Money saving Monday: Homemade Powder Laundry Soap-5 X's cheaper than store bought!

 

I remember the days I despised buying laundry detergent at the store. Literally, I dreaded the day we ran out and I would inevitably go over our budget by at least $20 buying detergent that would maybe last me a couple months. Store bought laundry detergent seemed like the only option: it was convenient and it cleaned my clothes. Honestly, I never knew that people still actually made their own soap. At the time, that sounded like something people did during the Great Depression because there was no other options. And besides that, I was working full time, Christopher was in medical school, we had 2 little ones and there was no way I had time for slaving away making laundry detergent in my spare time. So for the first 4 years of our marriage, I bought Tide Free from Babies R Us, or something similar, with some store ad to save any money I could. I used these all the time.

During my first year as a stay at home mom in Spokane, something magical happened that opened my eyes to a whole world of money-saving, Do-It-Yourself, crafty goodness: Pinterest. After I saw some of my friends pinning "Do-It-Yourself (DIY) homemade laundry detergent", the task didn't seem quite as daunting and I started reading blog after blog of homemade laundry detergent recipes. I finally came across this one and I decided it looked easy enough. 3 incredients. I could handle this. I gave it a try and have never looked back.

I've shared this recipe with anyone who wants it. After my in-laws stayed for a couple weeks, my mother-in-law was asking for the recipe and now she uses it and loves it! That says something because she is a retired pediatrician and her husband is a farmer (she is very educated, as is her husband, but his work clothes are usually very dirty). And I can speak for myself that having 3 little ones, 5 and under including 2 rambunctious boys, we have lots of dirty laundry that stands as proof that this works.

5 Common questions:

1. Does it really work, even on really soiled laundry?  Yes. Yes. . . And, Yes. I've been using this recipe for going on 3 years and it works great. I do pre-treat my really dirty stuff by scrubbing the spot immediately. For example, if the kids get ketchup or something on their shirt, I IMMEDIATELY soak it, scrub it with stain remover, etc by hand and then toss it in the hamper to wash later with the rest of the clothes. My clothes come out smelling great and clean every time.
2. Does it smell bad? No, actually, I prefer the smell of the homemade detergent over store bought. It is more airy and lighter than the majority of soaps I've used. Plus, you can apparently add essential oils to get any desired smell like lavender, though I've never done this.
3. Can you use it on an HE front loading washing machine? Sure. This is taken from This Frugal Life Blog which I sited earlier, "Homemade laundry detergent does not contain sulfates so it will not suds up like ordinary detergent but don’t worry, your clothes are getting clean. Plus, because this formula is low-sudsing, this is safe for you folks with front loading HE washers."
4. Does it take a long time to make? Do I really have time for this? Recipe only takes about 15 or 20 minutes to make and lasts much longer than a store bought box. The only real time consuming task is using a cheese grater to grate the bars of soap.
5. Is it safe for children and babies? What about sensitive skin? Though the Fels-Naptha bar of soap does warn that it is a skin and/or eye irritant if directly touching skin or gets in eyes for a long period of time, I have found the soap is kid-friendly. Gabriel has occasional eczema and this soap does not irritate or cause any flare ups. In fact, I haven't noticed any flare ups while using this soap. I also have sensitive skin and rashes are common and most times come with unknown etiologies. This detergent has not caused me any trouble either. As for newborns and babies, I decided to use store bought (think Dreft or Tide Free) for when my little ones are newborns and switch to the homemade once they hit the 1 year mark. I haven't done enough research to see if is gentle enough for them. But I have no problems with them after the year mark.
6. Will it gunk up my washer? Does the soap really dissolve? Like it says above, it does not suds up like normal store bought soap, but it really does clean your clothes. I have NEVER noticed any undissolved soap in my washer or anything like that.
7. How much do I use per load? 1 Tablespoon for a small load, 2 Tablespoons for a normal - large load, and 3 Tablespoons for a heavy or extra large load.
8. Can you use extra stain remover with your homemade detergent, like bleach, etc? Yes. I add bleach for my towels and whites (I always have) and it's fine. I also sometimes add some Era detergent to especially stinky laundry (like if my kids wet the bed or something), though it isn't necessary. (It's just what my mom always used so it's habit.) 
9. Where can I find Fels-Naptha soap? I've always found it at Wal-Mart, in the laundry detergent aisle. Birmingham people, I've found it off Lakeshore, off Lorna road, and I believe off Highway 150 Walmarts.
10. What's the difference between using Fels-Naptha soap and Zote soap? I honestly can't tell a difference and the last batch I made I mixed both a batch of Fels-Naptha and Zote and used a combination of the two. This blog did a comparasion on the two soaps and she had some helpful insight and noticed a big difference between the two. She recommended Fels-Naptha for heavier, greasier stains and zotes for more sensitive skin, and more everyday laundry. The price is a difference, however. Zote is $0.97 at walmart for more than twice as much (14 oz) soap as Fels-Naptha (5.05) for the same $0.97. It's still super cheap, but you get more than twice as much soap with Zote than with Fels-Naptha. Check out her blog for more details on the differences between these two soaps.

