Home-made laundry soap

Face it, our biggest grocery expenses are often NOT things we eat! Diapers, baby wipes, cleaning supplies, pet food, etc., all take big chunks out of our food budget (assuming, first of all that you have a food budget and second of all that you include non-food items as part of your monthly "grocery" expenses).

I've found a way to reduce my laundry costs to only a few cents per load...easily!!! In the States, I often made my own laundry soap using a recipe similar to this one from the Simple Dollar. As the writer of that recipe says, you'll reduce your laundry bill from $.30-$.40 per load to $.03-$.04 per load. Score!!!

I ran into a problem when we moved here. I couldn't find the necessary ingredients. Bar soap -- yes, no problem. Lots of that. Borax and washing soda??? No lo hay! (There ain't none!)

So I started experimenting and looking at what the nationals use. When we visit the States next time, I plan to check and see if this soap is available. I'll bet it is, if you know where to look!

Lirio.

At a cost of 8 pesos a bar (around 50 cents), you just can't beat this stuff. The ladies of the village here just use the bar as-is. Most of them don't have washing machines, so they just rub the soap on the clothes and scrub the clothes clean. I'm lazy. I have a washing machine. It usually works.

So, instead of rubbing the soap on the clothes, we experimented with some pre-made mixes.

Evie and a little friend, Ian, grated a bar of Lirio soap and I added some powdered oxygen boost stuff I found (NOTE: DON'T add water to Oxy-stuff. It foams uncontrolably!!!) and made a dry soap mix which could be easily added to the washer.

I had issues with the stuff not completely dissolving, though, so we continued to experiment.

Now, I think we have it perfected...

One bar of soap (grated)+ One gallon of water (mix well) = One bottle of laundry soap

I use about 1/2 cup of soap to a large load of laundry, so my cost is just under $.02 per load. Compare to a gallon of laundry detergent here (which I can't find for less than $10) and doing a load a day (which is low for our house!), I save $9 per month. I love saving money!!!

We find that we have to agitate the bottle a bit as it gets close to the bottom, because the soap wants to re-solidify. The washing soda and the borax in Simple Dollar's recipe will solve that problem.

Hey, if you find Lirio in the States, check the price and let me know! It will save me the search in August!