Time for Frugality

Lately I haven't been thinking too deeply, or at least about anything I want to share... but I have been trying to curb our spending. 

I think I'm going to try something new.  I'm not a "greenie", but due to the cost of a bottle of laundry soap (that I know works great) being over the $22 mark, I think I'll try to make my own liquid laundry soap.  I'll put the ingredients on the grocery list for Tim to pick up next time he shops and will try er out.

If you have ever tried this, please let me know how it worked for you.  There's also a Dishwasher Detergent recipe I might give a go on, as I hate spending so much for things like that!

The recipe is from a blog I happened upon this evening (check it out, it's pretty good):

I have become the epitome of frugal: I just made my own laundry detergent. I decided it sounded like a fun project to do today, so I hunted down the ingredients to make it, and voila! I know have a ton of homemade laundry detergent stored in a trash can down in my basement. I decided the liquid homemade laundry detergent would be my best bet, so that’s what I decided to make.

Before I started, I gathered up the following supplies:

* A pot to melt the soap in
* Bar of soap (I chose Ivory soap because it is non irritating)
* 1 gallon jug
* Trash can to store laundry detergent in
* 1 box of Washing Soda
* 1 box Borax
* Long handled spoon to stir mixture

Where to buy washing soda? It was a little tough to find, but my local Meijer carried it in the laundry detergent aisle. I called 1-800-524-1328, put in my zip code, and it told me where I could find it.

Here is the recipe for dry laundry detergent:

* 2 1/2 ounces soap bars, grated into flakes (Approx. a half a bar of soap)
* 1 cup borax
* 1 cup washing soda

Here’s the homemade laundry detergent recipe for liquid laundry detergent:

* 1 bar of soap of your choice
* 1 cup washing soda
* ½ cup borax

My first step was to almost boil about 4-5 cups of water, and shave the bar of soap into the water, stirring occasionally. Once that was done, I let it sit on the stove while I poured three gallons of hot water into my trash can. I then measured out 1 cup of washing soda and 1/2 cup of borax. I took the hot soap mixture, added it to the water in my trash can, and stirred until it looked pretty evenly distributed. Then I slowly added my 1 cup of washing soda until that was dissolved, and then did the same to the borax. That’s it. Fairly simple. I’m going to let it sit and get cool before I try to use it. It’s pretty liquid right now.

I have a front loading high efficiency (HE) washing machine. I’m going to use about a half a cup of this for my laundry loads. I’ll let you know how well it works!