Do your laundry for just 3¢ per load

Sometimes doing things yourself can save you a significant amount of money.

One expense you can save on is laundry detergent. Jackie Coker from Cave Creek emailed me suggesting I show my fellow Smart Shoppers how to make your own laundry detergent. I was thrilled when Jackie said she would share it with all of us.

The ingredients and items needed:

Large bowl to mix ingredients

Cheese grater and/or a coffee grinder (if you want Fels-Naptha soap finely grated)

1 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

1 cup Borax

1 whole bar of Fels-Naptha soap

A container to store the laundry detergent

In the large bowl add 1 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda and 1 cup Borax. Grate the Fels-Naptha soap with the food grater, and if you want the Fels Naptha finer, put it in a coffee grinder. Once you're done, pour the Fels-Naptha in the large bowl. Mix it all together and you're done. Pour it into a sealed container to store near your washing area.

Jackie said you only need to use 1 tablespoon per load. This recipe makes 3 1/2 cups and if you use just 1 tablespoon per load, you should get 50 washes out of that one batch. Jackie rounded things up and said it cost around $.06 per load. I took a step further and really broke down the cost per load just look below.

Jackie, thanks for this awesome Smart Shopper tip!

All of the ingredients I purchased at Walmart, but you should be able to find them at similar stores.

Here’s the break down of cost:

Arm & Hammer Super Wash            $3.24                 $.34 per cup

Borax                                               $3.38                 $.36 per cup

Fels-Naptha bar soap                        $.97                  $.97 per bar

Total                                                $7.59                                        

Total to make 3 ½ cups or 50 loads $1.67 = $.03 per load 

Update:

It has been a few months since Jackie showed me how to make this simple recipe on homemade laundry detergent. I have been using it ever since and I love this recipe and how well it cleans my clothes. It took my whole family 2 months to go through the first batch of homemade detergent. Not only is it ridiculously cheap but it cleans very well and works awesome in my HE washer. Give this simple recipe a try I think you will love it.