Call me crunchy

It's so gorgeous out. I'm sitting out on our deck, Micah is sitting in his pack 'n play out here (maybe the title should be 'call me redneck') and Eden is outside somewhere with Mike. I have oodles of laundry sitting before me, but well, my motivation for that one fell through though it does make a nice foot rest.

I've mentioned our cash budget before and it's made me cut the fat so to speak from our daily expenses. For example, I think the last time I bought diapers was in January. For that I'm proud, we've been using cloth all the time, except for the past 2 days. We quit buying wipes although I bought some last week, cloth diapers go hand in hand with cloth wipes. But laundry, ughh, I was spending a lot of money on it. Everyone knows Tide is the best, and with 2 kiddos, the stain remover seems endless. I researched making our own laundry detergent, and truth be told, I love it.

I found a simple tutorial from this blog, and we actually had a lot of fun doing it together. So, to get started, grab your little helper.

 Here's our ingredients: 1 bar Fels Naptha soap, 1 cup Borax, and 1 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda, and the jar is to store it.

Give your helper a snack to keep her happy and entertained, laundry detergent isn't that exciting to some people.

So, a small grater is recommended to grate the Fels Naptha. It's really hard soap, and because I was afraid of having chunks of soap left in after washing, I used a zester. It was perfect.

 The texture came out really fine, and I've never had an issue with the soap not dissolving. Glad I put on my thinking cap for that one.

 Have your helper mix in the Borax and Arm & Hammer, stir, stir, stir.

 Put it in your container, and viola! you have your homemade laundry detergent. So, the verdict: Love it, and it works great. I couldn't wait actually to run out of our laundry soap so that I could start using it. I never measure when I put it in the wash, I just guess what a tablespoon is, and if I have a really yucky, dirty load, I tend to overestimate.

 The cost, I think (it's been a few weeks since we make it) is roughly 2 dollars maybe. Yeah, it's a little cheaper than Tide, but it does really well at stain removal, so it's a winner in my book. We then proceeded after to make our footprints, which has nothing at all to do with anything, it was just fun.

 Doesn't mine look like a Neanderthal? Just call me 'big foot'. Of course, Micah was in on all the fun as well, not quite helper status, but he enjoyed the festivities.