The Cheapskates Guide to Penny-Pinching 101
How was copper wire invented? A Mennonite and a Scotsman were fighting over a penny.
Les, the Scottish "water doctor" is installing a new water purification system in our home. He's full of one-liners and ethnic anecdotes. This one was new to me, and I chuckled in spite of my Mennonite self. It's easy to laugh when you realize the incriminating truth behind it. Were there a study of my family gene pool, I have a feeling they would find a frugal gene. And that is where a simple idea got started.
Actually, it got its start on Pinterest one day - an on-going search for rad recipes and funky fashions. The recipe jumped out at me, the right time, the right place and I was in the right mood. How to make your own laundry detergent for just pennies a load. Hmm, it was worth a try. I'd heard rumors about the fillers in store bought detergents - water (in the liquid ones), drywall dust (whoever told me this was serious) and ground wombat tooth (that one I made up, but it sounds plausible doesn't it?) in the powder stuff. The point is, the majority of your laundry detergent is stuff that's pointless, made to fill up the box (bottle) with extra junk that you're paying for. And it's stuff like that that winds this tightwad into a tighter ball.
So, one day, green boxes and fabric grocery bags in tow, I went on a hunt for the 3 simple ingredients to make my own liquid laundry detergent: Borax, Washing Soda and soap; the kind of stuff I might have found next to my grandmother's old Wringer. The first 2 weren't as easy to find as one might think, having virtually gone the way of the horse and buggy; but I finally located them between the Super Duper Extra Cleany Fresh Sunlight and the Synthetically Formulated Outdoor Fresh Scent Tide. Superstore rarely lets you down when you're on a mission to find the out-of-the-ordinary.
A trip to my local Thrift Store produced just the soap I wanted; hand-made Homesteaders soap, produced by local women in a local sweat shop (sweat merely implying what happens when you hang over a large vat of hot lye all day). The Thrift Store was also the perfect spot to find the "making" components of my project: large pot and wooden spoon.
Within about an hour I had the finished product cooled and ready for bottling into empty milk and apple juice jugs, emancipated from the recycle box for now. It was kind of fun, actually, drawing my husband into the kitchen to hold the funnel as I slopped it in. Well into my second batch, I must say I am duly impressed. Each batch lasts about 4 - 6 months, requiring only about 2-3 tbsp per load. The cost, according to my best calculations, is about $3 - $4/batch.
Of course another boon, in these times of environmental conscientiousness, is the fact that it's phosphate, chemical and perfume free. Guiltless, easy and cheap! Three of my favorite things in life.
Recipe
1 bar of soap
(any kind you want - with the pre-shredded Homesteaders soap I used 3/4 cup)
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda
a big pot (that holds more than 2 gallons)
a grater
a funnel
a long spoon
2 empty gallon jugs
Grate the bar of soap into your pot. Fill one gallon jug with cold water and pour over soap. Cook until soap dissolves. Add the Borax and Washing Soda. Bring to a boil (it will coagulate). Turn off the heat. Add another gallon of cold water. Stir well. Allow to cool slightly (the mixture gets quite thick. You want to pour before its too thick for a funnel).
Side note: I used 2 large Dutch Oven type pots, making the stove top batch in one, transferring 1/2 of it to another and then adding the second batch of water to both. If you find that it's too thick to pour, add more hot water and stir it in. If, once bottled and cooled, it's gets too thick, add water and shake bottle.
Don't expect suds when doing your laundry, but suds don't equal clean. It does as good a job as any regular detergent on the shelf today.
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