When we were going through the budget, I was running through my mind on just what we could cut from the weekly grocery bill. I couldn’t think of where to start, but then I looked at the giant pile of laundry waiting for me. It made me think that laundry detergent would be a start. I’ve seen lots of recipes to make it at home, so let’s give it a try.
I do a lot of laundry. Most days three loads at least. If I wait a day or two I have ten loads of laundry waiting for me. I seem to buy laundry detergent at least once or twice a month. If I can find the brand that I like, it is usually on sale for $5.00. So that is at least $10.00 a month that is just going to laundry.
I looked up a few different recipes for homemade laundry powder on Pinterest. I then headed to amazon to shop prices. They were a bit much, but then I read through all of the comments. They all seemed to say the same thing, check your local store first, you should be able to pick up everything for around $10.00. We were heading to the grocery store on Monday, so I added the supplies to my list, and scratched off the ready-made laundry detergent.
I found everything on my list to make the detergent, and I picked up a grater to be used for soap only, and a set of measuring spoons and cups to use for detergent only too. The grand total was just $12.68, just a few bucks more than I usually spend in a month for detergent.
I set up everything in the utility room, and I got to grating. I decided to make a batch using the Pink Zote soap first. It did take a while to grate the soap, and my flakes were not as teeny-tiny as I had seen in the pictures on Pinterest. A friend of mine suggested to microwave the soap for one to two minutes, let it rest, and then it should flake nicely. I’m going to try that on the next batch.
The recipe that I used called for one cup of Borax, one cup of Arm & Hammer washing powder, and one bar of laundry soap, grated. I combined all of the of the ingredients in an old plastic ice cream container, and gave it a good shake. You use one to two tablespoons of the laundry powder per load.
I washed three loads of laundry with the new laundry powder, and it worked very well. The scent was pleasant after going through the dryer, and the clothes were soft too. Here’s hoping that none of us are allergic to it… I missed one very ice cream stained shirt of Agnes’, so that one didn’t get cleaned too well, but a little pre-treater should do the trick.
The cost and the time spent were well worth it too. I’ll be making the detergent again, and enjoying a bit of grocery savings too. The only downside was when I grated my finger. I’m a bit accident prone when it comes to graters, and veggie peelers, but that won’t keep me from grating laundry soap.
I have no idea how long the first batch will last our family. If I keep up with making laundry detergent at home it should save us around $100 off of our yearly grocery budget. I think I’m off to a good start.
What about you? Do you make laundry detergent at home? How do you save when it comes to this daily chore?
Good luck, Nicole! I tried it for a while (you can’t buy the Napta soap here, I had to buy Sunlight bar laundry soap) but I found after a few months that the whites were really, really dingy and underwear (boys…you know what I mean?) wasn’t getting clean. I hope you have better luck than I did. Let me know how it works out for you.
Do you have a high-efficiency washing machine? We bought a new set when we moved into this house and I use 1 tbsp of regular powdered detergent every load, and one load is larger than what our machines at the apartment washed. I buy a small box of Sunlight detergent every 6 months. Everything gets washed in cold water. I use vinegar for fabric softener because Jake is allergic, the laundry doesn’t smell like vinegar…doesn’t smell like anything, actually. Anyway, my point is: you spend the money on new laundry appliances but you save it in water bills and detergent costs. I’m done yapping now…trying to comment more because I miss blogs. I read but rarely comment anymore.