Penny Pinching...

So I got to thinking the other day...what the hell is with all these insane costs for everything? Seriously, we were paying $5.99 for 20 tablets of dishwasher detergent...that's like 26 cents a load! Holy cow that's a lot! Then there's the laundry detergent...another $14.95 or so for 50 loads! Not to mention the hand sanitizers that are chock full of alcohol and who knows what else!

I surfed the web for a day or two. No, not all at once, just a little here and there.  Until I found what I was looking for, and when I did it was like a light went on! I was like "Eureka! I could do this!"

And I did! I made enough laundry detergent to make 128 loads of laundry detergent for only $9, costing about 6 cents a load! Holy cow what a difference!  With the rest of the ingredients I had left over I made enough dishwasher detergent to make 192 loads of dishes for only $7.81, about 4 cents a load!  After that I made hand sanitizer, total cost was about $11, but I made about 60 ounces of alcohol free, all natural, hand sanitizer! In total I spent about $26 dollars and made enough stuff to last us a good long while! I love saving money!

Okay, okay! Sorry, I had to brag a little! Anyway, on to the recipes!

Laundry detergent 

4 cups Borax
4 cups baking soda or washing soda
4 bars of Fels Naphtha

Grate the fels naphtha as fine as you can get it, mix all the ingredients together.  To make this into a fine powder you can put it through the food processor.

Use 1 Tbsp per load of laundry.  This works for both HE and regular washers!


Dishwasher Detergent

4 cups Borax
4 cups baking soda or washing soda
2 cups citric acid
2 cups salt

Mix all the ingredients together and mix well. This ends up clumping a bit like any powder detergent. You can add rice to stop this.

Use 1Tbsp per load of dishes.


Are ants giving you trouble? Do they get in through your doors?  There's an easy way to fix that! Chalk! Yes, a simple line of marking chalk powder will keep them out!


And there you have it!


< /RANT >