Save $$$$ Make your own laundry soap

Hello Friends & Faithful Followers!

I have been drawn away from my regular posts for some time now. Happily, I am back with you to share more dollar-saving information.

I have a family member who has shared some cost-saving tips for laundry with me recently. She and I both have raised many children who were literally dirt magnets. We've also had to contend with carrying bottle after bottle of laundry detergent in from the car to help combat the daily loads of laundry. I'd never taken a hard look at the cost of laundry detergent until recently. She and I discussed the cost vs. washing power of various detergents. She then shared the laundry secret she and her daughter have been using. She said it lasts her family 8 months. I thought it was a secret worth sharing with you. Homemade detergent is a low suds formula which is important for HE (high efficiency) machines. You will need a large plastic tub or container with a lid to store your homemade detergent in, but here you have two recipes for your money-saving pleasure!

Here's her recipe:

3 bars (grated finely ) Fels Naptha, Zote, or any other laundry bar soap of your choice
1 box 20 Mule Team borax  (sodium borate)
1 box washing soda (such as Arm & Hammer or soda ash/sodium carbonate)
2 cups of baking soda (yes, sodium bicarbonate, the stuff in your kitchen cabinet)
2 small tubs of powdered oxy cleaner
 

Use only 2 tablespoons per load. J

And here's a recipe where you don't have to grate a bar of laundry soap:

2 Tablespoons liquid dish soap (your choice, I like the citrus scented ones)

3 Tablespoons 20 Mule Team borax
3 Tablespoons washing soda

Put these ingredients into an empty one gallon jug. Add 4 cups hot water into the jug. Mix until powders are dissolved into the liquid. Let the liquid cool. After liquid is cool,  fill close to the top with cold water. 

Use only 1/2 cup per load. J