Thrifty to the extreme....

So I know several people who make their own laundry detergent, but as thrifty as I am, I have never gone there.......until yesterday :)


It all started a couple of weeks ago when 2 ladies in the laundry aisle at Kroger were carrying on about something that one of them had found.....


Lady #1: Did you find it?
Lady #2: YES! I should probably buy all they have!
Lady #1: That's great....I'm glad that we finally found it.


Then there was giggling and muffled conversation (I'm not THAT nosey that I tried to pick up the intimate conversation that they were having over this mystery product), and I decided that I would mosey on over the the spot where Lady #2 had found her prized product. What I found was Fels-Naptha Laundry Soap.
It said it was great for pre-treating stains, and since my favorite pre-treater has been discontinued, I've been on the search for a replacement. It was $1.19, so I thought I would give it a try. I took it home, tried it out, and it seems to work pretty well. I read a little online about it, and it seems that it is a great remedy for poison ivy too. Not that I've ever HAD poison ivy, but if I did, that's good to know. I also found several recipes for homemade laundry detergent that used Fels-Naptha, but I just really didn't want to go there. I have a hard enough time cooking dinner, and I wasn't interested in cooking laundry detergent.


So, a few days ago my cousin Stacie sent me a message on Facebook and asked if I had any recipes for laundry detergent that I had tried. She shared hers (which didn't use Fel-Naptha, but another laundry soap called ZOTE). I was still resistant to the whole idea, no matter HOW much money you save because 1) you have to cook the stuff 2) the recipes are for large batches that have to be stored somewhere and 3) the descriptions I've read of them say they are "goopy" and it sounds like a HUGE MESS waiting to happen when the kids do their laundry! I like to save money as much as the next person (probably more), but I have my limits :) Besides, I LIKE my laundry detergent!


However, she made me curious. So I looked and found a recipe for POWDERED homemade laundry detergent that sounded simple enough. Still, I didn't rush out and get the supplies because my Purex 2-in-1 laundry sheets are really simple to use and work well.


When I was at the store yesterday, I happened to be on the laundry aisle and low and behold, they had all of the ingredients for fairly cheap, so I decided what the heck, I would give it a try.


Basically, the recipe is 1 cup grated Fels-Naptha soap. I used a Pampered Chef grater and it took about 5 minutes to grate the whole bar (which yields 3 cups, so I tripled the recipe). Add to that 1/2 cup of 20 Mule Team Borax and 1/2 cup of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (not BAKING soda, it's different stuff). You just mix it in your container and use 2-3 tablespoons per load. Very simple to make!



I still wasn't prepared to like it, but I tried it out on quite a few loads of laundry yesterday, and it actually works well! I used it in cold water and in warm water, and it did an equally good job in both. The only thing I haven't tried it on yet is towels and sheets, but those are on the agenda for today. I really like the fragrance of my other laundry detergent and this has NO SMELL to it at all. I guess I'll have to just go back to using Downy to get my fragrance, but that's OK. I like my April Fresh Downy! The good thing though is that the clothes did smell CLEAN. It got out all the odors of the laundry....and believe me, clothes from a day's work at Chick-fil-A smell really funky :) Even clothes that were nasty sweaty were odorless when they came out. That's a good thing!


The detergent doesn't get sudsy in the wash, and when I opened the washer mid-load, the water had a gray appearance (but none of the ingredients are gray). I'm not sure if that was the dirt from our clothes or what, but it was a little disturbing :) Oh well, what goes on behind closed washing machine lids needs to stay behind closed washing machine lids :)


While I didn't go through measuring out exactly how many loads I can do with the supplies I bought, I will say that the ingredients cost $1.19 for the Fels-Naptha, $3.59 for the borax, and $2.69 for the washing soda, for a grand total of $7.47. The Fels-Naptha will make 3 of the recipes above, but the boxes of borax and washing soda will make MANY MANY more than 3. I'm guessing that I spent around $1.50 for the tripled recipe that I made and it will wash around 32 loads (if you use 3 tablespoons per load) which is about 4 and a half cents a load. My current laundry detergent is around $6 for 20 loads or 30 cents a load. Not that I was going to switch simply because it was cheaper, but that's one added benefit!


If anyone has tried any other laundry soap bars that are a little bit fragranced, please share what kind you used and where you got it. That is my next goal, since I like a little fragrance to my laundry, to find a fragranced laundry soap bar (as long as it cleans well).