Homemade Laundry Detergent

Copied from Pinterest

Welcome Thrifty Folks,

If you have not seen this pin on Pinterest, these are the ingredients for homemade laundry detergent. Well, you might be saying:"I hardly have time to make supper, much less make my laundry detergent. Well, me either but I was really tired of paying anywhere from $9.00 to $11.00 for the store bought stuff. There were so many people, who said it worked as well as the regular detergent and you could even use it in a "he" front loader machine. I thought why not? I'll give it a whirl to see what all the buzz is about. After all I want to be thrifty and a good steward the money God has provided us.

So off to the store I went. The total cost was about $28.00. I was not expecting it to be that much. So it really left a hole in my grocery budget. When I got home I found a clean 5 gallon bucket in the garage and started dumping in all the ingredients. Using my kitchen grater on the bars of washing soap was the only thing that took a little time. But the whole process took less than 15 minutes. The ingredients filled the bucket to more than half. The directions on Pinterest recommended 1-2 tablespoons per wash load. That was so different from what I was used to using. But when I saw what 1-2 tablespoons looked like as I dipped into the bucket, it was clear. This really is a lot of detergent for the money. So now what about the results?

Much to my surprise the laundry was just as clean as when I used the store bought stuff. The real test came when I asked my husband if he noticed any difference in the clothes. He said: "No, what is different?" I simply said, "Honey it's all in the money!"

Just to say I am sold on this new detergent is to say the least. I am on my second batch, which I made in June. The first batch was made in March but it didn't last as long as I thought it would. I ended up giving lots of it away, so my friends could sample it for themselves. I believe I will be able to use one batch for close to 6 months. Now you do the math. $28.00 X 2 times a year equals $56.00, instead of $10.00 (Minimum cost of my favorite kind of detergent with a doubled coupon) X 15 times a year equals $150.00. A savings of $94.00 per year. That money looks real good in my pocket. You can visit www.budgetingjoy.wordpress.com for a complete list of ingredients and instructions. I have started buying the ingredients one at a time every few weeks and storing them for my next batch. By spreading them out over a 4-6 month period it saves the weekly grocery budget.    

I found a glass container with a lid at Goodwill for $1.99 to hold smaller amounts of the detergent. I punched a hole in a small measuring spoon and attached it with a ribbon to the top of the lid so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle. Since the detergent jar looked better than the store bought detergent containers, I decided to get a plastic drink dispenser from Goodwill ($1.99) for the fabric softener. It really kind of added a little pizazz to the laundry room.

 

I hope this inspires you to try your thrifty hand in the detergent department.

 

 

Happy Thriftying to All!