Sometime last year, I began to closely examine our grocery budget and narrow in one ways to trim it. With a large family, the "grocery" category in our finances is a handsome chunk.
I was ready to get creative and commit the time and sacrifices necessary to when I came across a newsletter I subscribe to that proposed....."MAKE YOUR OWN LAUNDRY SOAP".
What? Can a woman make her own laundry soap? Looking at my beloved Tide, it looked very complicated to me. I also imagined the women I saw on a missions trip to Guatemala. They scrubbed clothes with a bar of soap on a rock at the edge of a lake. I was a little (to say the least) intimidated. Leave it to the professionals at the Tide factory, and enjoy all my money.
Intrigued, however, I began researching recipes for laundry soap and discovered a wonderful recipe! This is the recipe that Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar with their family. We have used it for almost 9 months now and will never go back to my once-beloved Tide again. Our grocery budget has been trimmed (more blogs to follow on other ideas!)
Our cost for every 5-gallon bucket (which lasts for 5 months with a family of six) that we make is about $2. We have saved $144 a year! Here's what the ingredients you'll need:
4 cups of hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 cup Arm and Hammer WASHING SODA
1/2 cup Borax
essential oils (opptional for added fragrance)
1. Grate bar of Fels-Naptha soap with 4 cups of hot tap water.
Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is
melted.
2. Fill fill 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted
soap, 1 cup Washing Soda, 1/2 cup Borax. Stir well until all powder
is dissolved. Fill rest of bucket to top with more hot water. Stir,
cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
3. Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser (old, used Tide
container, etc.). Shake before each use. (It will gel.)
4. Optional: you can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per two gallons.
Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: Lavender, Geranium, Rosemary,
Tea Tree Oil.
Top-load machine: 5/8 cup per load
Front-load machines: 1/2 cup per load
(We have a Front Load "HE"-the soap works beautifully!)
God bless your homemaking efforts!!
Malinda
Yup. I do this, too. :)
ReplyDeleteOk I've seen many posts concerning this and have just passed it by. The more I read the more I realize that this is worth a try. I have a family of seven and feel the pain of buying laundry detergent for $10 bucks ev two weeks! Era brand.
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