 |
A sparkling jar of laundry soap,
surrounded by the garbage it created. |
As many of you know I am an
avid couponer, and take care of my family on an
extremely tight budget. Thanks to shows like
TLC's Extreme Couponing, couponing has become
much harder than before. There are
far fewer free and ridiculously cheap items. That being the case, I challenged myself
back in January to learn how to make 1 consumable item a month. I could
give you
excuses as to why I haven't kept up, but they would
still just be excuses. I am now going to attempt to
catch up, and still post 12 by the end of the year. Please accept my
apologies for falling
back into my old habits.
Today's
attempt at DIY is laundry soap. Thanks to
Pinterest I found an
awesome recipe. It is a recipe for
powdered laundry soap. I have to admit I was skeptical. I haven't used powder in over a decade. I bought it
once in an attempt to be more frugal, and
My Vet let me know, that was one item, I
didn't have to be frugal on. So
why am I risking it now? One word, Pinterest. (If you've ever been there, you
get it. If you haven't, go there and you will.)
 |
Stepped outside and then came back in
the house, and really noticed how
awesome it smells. |
I went to the store and
picked up my items. Everything was all together in the
same section just like the recipe said. (I spent a
grand total of $17 for 2 gallons of laundry soap. Since I only need 1 Tbsp
per load that works out to be 512 loads or $.0332 per load. About the same price per load I've been able to score on
cheapo laundry detergent with coupons/sales) I set everything out on the counter and got so excited, I quickly
dumped it all into a bucket to mix. I
then remembered the reason I was doing this, was for my 12 part blog series, and
quickly snapped a picture of the
tattered remains of my ingredients. The
cool jar was a garage sale find from a
few years ago, but I have seen them at Walmart, Target, and
even our own little Shopko. And I just grabbed an
extra Tbsp measuring spoon from
my kitchen.
As you know,
my house keeping
skills are
sorely lacking. Consequently, My Vet is constantly complaining about
musty odors in the
towels. After mixing, I immediately washed a load of towels with my
new soap. When I removed them from the dryer, My Vet
sniffed them and gave it the
MN Head nod of Approval. Comments on the original recipe, mentioned how much they
liked the smell, but I found my items to be
odorless. It could be that I only used 2 bars of the soap
instead of 3. In
typical fashion, I glanced at the picture and
not at the actual recipe
before shopping,
Of course couldn't find it at any store in town. I will add one as
soon as I can, and let you know
if it changes anything.
**update**
I have now washed
smelly sheets from the
kids bed (still night-time potty training) using just the
1 Tbsp of soap. The are
clean smelling and even passed a blacklight test!
Here is what you will need:
1 4 lb 12 oz box Borax (2.15 kg or 76 oz) found in the detergent isle
1 4 lb box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (1.81 kg) found in the cooking isle
1 box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda 55 oz (3 lb 7 oz) found in the detergent isle
3 bars of Fels-Naptha soap, found in the detergent isle (if you use Zote bars use 2 bars instead, Zote can be found at Home Depot)
2 small containers of Oxy Clean or store brand Oxy Clean (try to get about 3.5 lbs total (1.58 kg)) found in the detergent isle.
**I found all my ingredients in the same section of my big box super store**
Update** It has been 6 months and I have only used a little over half of my mix!**
