Sunday, December 7, 2008

I Am So Cheap I Have....



Resorted To Making My Own Laundry Soap....

Although my youngest boy has been potty trained for, oh I don't know, 3 or 4 years now, he still pisses......uhhhh......pees the bed almost every single night. Like 99% of the time. Ocassionally we get a day of laundry bliss where we don't have to do loads of pissy......uhhhh.... pee sheets and blankets too.

Lately we have been going through laundry soap likes it's water. We've always bought the gigantic commercial size bucket from Sam's Club, so we were saving a bit of money anyway, but damn!! When you have to buy it as often as we do, it's still hell on the wallet.

I've contemplated making my own laundry soap before, but never actually did it. I was afraid that it wouldn't work. Well, last Sunday I was watching "17 Kids And Counting" on TLC. This episode was how the Duggar Family saves money while taking care of 17 kids. I checked out their website to get the recipe for the homemade laundry soap. Find that here.

Laundry Soap Costs:

180 load bucket at Sam's: around $13

To buy the stuff in recipe: $6.02 (Which will make 3 recipes or about 1,920 loads!!!)
3 Bar pack of Ivory $1.03
1 Box of Borax $2.87 (will make more than 3 recipes)
4 lb. box of Washing Soda $2.12 (will make more than 3 recipes)

Here is the recipe I used:
But make sure you go to their website to read the tips they give!!

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap- Front or top load machine- best value

4 Cups hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup Washing Soda
½ Cup Borax

- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)

-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

4 comments:

Tiffani K said...

I keep saying I am going to do this. With 9 kids, I get lots of tips from the Duggars but I just havent managed to implement this one.

Allison said...

I LOVE this. I started making my own laundry soap just last week. My husband has no problem washing even his uniforms in it (which is great---though he has no choice! Ha!). Funniest thing---I mentioned it at a meeting for the MOPS Steering Team, and one of the other mom's responses was "Hey, the Duggars make their own laundry soap!" I said "yeah, I know, that's why I started." Because when I saw how easy it was to make, I thought "why not?" Of course, I was contemplating it before hand anyhow :-D

Tina Kelley said...

Well that answers my question.. I was just wondering how well it works.. I've thought about it alot but was always worried I wouldn't get the same results as store bought..

Thanks for sharing!

Jennifer said...

This is a great idea! Thanks for posting this. I'm going to visit that site now.

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