Yeah, we went there.

Homemade laundry soap?  Sure!  Why not!

Eli and I are always looking for ways to be frugal and save a penny here or there as we are paying off our student loans (thanks again Mr. Ramsey!).  Our first attempt at homemade soap went pretty well!  Here is what we did:

1.  Supplies.  One bar of Fels-Naptha laundry bar soap, borax and Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

 
2.  Grate one bar of soap and then put it in the food processor to chop it as tiny as possible!  I don't have a picture of the food processing because we had to take a late night trip to my moms to use her 1977 processor and I didn't have my camera with me!!

 
It looks like cheese, but it doesn't smell like it!  It's really a super "clean" scent.  Again, don't forget to chop it smaller.

3.  Mix the super finely grated Fels-Naptha with one cup of borax and one cup of super washing soda.  Stir/shake well.  Use about 2 tablespoons for each load.

We use a round plastic container to hold the mixture.  The soap doesn't completely mix with the borax and washing soda, but we try to use equal parts when we put it in the washer.  When doing research to make this, we found SO MANY recipes of this, but they use pretty much the same ingredients.  So we just took a chance on this mixture and found it's been doing great!  

I had a couple of items go into the washer that I watched for stain removal.  It did just as good, if not better, as regular store detergent.  I have also found that washing on "hot" has been helpful.  We use high efficiency washers and don't have any problems.  The bar soap, borax and super washing soda are all "low sudding", "low suds", "get the point?"  

Oh and I bet you want to know the cost???  Sorry!  I don't remember the exact cost and I can't find the receipt but the breakdown below is pretty close.

Borax:  $3
Fels-Naptha - $2
Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda - $3

We found all of the ingredients at Walmart (right Eli???).

We have already done about 15 loads with the mix and have TONS left in the first batch.  That doesn't even touch the rest of the materials ready when this first mix runs out!

So, who else is going to try this??  Look up other versions of the homemade soap online!  You can make a liquid mix too!  Anyone else know of a homemade item that we could make and save some cheddar??

Next blog....  
Follow up on our homemade body wash, trip to Shorter U, and/or Dad's birthday camping trip!!

xoxo, 

pt byrd