I am Frugal Woman, hear my saved change jingle...

For over a year now I have been saying I was gonna make my own laundry detergent. I have been researching different recipes, hearing from my friends and reading on other mommy board what works and what doesn't. But not until after a gift from my brother and his wife at Christmas, a gallon milk jug full of centsible suds made from her own kitchen, did I finally venture out on my own homemakers mission to locate the ingredients. I am cheap, CHEAP, I say. I only buy the no name laundry detergent, the $1.99 special. X-tra, Sun, White Bright, Purex; whatever is the ultra cheapest. Once, while I was sick, I asked my sister in law to pick me up some and she bought Era, I rationed that spendy stuff out so much it was any wonder how my clothes even got clean. Anyhow, I used these homemade suds on my laundry as soon as I ran out of detergent and WOW, talk about clean and bright clothes. They smelled so clean and the whites were closer to white than they had ever been. I had been living in a world where cream colored and white were interchangeable, I know all you graphic arteests are cringing right now :). I looked at the ingredients...2 bars of soap, I cup Borax, 1 cup Baking soda add to 5 gallons water. Yep, that's it. So I did the math. I got 12 bars of Irish Spring on clearance at Target: 2 bars cost me 58.3 cents, one box of Borax that has been in my laundry room for years, I am guessing I paid 2.99 for 76 oz.; 8 oz cost me 34 cents, and a box of baking soda that I paid 69 cents for at my local grocery store, one cup cost me roughly 34 cents. Drum Roll Please...$1.26 for 5 gallons of laundry detergent. I am so frugal. Maybe what I save on laundry detergent these next few months will help pay for the 40 sheets of construction paper, 8 glitter glue pens, 2 glue sticks, 5 sheets of stickers and one roll of tape we used to make valentines today. Sigh.