Goin Green!~{sort of}

A while ago my step-sister Jessica wrote a post saying that she was going to attempt to make her own laundry detergent. This isn't really going green as much as it is cheaper than buying prepackaged laundry detergent from the store~which who doesn't love that!? Anyway, after thinking about this for quite a while and making the decision for myself to not be lazy I came to the conclusion that I would try this myself. With the economy being the way it is and having yet to get worse~as some would say~I really felt the need to do something to help our family start saving money and stop being so wasteful. You have to understand that I am fairly lazy and lets face it, for me it's so much easier to be lazy! Well, during these times with Harley being the sole breadwinner and making the decision to keep me at home with the kids right now I have had some time to really think and see what I can do to make a substantial contribution to my family.
I decided to do some research on the net. Gotta love the internet; ENDLESS amounts of information! I started by Googling homemade laundry detergent. I was able to find a website that I really like~http://www.thesimpledollar.com/. I found a bunch of other websites and recipes which all tell you to get creative and have fun with being frugal! It really was a lot of fun making my homemade laundry soap. It made me feel a little more in control of what I was spending my money on and the things I can make at home and save a buck or two!
I then moved on to home cleaning supplies. Harley hates that I use bleach to clean and disinfect with and it really isn't healthy for anyone to breathe. So, having asthma myself I decided that I really should do something about this. I again found tons of websites that have recipes for homemade cleaning supplies and how to use them. I was thrilled~this is the going green part. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, cost me a lot less and doesn't bother my lungs! I now use things like white vinegar and baking soda to do a lot of my cleaning. At first I thought it wouldn't be less expensive but so far it has!
I don't know about anyone else but for us trying to save money in this economic time has been tough. We've had a lot of fun trying to think of things we can do to save energy, cut costs, and not waste as a family and have had a lot of fun doing so. There are so many ideas it's been great!
Here's the recipe I used for my laundry soap:














I actually used the Fels Naptha soap~not the one in this pic. So, there's borax, washing soda~not to be confused with baking soda, and the bar of soap. You also need a pretty big bucket~3-5gallons to mix the soap in. If you go to the simple dollar website, up in the right hand corner is a search tool. Just type in homemade laundry detergent and it will bring up the instructions of how to make it. Like I said, though, I found tons of websites with different recipes but, all had pretty much these three main ingredients; just different ways to make it. Have fun getting frugal!