Make Your Own Laundry Detergent and Save

I want this site to be as much about ways to save money as it is to earn money. This is the first guide in what will hopefully be many more to come. Me and Julie have been using our homemade laundry detergent for years now. It's extremely cheap and it works just as well as commercial detergents. To give you an idea of just how much cheaper, here is some math. I'll compare it to Tide.

• 5 gallon bucket with lid: $1.17
• Washing soda: $3.24
• Borax: $4.39
• Fels-Naptha bar: $0.97

Total cost: $9.77 + $0.73 tax = $10.50

We're already saving money compared to buying a single bottle of Tide, which is $12.87 after tax. The Tide is 64oz and says it lasts for 100 loads. One serving of our homemade detergent makes 10 gallons (1280oz) which is 20 times the amount of the tide, so it should last for 2,000 loads. Twenty bottles of Tide will cost you $257.40 after tax. After you use all 10 gallons up, to make more all you'll need to do is buy another 97 cent Fels-Naptha bar.

Here's how you can make some yourself. It only takes about 15 minutes to do,
Ingredients:

1. 4 Cups - hot tap water
2. 1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
3. 1 Cup - Washing Soda (must be sodium carbonate)
4. ½ Cup Borax

Directions:

1. Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
2. Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
3. Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with hot water and then fill rest of way with the soap. Shake before each use. (will gel)
4. Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

• Works well in traditional or HE machines.
• Low sudsing. It is the ingredients in the soap, not the suds, that does the cleaning.
• Clumping and geling of the detergent is normal. Stir before putting in dispenser, and shake before each use.
• Use 1 capful of detergent for a normal sized load.