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.

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.

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!

Gift To Grow Points

Rewards programs are so much fun. I love using my debit card because I know if I run it as credit, I earn points. I also like getting free things, so why not get rewards for doing things I was going to do anyway? I was thinking about this today as I was perusing Deal Seeking Mom today and came across a Pampers Gift to Grow points code. I usually take a moment when I find these and share them with the mothers I know who have a Gift to Grow account. This takes very little time, and so I wondered why I did not add all of these free codes to my own account. It's true that I do not have children yet therefore I'm not buying diapers, but if I keep up with the free codes then maybe I can get something free, even without purchasing anything.

Late Night Couponing Adventure

It was not my intention to go couponing tonight, but I found myself dreading going to bed alone and was missing my husband, so I thought it would be nice to have a little distraction. There is a Mega Sale this week at Kroger, so since I am less than 5 minutes away from a Kroger I thought tonight would be a perfect night to find some good deals.
My budget was $50, I hoped to find some low calorie snacks, yogurt, possibly some Mountain Dew for my husband when he gets home, and I wanted to check the prices on things I usually stock up on like hot sauce and maybe some hair products. I have been waiting for a long time to find cheap or free toothbrushes, so I hoped to find some of those too. Here is what I ended up taking home.

Great Deal on Chicken

My mother has a membership to a store called Restaurant Depot which is very similar to GFS but is for business owners. We were able to get a great price on chicken, $1.25 a pound, when we bought a whole case. So, I got forty pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast but realized when I got home that I had no plan for all of this chicken. So, here are the quick and easy marinades I made all from things I already had in my pantry. After all, I had already bought forty pounds of chicken, I really did not want to spend money on anything else extra.
Here are the ways I prepared my chicken. All of these recipes are for 2 chicken breasts. After combining all ingredients in a freezer bag I put them in the freezer. It's great to know that I have a lot of different meals in the freezer that were easy to make and will be easy to cook. Any of these recipes can be put in the crock pot for 4 hours on high, baked at 350 degrees for an hour, or grilled. I love cooking but I don't always have the time or energy to come up with something different.

Italian Chicken:

• McCormick Italian Seasonings
• Oil
• Salt & Pepper

Groupon Deal for a 5 Cheap Dates!

I told you a little while ago about Groupon.com and that I found one great deal, and I am very excited to say I found another one!
My husband still isn't home, we are still waiting on paperwork to process, but I still am looking for ways that we can have fun and go out once he gets home without spending over our budget. The Comedy Caravan is a local comedy club that my husband loves visiting. He loves comedy in general, so I am really excited because I got a great deal on the tickets. I paid $10 for a set of two tickets to see comedy shows. I could have paid $15 for a pair of tickets to a weekend show, but we don't mind going to a show on a week night, so I opted for the cheaper tickets.
I ended up spending $50 on five sets of tickets, which was a little painful, but I have to realize I'm saving a lot of money. We could have a nice dinner at home then go out and have a date night for only $10! I have already paid for them, so it won't use any money from our budget when he gets home.
I can't wait to find my next Groupon deal!