Homemade Laundry Liquid ~ Quick Easy Savings

I have vascillated between using my homemade washing powder, Earthsap's lovely product, soapnuts and Biowash Ball for the last 3 years. A few nights ago I read Rhonda Jean's post about homemade laundry liquid and when I saw the cost saving (even if it was in Aussie $'s) I thought it was time to try it.

I have included a costing for you, but I am really not the kind of person who calculates this kind of thing all the time but I did want to see how it translates in South African Rands.

Firing up the trusty new iPad to her recipe I used the local equivalent products...Sunlight Soap Bar, Buffalo Borax (from PnP) and Washing Soda from the local hardware store.

Rhonda promised that it was 1/2hr of my time, so why not try? I grated too much soap but it's in a baggie for next time. I figure that at the rate we wash I will have to do this once a month.

At one stage I didn't think the soap would dissolve but it did just at boiling point. As soon as I added the cold water to this mixture it started to gel and had to work faster to get it into my containers.

I had saved 2 Earth Sap buckets and had to use another Tupperware container to hold it, but there it is - 10litres of laundry liquid and it actually took less that 1/2hr.

The costing:

Washing Soda R37.95 = 5 batches = unit cost R7.60
Borax R10.49 need just over 1 = R12.00
Sunlight soap R10.49 for 2 bars = unit cost R5.25

Total cost to make = R24.85

As I was using Earth Sap (with no softener) I was spending R270 per month on washing powder. This translates into a saving of R245.15 per month. That's R2941.80 per year.

I will try it on the next wash day and let you know what it's like to use.