Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I've been using my homemade laundry detergent for a week now. It's been working really well. I've pretreated stains, as I always have, and so far it has taken out chocolate, spaghetti sauce, and even blood.

If you like numbers...

The total cost for 3 cups is 1.03 (for Borax and Washing Soda--sorry I don't have the break down of them individually, as I bought them quite awhile ago, but I had a record of the combined cost from my dishwasher detergent attempt) plus 1.20 (for laundry soap--probably less, but I'm figuring as a bar only making 2 cups) is $2.23. Using 2 Tablespoons per load is a cost of 3 cents per load. The current Amazon price for my typical detergent is 15 cents a load--which is a steal. I usually pay more for it retail. I do 8 or more loads a week, so that's an annual savings of about $50 (with the already reduced price of the commercial detergent and likely inflated price of the laundry soap). My previous cost being $62.40 is now down to $12.48 per year (an 80% savings).

And it actually works...now what to do with my $50?

1 comment:

A Servant of Christ (who tries to be humble) said...

We've been using a liquid version of your laundry detergent for over a month now, and LOVE IT!

Why were we spending so much on commercial detergent before?

I found the recipe on the Duggars website and figured with as much laundry as they do it must be good stuff, and it is! I do have the 5 gallon bucket in the laundry room, but that's fine!