With my hours still cut back at work, I decided to be very frugal! I went surfing on the internet on how to make my own washing detergent. My sister made some and it was nice not having to buy store bought detergent for the past three months! I found a wonderful recipe at thesimpledollar.com
Please read below for the recipe!
1 bar of soap (whatever kind you like; I used dial, its what I had, remember I am being frugal!)
- 1 box of washing soda (look for it in the laundry detergent aisle at your local department store - it comes in an Arm & Hammer box and will contain enough for six batches of this stuff)
- 1 box of borax ( located in the laundry detergent aisle).
- A five gallon bucket with a lid (I had one in the garage, my hubby the landscaper, it was a clean empty one he was saving in case we needed one!)
- Three gallons of tap water
- A big spoon to stir the mixture with
- A measuring cup
- A knife or grate
Step One: Put about four cups of water into a pan on your stove and turn the heat up on high until it’s almost boiling. I grated my bar of soap and added it to the almost boiling water, continue to stir until its all mixed well.
Step Two: Put three gallons of hot water (11 liters or so) into the five gallon bucket - the easiest way is to fill up three gallon milk jugs worth of it. Then mix in the hot soapy water from step one, stir it for a while, then add a cup of the washing soda. Keep stirring it for another minute or two, then add a half cup of borax if you are using borax. Stir for another couple of minutes, then let the stuff sit overnight to cool.
And you’re done. When you wake up in the morning, you’ll have a bucket of gelatinous slime that’s a paler shade of the soap that you used (in our case, it’s a very pale greenish blue). One measuring cup full of this slime will be roughly what you need to do a load of laundry - and the ingredients are basically the same as laundry detergent. Thus, out of three gallons, you’ll get about 48 loads of laundry. If you do this six times, you’ll have used six bars of soap ($0.99 each), one box of washing soda ($2.12 at our store), and about half a box of borax ($2.49 at our store, so $1.25) and make 288 loads of laundry. I understand that its going to cost me about 3-4 cents for each load! Not bad! (Trent you were right it looks like goo!)
Thanks thesimpledollar.com for the recipe! He has a wonderful frugal site thesimpledollar.com you need to visit.
Please read below for the recipe!
1 bar of soap (whatever kind you like; I used dial, its what I had, remember I am being frugal!)
- 1 box of washing soda (look for it in the laundry detergent aisle at your local department store - it comes in an Arm & Hammer box and will contain enough for six batches of this stuff)
- 1 box of borax ( located in the laundry detergent aisle).
- A five gallon bucket with a lid (I had one in the garage, my hubby the landscaper, it was a clean empty one he was saving in case we needed one!)
- Three gallons of tap water
- A big spoon to stir the mixture with
- A measuring cup
- A knife or grate
Step One: Put about four cups of water into a pan on your stove and turn the heat up on high until it’s almost boiling. I grated my bar of soap and added it to the almost boiling water, continue to stir until its all mixed well.
Step Two: Put three gallons of hot water (11 liters or so) into the five gallon bucket - the easiest way is to fill up three gallon milk jugs worth of it. Then mix in the hot soapy water from step one, stir it for a while, then add a cup of the washing soda. Keep stirring it for another minute or two, then add a half cup of borax if you are using borax. Stir for another couple of minutes, then let the stuff sit overnight to cool.
And you’re done. When you wake up in the morning, you’ll have a bucket of gelatinous slime that’s a paler shade of the soap that you used (in our case, it’s a very pale greenish blue). One measuring cup full of this slime will be roughly what you need to do a load of laundry - and the ingredients are basically the same as laundry detergent. Thus, out of three gallons, you’ll get about 48 loads of laundry. If you do this six times, you’ll have used six bars of soap ($0.99 each), one box of washing soda ($2.12 at our store), and about half a box of borax ($2.49 at our store, so $1.25) and make 288 loads of laundry. I understand that its going to cost me about 3-4 cents for each load! Not bad! (Trent you were right it looks like goo!)
Thanks thesimpledollar.com for the recipe! He has a wonderful frugal site thesimpledollar.com you need to visit.
Comments
First time to your blog and I love it - will definitely be back to share ideas on Frugal living! Thanks for stoppin' by the ranch for a visit - door is always open and coffee's always hot!
How about homemade fabric softener too! I'll send you the recipe if you are interested. Candy