Tuesday, December 11, 2012

How to Save At Least $10 Every Month

Would you like to know a sure-fire way to save at least $10 a month?

By using some effort and an initial outlay of approximately $15, you can make about 5 gallons of your own liquid laundry detergent.  You'll still have some ingredients left and can make more batches - at least five, maybe more.  You won't have to lug home bottles of detergent from the grocery store anymore!

Here's how:

First, you need to grate a bar of soap.  Many people use Fels Naptha.  I like Castile soap.  Whichever you use, you need to grate it on the fine side of your grater.  (I just use a cheese grater.)  Remember I said you would have to have make some effort.  This is the effort part.  :)

Once your soap is grated, add it slowly to 4 cups of boiling water, stirring to dissolve it completely.  Once dissolved, turn off the heat and then stir in 1 C of Borax and 1 C of Washing Soda (not baking soda). Stir quickly so it all dissolves. Have a 5 gallon bucket ready, half way full with hot tap water.  Stir in soap mixture and mix well. Add 1 small bottle of Dawn dish detergent for added cleaning power.  Fill the bucket the rest of the way with hot tap water .  Stir again and then put the lid on and let sit 24 hours.  Stir again and it is ready to use.

Use 1/2 C for regular washing machine, and 1/4 C for a high-efficiency front loader. (I saved some of my old detergent bottles and filled them up with my homemade laundry detergent to make it easier to pour.)

This is very cheap:  Your 5 gallon bucket with lid can be purchased at Wal-Mart or Lowes for about $4.50.  This is a one time expense.  The 20 Mule Team Borax can be purchased at Wal-Mart in the laundry section for approximately $4 and the washing soda (Arm and Hammer) can also be purchased there for about the same price. Both the borax and washing soda will have enough left over to do at least 4 more batches, maybe more.  The Fels Naptha soap is 97¢.  The small bottle of Dawn is about $2, less if you have a coupon or find it on sale.  For the next few batches, you will just have to buy the Dawn and the Fels Naptha. 

We made our fist batch in April, the second batch in August.  We are still on the second batch, and it is the middle of December. Normally, I bought a small bottle of liquid detergent every two weeks.  Depending on the brand you buy, this is normally about $10 a month.

I do continue to buy a good fabric softener because clean-smelling laundry is important to me, but I'm loving spending my $10 detergent money on other things.

You're welcome.






I'm sharing this over at Darlene's blog, The Time-Warp Wife for Titus 2SDay ... because everybody needs to know how to save money on laundry.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for leaving a comment over at The Lost Apron. I was able to find you and subscribe. I love your blog and find it very encouraging.

    http://www.thelostapron.com/2012/12/giving-and-making-ends-meet.html

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  2. I've seen recipes for laundry detergent before and I REALLY need to give this a try. Thanks for listing where the ingredients can be found. I think that's where I lost interest, when I didn't know where to begin!

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