laundry detergent

I told my husband this morning as he was leaving for work that I was going to make laundry detergent today. He said, "like you don't have enough to do already"

In a way, he's right, but at the same time, detergent is expensive and I am tired of buying it. It's something I always try to use a coupon with, but I still don't like spending the money on it.

Then I saw this and decided to go for it.

I couldn't find the Fels-Naptha soap, but after looking online at other recipes, I decided to use the bar of Zote soap I got last winter when my grocery store was doing a remodel and getting rid of a lot of stuff for cheap. I had read on this site that Zote was good for stain removal. So I picked up 2 bars. I've used one a little on some stains and it has worked. It has far less "stuff" in it than like Shout and I liked that. I honestly have no idea how much I paid for it, but I can't imagine that it was more than $1.99. I think it was probably 99¢, but I'll use the higher price to figure my price per batch below.

Yesterday I got the Borax and Washing Soda.

Price breakdown so far? I calculated the price of the ingredients that I have used so far. (I measured out the amount of Borax and Soda and weighed and then found how much of the total box I used to get the price per batch.)

Zote soap $1.00
Borax 23¢ (entire box was $4.59, I will get 20 batches of soap from the box)
Washing Soda 36¢ (entire box was $3.99 and I can get 11 batches from the box)

total:
$1.59

Not sure how many loads I'll get. I'll keep track of that and let you all know. But I think it's a great price so far. And I'm sure it works since I've found so many folks online making their own too. From what I've read, it's good for front loaders since it has minimal suds. And it's good for sensitive skin, too.