How I Spend Less than $10 a Year on Laundry Soap

Coupon Challenged sent us a DIY on how to make your own laundry soap:

One of my kids has very sensitive skin so I had to start buying the more expensive fragrance free
detergents for our laundry. And why if they are leaving something out do you have to pay more for it? Anyway. I decided to try and make my own detergent to save money over the expensive store bought bottles. We have now been using my home-made recipe for two years and my daughter has had no problems with it and it is so inexpensive and does a great job. I figure I have spent less than $10 a year to make our detergent. I have had the box of Borax for the entire time and I believe it was only about $5-$6 dollars to buy it. Below is the recipe.
Hot Water

felszote
1/2 grated bar of Fels Naptha or Zote laundry bar soap (Zote is only .59 at the 99cents store)
1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing soda (I just use a couple of heaping scoops of Oxy Clean cause I couldn’t find the washing soda)

borax
1/2 cup of Borax
Take a very large cooking pot and fill about a third full with water and put on the stove to heat. Grate the bar soap and dissolve in water. You don’t have to boil it just get it hot enough to dissolve the soap. After that is done turn off the flame and pour in the other ingredients and stir to dissolve. Then add enough hot water to again double the amount. Let sit a few hours or over night. It will thicken a great deal. If it is too thick to pour just keep dilluting and you can even just heat it up a little. That is what I do. Then I take my funnel and pour into some empty laundry containers I saved and fill about half way and fill the rest with hot water and shake. I keep a really big container to just pour in the concentrate and refill my bottle as needed dilluting with half water and shaking well. Use a full cap or around a 3/4 cup amount per load. Some people like to add essential oils for fragrance but that is what I am trying to avoid.  The detergent does not suds up but that is not what cleans your clothes. Our clothes are as clean as before, my daughter is better off and I save a lot of money making my own. Less plastic bottles used too. I have to make it about every 6 weeks or so but it takes only a few minutes.

Comments are closed.