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Monday, June 8, 2009

Money Saving Monday - DIY Laundry Soap

Today is the first "Money Saving Monday" and I would like to share a DIY Laundry Soap recipe. My wife and I started making this after I learned of my pending job loss and when the price of laundry soap not to mention everything else went sky high.

I found the recipe below on a google search here. There are lots of recipes out there this just happens to be the one that we use. We were both a little bit skeptical but, thought why not just give it a try? After all it does not cost that much to pick up everything that you need and the price per load is much less than what you pick up at the store. We made our first batch and were surised that the clothes were clean, smelled clean and there was half the amount of lint in the dryer trap!

3 C. Water (boiling)
1 Bar soap (grated or chopped) we use Ivory and chop it very fine
1/2 C. Borax
1 C. Washing Soda (we were unable to find Washing Soda anywhere, you can substitute it with "pH increaser" you can find it where your store keeps their pool and spa supplies)
5 Gallon bucket with lid
  • Grate or chop the soap and add it to a large sauce pan (we use an old camping pan that we never use for anything else) with the boiling water. Stir over medium to medium-low heat until the soap disolves and is melted.
  • Fill the 5 gallon bucket half full of hot water. Add the melted soap, Borax and Washing Soda/pH increaser. Stir until everthing is completely mixed.
  • Fill the rest of the bucket up to about 2 inches from the top and stire some more.
  • Put the lid on the bucket and use about 1/4 of a cup for every load, we use a little more for towels or really dirty clothes. You need to stir before each use.
Each bucket costs less than $2.00 to make. In the past six months we have made to 5 gallon containers with a family of four. In our laundry room we do not have room for the bucket to be so, we transfer some of the laundry soap into an old liquid laundry soap bottle.

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