One of My Delights

One of my delights in life, which has only increased since we're married, is seeing how far I can stretch a dollar, while still maintaining a 'standard of living' that is acceptable by all.

For me, it is a step-by-step process. Something that is new, tends to absorb my attention and be 'time consuming'. But once I've gotten used to it, assimilating it into my routine, I hardly notice the time it takes, and even forget how much we're benefitting from these habits. Soon I'm looking for some other way to save money, and get absorbed in another new habit building session!

One thing that I started doing about a year ago, and have thoroughly enjoyed, is making my own Laundry Soap! (Did I just hear a gasp?) I had been hearing about it for quite awhile, but couldn't bring myself to even research it enough to know what all the chore entailed, it just sounded like too much work to be worth the savings. After all, we're not that hard up to save $$$!!!

Once I finally took the plunge and read about it, I was intrigued! It didn't sound so bad after all, and the savings really did sound nice. So I bought the ingredients and made a batch. What fun! Benji loved helping me stir the stuff, but I hardly wanted to let him, I was enjoying it too much myself! :) (Strange, I know!)

Then of course, the test . . . using the stuff. It worked great, and I've been hooked ever since!

Here's the recipe, just in case someone wants to know!

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Laundry Soap

2 bars Ivory soap, grated or slivered

1 C. borax

1 C. washing soda, or baking soda

4 1/2 gallons hot water

2-3 droppers Grapefruit Seed Extract (optional)

Place grated soap in small saucepan. Cover with water. Heat on very low heat, stirring occasionally. (I have found that it works best not to boil it, I let it get to a gentle simmer, then turn it off and cover it for a while, stir and heat some more if needed. If it gets too hot, the soap seems to 'curdle' a bit and then be impossible to dissolve.) Fill a bucket with hot water, add soap and stir. Add soda, borax & GSE and stir. Keep stirring occasionally till it's cooled. If you want to add some essential oil for fragrance, that's nice too!

In the evening, I dip it into several laundry soap containers that I've saved.

GSE is antibacterial, so it is definitely useful in cleaning and 'sterilizing' clothes. But it is totally optional. Actually, the borax and soda are optional too. All you really need are the soap and water!

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Does that sound complicated? Time consuming? Difficult?

I haven't actually timed myself, but I would guess that I don't spend more then 20-25 minutes actually working with it! And that's spread out through a whole day. You do want to pick a day when you're at home to make it though since it does take a while to get through the whole process. I usually start it sometime in the morning, and put it away after supper.

For me, the worst part is getting the bars of soap into little bits (I use three by the way, makes for more concentrated soap, which means a batch lasts longer!), my preference is to use a sharp knife and sliver it off. Kind of like slicing cheese, only easier!

Then melting it is a little bit challenging. I have learned tho that soap melts best at 'hot bath' temperatures, and doesn't like being boiled!

After that, it's easy and lots of fun! I keep telling David that it's just ridiculous the amount of pleasure I get out of doing something as simple as making laundry soap! Which brings me to the really fun part! A breakdown of the prices! Here are the actual prices that I've paid for this stuff.

12 bars Ivory soap - $4.64

76 oz Borax - $2.96

4 lb. Baking Soda - 2.18

1 oz GSE - $9.00

Which means that my total cost for one batch (5 gal.) (using three bars of soap) is . . . . . . . $2.36

My cost per load (using about 1 1/2 C.) is $0.039. That's almost 4 cents.

Just for comparison, here's the cost of a few common brands of laundry detergent.

NOTE; These prices are given with the assumption that 5 oz are used per load. That is what my dispenser holds, and my experience has been that no matter how concentrated a certain brand is supposed to be, I tend to put in about the same amount of liquid. (That's why I don't buy those Ultra Concentrated 'cheaper' kinds!)

Era - 150 oz - $14.95 -

$0.49 per load

Xtra 2x - 170 oz - $7.49

$0.23 per load

Tide - 100 oz - $14.99

$0.74 per load

Purex - 100 oz - $7.79

$0.39 per load

All - 50 oz - $5.95

$0.59 per load

Cheer - 100 oz - $13.35

$0.66 per load

I still can't get over the difference in their prices. Even at PriceCutter (where I got these prices from) you can still save 51 cents per load if you switched from Tide to Xtra 2x! (Nothing against PriceCutter, by the way, they just happened to be the ones with a convenient website for me to pull prices from!)

No wonder I'm having fun! Not only am I saving a nice chunk of $$ (Let's see, 5 loads a week at 4 cents each = .20 per week x 52 weeks in a year = $10.40. Xtra 2x would be $59.80. Tide would be $192.40!) BUT, this stuff I'm making is also free of all fillers and chemicals, it's just pure cleaning power . . . which means I'm comparing apples to oranges here. To compare apples to apples I would need to figure out how much I was paying for the 'natural' and expensive laundry soap I had been getting! Let me dig out my book . . . okay, I wasn't doing too bad even then. For Sun & Earth brand detergent, I was paying $0.38 per load, or $98.80 a year.

Wow! I'm glad I decided to post this! Now I can't wait till it's time to make another batch of soap! I'll have more fun with it than I ever have! :)

Would you like to read some more on this subject? Here is where I first read about it!