Pay for College in a few easy steps.... aka ... Make your own laundry soap!

Okay people- this is a serious revelation here  in Mayberry! ... you know if I actually lived in Mayberry and all... ok on to the important stuff! Home made laundry soap. Yeah, I know, people have been making this since, well forever... but it's new to me and I am LOVIN' it!!!!

So, the nitty gritty- cost break down. One box Arm and Hammer Washing Soda, one box 20 Mule Team Borax, one bar Fels Naptha soap and one pretty blue 5 gallon bucket.

Washing soda- $3.49

Borax- $3.98

Fels Naptha- $1.33

Pretty blue bucket- $5.99

Total initial cost- $14.79

(yes, this is more than I pay for one regular jug of laundry soap that will do 64 loads- but the bucket is a one time investment)

So, now for the directions.

 Step 1-Grate (I would suggest using a food processor if you have one- mine was in the dishwasher from making cookies- so I had to use a little elbow grease!)- grate the entire bar of Fels Naptha soap.

(you can also use Ivory or Goats Milk soap as well)

Doesn't this totally look like cheddar cheese!

Step 2- bring six cups water to a boil and reduce heat to medium. Pour grated soap into the water and stir until completely dissolved. Once dissolved add 1/2 cup Borax and 1/2 cup washing soda to mixture- stir until dissolved.

Step 3- Pour 4 cups water into large bucket. Combine soap/water mixture in bucket with these four cups. Stir until mixed well. (this brings you to 10 cups so far)- once well combined mix an additional gallon plus 6 cups water to mixture. (this brings you to two gallons total water)- Stir until all combined.

 Step 4- wait! Mixture will gel and turn into the finished product. Some websites suggested waiting 24 hours for the mixture to gel. Mine was gelled and ready to go pretty quickly, and I was in a hurry to try it out, so I only waited about 7 hours.

This was the consistency of the mixture when I used it for my first load.

So.... it worked great! I do have laundry sheets that will change the smell of the clothes, but coming straight out of the washing machine everything smelled fresh without a huge "scent"... which I like. If you want to add a scent to your soap just buy some essential oils and add a drop or two- seriously a little bit goes a LONG way so don't over do it!- add oil in at Step 2.

(side note- this soap does NOT suds up and make lots of bubbles in the wash- it's okay- it's still working-so don't worry about that)

So cost break down- Borax/Washing soda will make sooooo many loads that I would say to divide the cost of the box by 40 and that's being conservative. So-that's about 18cents a batch.

Fels Naptha Soap- $1.33

For a combined cost of  $1.51  for 2 gallons which will make about 64 loads!!!!

So that's 2 CENTS a load!!!!

Okay so let me break down the store cost just to give you an idea of the savings here..

Gain- 64 loads $11.99= 18 cents a load

Savings of 16 cents a load times  one million gazillion loads of laundry done in your child's life= college paid for!!!

Okay.... so maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration- but there are some real savings here people!