Just Plain Frugal

See the post HERE to read the original post first.

I MADE IT! I’ll be honest and say I kind of did this as a joke (what kind of person sits there and grates soap in this day and age? apparently the smart people). I have a lot of laundry fragrance allergies and lived in perpetual fear that Tide is going to discontinue their original scent. I liked the smell of all three ingredients. And yes, I sniffed them at my Albertson’s grocery store before i bought them and they smelled fine.  

The big pain is grating the soap. (I should mention that a normal otherwise sane person might have just thrown everything into a food processor to grate. I preferred to remain true to my roots as an frontierswoman…that and I don’t have a food processor). I’m a multi-tasker by nature so I spread out a beat up looking 2 gallon ziplock bag I was getting ready to throw away on my lap as a sort of plastic tray. It took me 20 minutes to grate two bars on an old grater while watching the news. I felt kind of silly but kept at it anyway.

I used 1/2  bar of Fels instead of 2/3 so I got two uses out of one bar. It still worked great even with cold water. I now have enough powder for 128 loads of laundry detergent. And yes, I only use one tablespoon of detergent per load. It worked! of couse I am a relatively clean female adult so if you have little boys who love mud and grass you’ll have to adjust this to your liking.

If I use all the borax/washing soda/fels napatha correctly measured it costs me $0.92 for 32 loads of laundry. That comes out to roughly $0.02 a load. And I didn’t even shop around and price check my ingredients I just bought them from the local store. How crazy is that?

I definitely wouldn’t do this all the time but I certainly don’t have any problem grating soap a couple times a year. At the moment I have a large stockpile of Tide though so it’s going to be a LONG while before I need anything else. Still, it’s good to know!

Any other homemade recipes you have heard of or recommend?

Last week (Mar 18, 2009) my local Vons supermarket had a deal $5 off instantly every time you buy 10 participating items. I don’t usually shop there but I caught the circular and raided my coupon stash. I bought 10 boxes of cereal on sale for $1.50 a piece, PLUS I had a $0.75 off coupon (20 of them). I bought 20 boxes of cereal for $15. That’s not including the $1o back from the store for buying 20. So I ended up wiht 20 boxes of cereal for $5.00 total ($0.25 a box). And I’m talking about Cheerios not generic.

And to think, before I started my website adventure I would pay $4 a box for cereal, and not think twice. But here is my problem. I am one person and there is no way I can eat 20 boxes of cereal. So what did I do? I gave a couple boxes to my parents, kept a couple boxes myself and dropped 15 boxes of cereal off at the local food bank. 

Please consider doing the same. We all think that charity has to be big. It doesn’t. If you see a CVS ad for free bodywash and you don’t use bodywash who cares? Take it and drop it off at your local church or shelter. Same goes for samples, extra food, etc. If you are one of those people who doesn’t like to give just one small thing at a time, stick a box or bag in your garage or in a corner somewhere (please keep toiletry items separate from food items- cereal that tastes like Dial soap is disgusting). I guarantee the items will start adding up fast once you see things as charitable possibilities instead of just an item you don’t use.

I personally take my extras to the Second Harvest Food Bank. They are nationwide so click HERE  to find one near you.