Reducing expenses

[tortoise]

Nah, it's just a little pest called Borderline Personality Disorder. I've had everything (and I do mean EVERYTHING) physical checked over multiple times. I have an assortment of mental illnesses

*giggles* Brain cooties!!!

I ride that undefined border between autism and schizophrenia. It's fun when I'm not actually having a meltdown. Although I'm still pointing and giggling at me at that point.

Do you ever feel like there should be trading cards for all the diagnoses? Then you CAN be one card short of a full deck?

I love you Abi!

 

[FarmerDenise]

Nah, it's just a little pest called Borderline Personality Disorder. I've had everything (and I do mean EVERYTHING) physical checked over multiple times. I have an assortment of mental illnesses

*giggles* Brain cooties!!!

I ride that undefined border between autism and schizophrenia. It's fun when I'm not actually having a meltdown. Although I'm still pointing and giggling at me at that point.

Do you ever feel like there should be trading cards for all the diagnoses? Then you CAN be one card short of a full deck?

I love you Abi!

Abi, you're too funny!!! I love it!

 

[Bethanial]

Nah, it's just a little pest called Borderline Personality Disorder. I've had everything (and I do mean EVERYTHING) physical checked over multiple times. I have an assortment of mental illnesses

*giggles* Brain cooties!!!

I ride that undefined border between autism and schizophrenia. It's fun when I'm not actually having a meltdown. Although I'm still pointing and giggling at me at that point.

Do you ever feel like there should be trading cards for all the diagnoses? Then you CAN be one card short of a full deck?

I love you Abi!

Ditto that!

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

OFG- I've seen washing soda at Kroger, Meijer, and I think the Anderson's around here.

thanks ladies! Bethanial i'll check out your thread too. thanks SD!

 

[lorihadams]

If you can't find Fels Naptha....I couldn't, you can use Ivory soap flakes or bar ivory soap grated up. I put baking soda in my mix too. Here's mine:

Dry Laundry Detergent

1 bar ivory soap grated fine
1 cup baking soda
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda ( I get mine at Krogers, I stock up when I have to buy my GF flours and such)

You can also use castile soap. I use straight white vinegar in place of fabric softener. I love it cause my clothes don't smell like anything and I can even wash our hunting clothes in it so no more special scented hunting soap.

 

[savingdogs]

It works good for babies as well, fewer chemicals!

 

[okiegirl]

I made this last night, but it didn't gel up over night. True, it's only been about 12-14 hours, but does that mean I did something wrong? is there a way to fix it?

Well there are threads all over BYC about this but this is what I do.

Assemble three ingredients and a five gallon bucket with a lid.

The three ingredients:
Fels Naptha Soap (or Zote or homemade washing soap) 1 bar shredded
Arm and Hammer Washing Soda 1 cup
20 Mule Team Borax 1 cup
(optional....1 cup baking soda)

In a pot on the stove, mix a gallon of water with the shredded Fels Naptha. Shredding the soap is the hardest part. Anyhow, heat up that soap + water until the Fels Naptha is all dissolved and turn off the heat.
Pour it all in your bucket and add the dry ingredients. Stir like heck until dissolved. Then fill your five gallon bucket up to the lid with water, warm. Stir like heck again. Put your lid on and wait 24 hours.

24 hours later, open your lid and (easiest to do this with a bare arm) stir it up really well. It comes out like egg flower soup. Stir well and take out what you need immediately (I use a recycled laundry container) and replace your lid. You do need to shake your container before you pour it in your machine.

There is a dry recipe but I always wash in cold so the dry doesn't work as well for me, but some people love it. I also have a HE washer and it actually works BETTER in it than the purchased HE washer soap. This laundry soap has no smell and no emulsifiers and no junk in it. You could add essential oils for scent if you chose. We do use dryer sheets so that adds a little scent.

Our clothes have never been so clean as since we started making our soap. I also share some with relatives who are broke. I can give them a big jug for a dollar and it helps them a lot more than a dollars worth.

It is also kind of fun to make. Those ingredients can usually be found at a grocery store (we got them at Winco).

 

[savingdogs]

Hmmmm....we are on about our sixth of seventh batch and it always gelled. I wonder if it just needs more time? I never checked it at 12 hours.

I don't know why it gelling is important anyways. It is somewhat clumpy and a smoother consistency would be an improvement. I would wonder why it did not gel though...keep me posted.

We found when we used Zote soap instead of Fels Naptha, we had a harder time getting the soap to dissolve. We liked the smell, but prefered the Fels Naptha because it dissolves so much easier.

 

[tortoise]

I need an HE laundry detergent recipe. I'm still using my homemade stuff (I have like 2 gllons of it left!) and using a little less than 1/4. I only got sudsy-not-fully-rinsed clothes once and I just did a second rinse - the machine has that option.

 

[savingdogs]

The recipe I use has no sudsing whatsoever and works great in a HE washer. I think it helped the washer run better actually.