Homemade Laundry Detergent from Homemaking911

My mother started making my family's laundry soap back in 2008. We were not sure how it would turn out, but thought we would give it a try. I thought it was odd, but was willing to go along for the adventure and see how it worked. We found that it did not take much time to make, only about fifteen minutes per batch, it cleaned just as well as the name brand detergents, our clothes still smelled good, and it did not cause problems in the high efficiency washing machine.

So we tried it and took pictures of every step to show others how easy it is to do at home and to show you what the mixture looks like at every stage. We originally posted them on her website Homemaking911, you can find the original post here. 

We purchased three ingredients at a total cost of under $11.00. This will make 8 batches of liquid laundry soap.
Soap (You need one bar per batch). We chose Ivory. If you use Fels Naptha, you will use less, about 1/3 of a bar.
Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (Available in the laundry area)
20 Mule Team Borax (Available in the laundry area)

Step One: Shred, chop or shave your soap into small pieces.

Step Two: Measure and start heating water. You will need 6 cups of water heated to melt the soap in a sauce pan. Add the soap and water to the pan.

Step Three: Once the soap is all dissolved, you stir in half a cup of Borax and half a cup of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda. Stir over the heat until it is all dissolved.

Step Four: Remove from heat and pour into a large bucket. I used a five gallon bucket, but a smaller bucket would have been just fine.

Step Five: Add four cups more of hot water to the bucket and stir until well blended.

Step Six: Add one gallon plus six cups of cold water to the mixture. Mix well. Let sit for 24 hours.

Store it in your old laundry soap bottle or other plastic container for easy pouring.

Ready to use! I used 1/4 of a cup because I have a high efficiency machine. Most would probably use half a cup. It looks like a liquid gel. A few notes from Christina: I love using our homemade laundry soap. I can change the smell of the soap to any scent I like by changing the bar soap I use for a batch. Just a note: if you add powdered Tide to the mixture for the smell, I personally love the smell of Tide, it simply sinks down to the bottom of the mixture but never dissolves. This was a bit of a disappointment, but the laundry soap still turned out great and the last few loads did smell like Tide. Another nice thing to note is that if you want your laundry soap to gel, leave it in an unsealed container overnight. It works best if it is stored in a cool place, but anywhere room temperature works just fine. Sometimes the consistency varies somewhat, some batches are almost slimy, others are more of a gel, while some are more of a liquid. This does not affect the quality of the soap at all. I have had the strangest looking batches, one was bright pink from using a pink bar of soap, and I have never had an issue with the quality of the clothes. The whites washes in the pink batch of soap still turned out as white as ever, much to my relief! Enjoy your homemade laundry soap! If you try it let me know how it worked for you!

Couponing Step-By-Step

ADD PICS: cutting individual pages, inserts including P&G week, stack of newspapers, binder with pages showing, binder zipped up
ADD AFFILIATE LINK: Jim Bob Howard's Class
So many people ask me how to coupon, and I can think of no better way than to tell you what I do every week. It isn't hard and usually takes me an average of about 5 hours a week from start to finish. There are some rules to know which I will post later that you will need to know, but for now here are the steps I go through every week to save big on my grocery bill.

1. Buying Your Coupons

In Louisville our Sunday papers cost anywhere from $1.00-$1.75. I just discovered this week that you can purchase them for $1 at the Dollar General where everything is a dollar. Go figure. There are also plenty of ways to find coupons without buying the Sunday paper. There are dozens of websites where you can print out coupons, or you can load e-coupons to your store loyalty card for paper-free couponing. In my experience the Sunday paper offers the biggest, and most consistent savings.

Saving Money using Coupons with Minimal Effort

ADD CF AFFILIATE
I love the phrase work smart, not hard. So many people think couponing has to be hard, complicated, and that it takes a lot of time to save you  very little money. While there are certainly are shopping trips that are more involved and require more thought and knowledge of coupons, most are very simple. If you are looking to start saving with coupons but are not sure where to start, here are a few ways to make saving money really easy and take up very little of your precious time. These probably will not save you as much money as the hard core couponing veterans will save, but you will save some money. After all, don't we all want lower grocery bills?

Extreme Couponing: Insane Yet Motivating

I have heard mixed reviews of the new show on TLC called Extreme Couponing. My mother and I called our coupon adventures extreme couponing long before the show came out, but we are nowhere as insane as the ladies on this show. They devote entire rooms in their home to their stockpiles, including any other spare room anywhere else in their homes. They talk about spending sixty hours a week couponing and some even watch houses in their neighborhood to be foreclosed on so they can take their newspapers for their coupon inserts. One comment the latest show I watched said made me a little frustrated. The woman featured said that she spends over sixty hours a week doing this and that anyone who said they are spending less than ten hours a week is lying.

This is exactly the type of thing that scares away people who are nervous about trying couponing! I spend less than ten hours a week almost weeks on my couponing from start to finish. There are weeks that I spend more time on it because there are an unusually large quantity of deals, or if I feel like spending more time trolling the aisles for other deals such as clearance and closeout deals that aren't advertised.

So if you have watched Extreme Couponing and feel like using coupons will turn you into a fanatic, don't be afraid. Couponing can be simple and easy, and it often is. If you want to spend an few hours a week saving money, you can. You don't have to fill six grocery carts and house a stockpile big enough to feed the US Army in your garage to save money.

Stay tuned for my next post for the quickest way to implement coupon savings into your regular shopping trips.

Crochet Amigurumi Bunny

I am a big fan of crocheting, it's one of my favorite hobbies. It is something that can be very inexpensive, can be shared with my friends and family, and it saves me a lot of money around the holidays because my homemade crocheted gifts are much cheaper than anything I would buy for my family.
I made this bunny to put into my hope chest which used to hold things for when I moved out on my own but now keeps things for my future children. It did not make it to the hope chest though because my when I showed it to my mother she asked jokingly if I made it for my little brother, Daniel. I love making things for Daniel because he is just so cute. At first he was actually afraid of it, but after a few days he grew to love it and now plays with it daily.
I love this pattern because I don't have to worry about any limbs getting damaged. I made sure to secure the ears on extra well to make sure they would not come off during a rough play sessions. The pattern isn't mine, and unfortunately I can't find the original. I suppose I will just have to do the next one from memory. 

Pyrex Free Sample Comes in the mail! :)

One of my favorite part about getting free samples that by the time they have come in the mail I have completely forgotten that they were coming. Many times I will go on a sample spree and sign up for anywhere from five to fifteen samples, then I might not for a month or two. I suppose I did this a few weeks ago because I recently got the cutest hot pan holder in the mail from Pyrex. We always seem to be short on hot pan holders at our house, so I was actually pretty excited about it. This coming in the mail made me excited again about getting free samples so I went out to Deal Seeking Mom and found more freebies. It's a fun thing to do that does not cost me anything but a little time and in return I get surprises in the mail- it's the ideal hobby!

Anticrastination with Rita Emmett

I used to have a serious procrastination problem. I would put off not just little things, even the very important things. I cannot tell you how many times I missed out on opportunities to save time and money, make money, and save myself very much stress.

I found this website and signed up for a newsletter which has really helped me to putt off procrastinating. It isn't a miracle cure that magically made me stop procrastinating, but it is very motivating. I do not read it every month but when I am feeling particularly unproductive, I go into the last month's newsletter and read her Anticrastination Tip Sheet. It has really helped me learn not to put things off so much. 

Sign up to get Rita Emmet's Anticrastination Tip Sheet here.