DIY Laundry Detergent-the Tutorial

You will need:

1. 1 cup of Borax (Found in the laundry detergent aisle)
2. 1 cup of Washing Soda (not to be confused with Baking soda-they are NOT the same thing. This is also found in the laundry detergent aisle)
3. 1 bar of Fels-Naptha stain remover soap (the blog above says you can use Ivory bar soap but I've only ever tried Fels-Naptha and Zotes soap). For this particular tutorial, I tried something new by combining 1 bar of zotes soap (also found at Walmart in the laundry section) because it's twice the size of Fels-Naptha and is the same cost. Zote is pink and Fels-Naptha is yellow. You'll notice the pink and yellow in the picture below. If you do the recipe with just Zote soap, it will be pink only. If you do the recipe with Fels-Naptha only, it will be yellow only.
4. Cheese grater and food processor (optional food processor just to mix the powder and the grated soaps to a very fine texture)

This is what the Fels-Naptha looks like. (wrapper on bottom and soap is gold colored)

Step 1:

Grate the Fels-Naptha soap. It doesn't matter large or small chunks, but this is the part that takes awhile. Maybe 15 minutes.

Step 2:

Mix the Borax and the Washing Soda with the grated bar soap.

Step 3: (Completely optional)

Add the grated soap/powder mixture to your food processor until it's all combined and is a fine consistency, sort of like the powder detergent you'd buy at the store. In the picture below, the bowl on the right has the powder and grated soap and the bucket on the left has the finished product. FYI, the first two years or so I made this soap, I always just stopped after mixing the grated bar with the powder. So my detergent looked like the bowl on the right and it worked just fine. I just prefer to use the food processor because I like the consistency better. It's a little easier to scoop up a Tablespoon of the detergent that is more unified rather than trying to make sure you get enough pieces of grated soap and powder.

 

Step 4:

Put your finished product in a handy little container with a measure spoon (1 Tablespoon) and that's it! 1 Tablespoon for a small load, 2 Tablespoons for a normal - large load, and 3 Tablespoons for a heavy or extra large load. Easy, right?

Price Breakdown and Comparison: Homemade Powder Detergent VS. Ultra Tide Original Powder Laundry Detergent

Ultra Tide Original Powder Laundry Detergent:

At Wal-Mart, Ultra Tide Original Powder Laundry Detergent costs $17.97 for 102 loads. See for yourself. That comes out to roughly $0.18/load.

Homemade Powder Detergent, a quadruple batch:

4 bars Fels-Naptha soap-$0.97 a bar, or  $3.88 for 4 bars.
Borax- $3.38 for the entire box, the quadruple batch used about 1/2 the box or $1.69.
Washing Soda-$3.24 for the entire box, the quadruple batch used about 2/3 of the box, or $2.16.

Fels-Naptha      $3.88
Borax               +$1.69
Washing Soda    $2.16

Grand Total:      $7.73 for 220 loads. That comes to roughly $0.04/load.

This means it is 4.5 times cheaper to use homemade laundry detergent than it is to use store bought! It's even more savings if you use Zote soap because you get more than twice as much soap as Fels-Naptha for the same price. That's why I did a combination batch last time I made it with both Fels-Naptha and Zote. Using the combination of 1 Zote bar (I basically substituted 1 zote=2 Fels Naptha)  and 2 Fels Naptha for a quadruple batch, it comes out to $.03/load.

What are you waiting for???

Almost 3 years ago, when I first made this soap, I was really excited and telling my mom how I made my detergent and how much money is has saved us. After telling her the 3 simple ingredients, she said, "So, you're making soap from soap...?" And I guess, in a way she's right. But hey, it works, it's easy, it's safe, and it's CHEAP! So I ask you, "What are you waiting for?"

Happy money-saving Monday!