Homemade Laundry Detergent Recipes
9 August 2006For the frugal among us, I thought I’d pass on these recipes for you to make your own laundry detergent.
Via the Frugal Shopper, there are several ways to do it. The easiest recipe for powdered detergent is probably this:
1 Cup Grated Fels Naptha Soap
1/2 Cup Washing Soda
1/2 Cup Borax
For light load, use 1 tablespoon.
For heavy or heavily soiled load, use 2 tablespoons.
Does it actually save you money? That’s the big question, and several frugal websites have run the numbers to find out. Wholesomebabyfood.com claims that the average load costs about 9 cents in detergent with stuff bought from the store, vs. 3 cents with homemade detergant. At an average of 6 loads a week for a family, that’s .18 cents a week saved, or $10 a year. Other sites put the savings at much more. KN Laundry products says it costs something closer to 20 cents a load for normal detergents. And Crystal Miller at the Family Homestead offers her own recipes and says she’s gotten the cost down to a penny a load. Use those numbers, and the savings are closer to $60 a year for an average family. And, of course, you might not have an average family - a larger family would benefit a lot more from homemade detergent than a smaller one. On balance, I’d say this one isn’t going to be a huge savings - but a lot of little changes in the way you do things can add up to thousands per year.
Have your own thoughts or savings ideas? Let us know about them in the Free the Drones Money Saving Forums.
One Response to “Homemade Laundry Detergent Recipes”
August 15th, 2006 at 7:23 am
[...] Chuck Norris: When I’m not out crushing bad guys’ skulls with my index finger, I’m usually at home doing the laundry. And with as much blood that gets spilled on my clothes, I use a lot of laundry detergent. That’s why this recipe for homemade laundry detergent sent in by Free the Drones will save me tons of money. Not that I need the money; after all, the only currency I use is the fear of my enemies. [...]