Author Topic: Anything that you have to do to save money that others might find objectionable?  (Read 35447 times)

clarkfan1979

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I bought a washer, dryer, and refrigerator used for about 30-40 cents on the dollar. All of my family told me that they would break and they were not going to help me fix them. All came with a  2 year warranty. We called once for the refrigerator and ended up getting a replacement for the washer for no extra cost. It's been 3.5 years and I haven't heard anything from the family lately.

greengardens

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Are you able to share some of the recipes?

I don't remeber any off the top of my head. I usually just google what I want to make such as "homemade laundry detergent" and several websites will pop up that have recipes for just about everything. Most homemade cleaning products use some combination of these ingredients: vinegar, borax, washing soda, citric acid, baking soda and/or essential oils. The majority of those can be bought in bulk online or at Sams Club/Costco.

Dicey

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Are you able to share some of the recipes?

I don't remeber any off the top of my head. I usually just google what I want to make such as "homemade laundry detergent" and several websites will pop up that have recipes for just about everything. Most homemade cleaning products use some combination of these ingredients: vinegar, borax, washing soda, citric acid, baking soda and/or essential oils. The majority of those can be bought in bulk online or at Sams Club/Costco.

Back when The Simple Dollar was a non-monetized site (pre-MMM), Trent had a good tutorial on how to make laundry soap.  If you don't like monetized blogs where the founder's voice is but a faint echo, there are loads of recipes on the internet. If you have a Winco in your area (West Coast), they are an excellent source as they have all of the ingredients in stock at great prices.



jengod

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Combine:
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
1 cup shredded Fels Naptha soap

Add 1-2 Tbsp to laundry.

I buy the washing soda and Fels Naptha at an Ace Hardware locations. Borax is available in the laundry detergent section of nearly every big box store. I use a box grater to shred the soap. I've also tried Zote (which seemed to moist to shred well, but which you can allegedly just throw in the machine and use as your detergent in bar form), Irish Spring, Dove and a variety of other soaps. They all seemed to work somewhat adequately (no clear-cut failures).

We call the homemade laundry detergent our "utility soap" and use it mostly on towels, rags, blankets, etc.

I didn't seem to be doing a complete job removing stains and smells from our clothes, and DH likes the smell of Tide, so we use Tide for clothes, especially shirts. We seem to get a fairly good price when Costco has it on discount.

I like having the alternative/backup available and will continue to make it for the foreseeable future.

BlueHouse

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I can't get into the DIY detergents at this point in my life, but when the label calls for a full cup or half cup of tide, I use about a teaspoon-full instead.
There are usually still suds visible when I open the washing machine door, so why would I need more?  My family would never visit again if they knew this or would probably bring their own sheets! 

justajane

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I can't get into the DIY detergents at this point in my life, but when the label calls for a full cup or half cup of tide, I use about a teaspoon-full instead.
There are usually still suds visible when I open the washing machine door, so why would I need more?  My family would never visit again if they knew this or would probably bring their own sheets!

I've been doing this for years. The recommended amount is WAY too much. I probably use more like a tablespoon, since I have young kids who get their clothing filthy, but it's still far less than what the cap says.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!