bottle with a marker every load of laundry I did.

My mom told me about making laundry soap and this recipe that she found. She has been using it a while and says it works! I am also going to be doing this very soon. So, here is the recipe:

• 1/3 bar of Fels Naptha soap
• 1/2 cup Borax powder
• 1/2 cup Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
• a bucket
• water

I have found all of these ingredients at my Kroger.

First, grate 1/3 of the soap and put it into a saucepan.

Add 6 cups of water and heat until the soap melts. Add the washing soda and borax, stirring until it is dissolved. Pour 4 cups hot tap water into your bucket. Add your soap mixture and stir it together. Add another 22 cups of water and stir to combine. Let the soap cool and set up for about 12-24 hours. The finished product jells up. It won't have a normal consistency. Part of it will be like jello and part will remain liquid. It's all the same thing and dissolves in the laundry tub. No need to try and break it up.
Each load takes about 1/2 cup of laundry soap.

I have also found the same recipe on The Grocery Cart Challenge, and she explains what each ingredient does:

• Borax cleans, deodorizes, disinfects and softens the water.
• Washing soda cuts grease and neutralizes odors.
• Fels Naptha is a stain remover.

On The Grocery Cart Challenge, she also has a recipe for Homemade dryer sheets, that I found. Here is her recipe:

Homemade Dryer Sheets

• 2 cups of water
• 1 cup of vinegar
• 2/3 cups of any hair conditioner

I stirred mine together in an empty baby wipe container. Don’t shake, this will cause foaming. Soak a cloth rag (I used an old clean wash cloth) and ring it out until slightly damp. Then throw it into the dryer with your load of clothes.

This can also be used as a liquid fabric softener in the rinse cycle.

I have been using this for about a week now and it has worked great! I bought Suave conditioner from the Dollar Store, and used about 1/3 for this recipe. I had a ginormous bottle of vinegar, so that cost me pennies. So all in all, the recipe cost less then $.50 for about 20 loads (maybe more loads! I don't know exactly yet). It would be even less if I used some of the conditioner that I got for free from CVS.

SO, there you go. Frugal laundry! I can't wait to try the laundry soap. Supposedly it is about a penny a load! I love the idea of these also because I know EXACTLY what is in them.

Would YOU try these recipes?