Posted in Homemade Clean
Earlier in the week I posted a recipe to make your own laundry soap. I have been making my own laundry soap for over a year now and when I started making the soap I wanted to know if it was really worth my effort. Was it saving me money? Was it really less expensive than the big buckets of laundry soap I was buying at Costco?
So I set out to find the answer to my question. Is the laundry detergent a cost saver? How do the numbers on this add up? We do a lot of laundry and I make double batches of this soap and knowing that the time spent doing this was a savings for my family was important to me.
Here are my calculations:
The cost of making the above recipe of laundry soap was .71 cents. That was amazing to me! With this 2 gallon size recipe you will have enough to do 64 loads of laundry. That translates to about .01 cent a load.
How Did I Figure This Out?
Here is the breakdown of my costs and how I came up with those numbers (I am using the prices I paid for these items and you may find your price varies some based on what you pay):
Fels Naptha: $1.12 for a 5.5 oz bar. The recipes says use a 1/3 of a bar. I calculated 2 oz. just to make the math a little easier. The cost of the Fels Naptha per batch is: .40 cents.
Washing Soda: $2.23 for a 55 oz. box. This came to .17 cents per batch. I calculated how much per oz (2.23 divided by 55) and then weighed a half cup of washing soda (4.2oz.) and multiplied my per oz. price by 4.2
Borax: $3.27 for a 76 oz. box. This came to .14 cents per batch. Did the same calculations as above, however a 1/2 cup of borax weighs 3.5 oz.
For the final numbers I have .40 + .17 + .14 = .71 for 2 gallons of laundry detergent.
Two gallons translates to 64- 1/2 cup portions and .71 divided by 64 = .01109, etc... or about .01 cent a load!
Happy Laundry Soap Making!!!
Crystal and her husband Tobin, along with 6 of their 8 homeschooled children make their home on 18 acres in SW Washington State.
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