soap making

In an effort to save money, we have started making our own laundry soap. I bought the kit form http://www.soapsgonebuy.com/Laundry_Detergent_Kit_with_PRE_GRATED_Fels_Naptha_p/pkg1001.htm.

It comes with borax, washing soda, and grated fels naptha soap. This is enough to make 10 batches (2 gallon). If I did my math correctly, I figure that it costs about $.04 per load making it this way. The first time I made it my family complained that it didn't smell good. They were used to TIDE or GAIN which both smell great. So for this batch, I bought an off brand detergent for $2.99 and we added it to our recipe. I figured that added about $.06 to each load for a grand total of $.10 per load.

Here are some recipes from the Soaps Gone Buy website: http://www.soapsgonebuy.com/category_s/24.htm

We used the second one. When we added the detergent we had bought, it did seem to improve the smell although the original smell wasn't bad. It smelled clean. It just didn't have that great scent of the commercial detergents.

My oldest dd really enjoyed making the mixture. She said she really needed to know this for when she grows up even though she plans to use TIDE. :)

Please don't pay attention to all the folded laundry on my counter. It is clean and folded....just not put away....yet.