Follow me Tuesday 3/29/11

This Follow me Tuesday I wanted to highlight how you can be frugal by making your own laundry soap. It really isn't hard at all and only takes a few minutes! I posted a few weeks ago that I wanted to do this, here. I got my recipe from here. A friend called me and thought I would want to know about his cousin that makes her own laundry soap, so I checked it out.
It only requires you to by 3 ingredients! Borax, Washing soda, and Naptha soap. This soap smells so clean and refreshing! These are all found in the same isle, laundry soap isle. I posted the prices I paid for them here. It only ends up being about $.35 for a 33 load container of laundry soap. And I didn't use a single coupon!! Check out the video.

Needed Ingredients
1/3 bar Fels Naptha
1/2 cup Arm & Hammer washing soda
1/2 cup 20 Mule Team borax
Water

Needed Utensils
You will also need a small cheese grater ,a 4 qt sauce pan, water, and a 3 gallon bucket for mixing (got mine at Wal-Mart for $1.98).

Grate the soap in the sauce pan with a grater.

Add six cups of water to the pan, heating until the grated soap melts. I had some pieces of soap I didn't grate to well and they floated to the top. I just picked those out.

Add the washing soda and borax, stirring until dissolved. Remove from heat.

Pour 4 cups of hot water into your empty bucket. Add soap mixture to the bucket. Stir. Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups (or 22 cups) of water; stir.

Pour into gallon containers. (Some people use empty water jugs; I use old laundry soap containers since they have the measuring cup built in the lid.) Recipe makes about 2 gallons, which is enough for 64 loads of laundry when you use 1/2 cup of detergent for each load. The pouring process is a little messy. I'm sure once you do it often it may get easier but I spilled about half of what I poured. Maybe get a funnel to make it easier!! Also the batch I made didn't fit into 2 33 load containers of laundry soap. If you are using these containers you may need 3. If thats the case the cost I figured out is less.