Frugal Living Swap (SIGNUP CLOSED; MAIL BY 2/6/2010)

[kaz814]

Baking soda is another multipurpose ingredient ... it works as a scalp scrub, toothpaste, cleansing ...

For those that make their own laundry soap - what soap base do you use?  I have Borax and Washing Soda that I use to get stains out (works SO well!) in addition to the liquid soap I pay an arm and a leg for at the grocery store, but want to try making my own.  All the recipes I see are from out of the US and use products that aren't readily available here, except by mail order.

[itchyfingers]

Alright, this is kind of embarrassing, but here goes. At my old house, before I worked from home, my dog had a hard time holding her bladder. I would lock her in the kitchen, so that I could just clean the vinyl floor (is it any wonder I hate to mop these days?) Of course, she would pee right by the carpet, and my carpet got gross and stinky. White vinegar, dish soap, and baking soda took care of the whole shebang. I even got my deposit back!

So much for expensive carpet cleaners being the "only" way to get stuff like that out, hey?!  I use vinegar, baking soda and coarse sea salt to clean my stove top if it gets really bad (and considering that I write a blog almost entirely about how much I hate to clean my house, it's bound to get bad!) and it works great.  When my daughter got old enought o get into things, I re-thought all my cleaning products and scaled way back on chemicals.  I still use bleach on occasion - primarily for the toilet.  
Speaking of gross and spending money () we don't flush every time we use the bathroom - only if there's a lot of toilet paper or you-know-what in it (ever heard, "If it's yellow let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down"? Yeah, that's how we roll).  It saves us money since we pay for our water and it's more environmentally friendly also.  However, when you do this, the toilet gets scales of protein in it from urine (yeah, gross, right?) and ordinary toilet cleaner doesn't quite take care of it.  So when it gets bad, I just pour in some bleach and leave it for a few hours and it does the trick.

[Ariethine]

I'm curious, my mom and grandmother bought an "he" machine. Supposedly high efficiency, so we have to buy certain types of soap to use like rip your-wallet-to-shreds Tide. Are there any soaps that can be homemade that work in "high efficiency" machines?? My mother says the regular soaps bubble too much.
 

[kaz814]

I'm curious, my mom and grandmother bought an "he" machine. Supposedly high efficiency, so we have to buy certain types of soap to use like rip your-wallet-to-shreds Tide. Are there any soaps that can be homemade that work in "high efficiency" machines?? My mother says the regular soaps bubble too much.
 

After a bit of googling (what did we do before it?), I found this article/recipe for homemade detergent that work in HE washers.  Not sure if it works well, though - and using something that isn't recommended might invalidate a warranty so you might want to check before using it.

[Tanza]

Baking soda is another multipurpose ingredient ... it works as a scalp scrub, toothpaste, cleansing ...

For those that make their own laundry soap - what soap base do you use?  I have Borax and Washing Soda that I use to get stains out (works SO well!) in addition to the liquid soap I pay an arm and a leg for at the grocery store, but want to try making my own.  All the recipes I see are from out of the US and use products that aren't readily available here, except by mail order.

 I make my own, I use laundry soap( any kind will do really so long as you can stand the smell, I can't so laundry soap it is)
Borax and washing soda, equal amounts of each, I use a cup to measure mine out, eg a cup of each and keep going till I run out of 1 or the other.
Then I use 1/8 to 1/4 cup( I have a small scoop so that an aprox) in my front loader, no problems with spud or residue left behind. Clothes are nice and clean smell fresh( no perfume) and don't irritate the skin( big isuse here).

easy as.just grate your soap on the smallest you can, I have to do it by hand as I don't have a food processor, but I have kids 

Speaking of gross and spending money (Cheesy) we don't flush every time we use the bathroom - only if there's a lot of toilet paper or you-know-what in it (ever heard, "If it's yellow let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down"? Yeah, that's how we roll).  It saves us money since we pay for our water and it's more environmentally friendly also.  However, when you do this, the toilet gets scales of protein in it from urine (yeah, gross, right?) and ordinary toilet cleaner doesn't quite take care of it.  So when it gets bad, I just pour in some bleach and leave it for a few hours and it does the trick.

we do this at night too, so no one gets woken up.

I have never been able to get rid of the scale in the bottom of the toilet. I even used CLR(really heavy duty cleaner) and it did nothing.......I think for us if we ever sell the house we may need to replace the toilets.....

I try not to use any chemicals in the house, my skin reacts to them too much, I even had to put a water filter in the bathroom shower as my older boy was allergic to the chlorine in the water.
And how the hell do you work around the flouride in the water systems when your allergic to it?
Not fun I tell you, no wonder my throat hurts most of the time.....now I just keep filtered( from an under bench twin system) water in the fridge and it seems to remove the chemicals from the water....

I have been told that cutting a lemon in half and cleaning with it works better than bleach.

I make my own furniture polish from lemon juice, lemon EO and Olive Oil, I keep it in the freezer and when we need it I thaw it out. works really well too.

[Tanza]

I'm curious, my mom and grandmother bought an "he" machine. Supposedly high efficiency, so we have to buy certain types of soap to use like rip your-wallet-to-shreds Tide. Are there any soaps that can be homemade that work in "high efficiency" machines?? My mother says the regular soaps bubble too much.
 

The best way to test is put some in a bucket of water and use an egg beater/whisk and see how much it bubbles.

normal soap doesn't bubble though, it just disolves into the water.

[Ariethine]

Hmm... I wonder... Thanks a lot guys!! I really should check into that... that was really helpful. And if we can do that, then It would probably save us a lot of money!

[Shelanie]

Baking soda is another multipurpose ingredient ... it works as a scalp scrub, toothpaste, cleansing ...

For those that make their own laundry soap - what soap base do you use?  I have Borax and Washing Soda that I use to get stains out (works SO well!) in addition to the liquid soap I pay an arm and a leg for at the grocery store, but want to try making my own.  All the recipes I see are from out of the US and use products that aren't readily available here, except by mail order.

 I make my own, I use laundry soap( any kind will do really so long as you can stand the smell, I can't so laundry soap it is)
Borax and washing soda, equal amounts of each, I use a cup to measure mine out, eg a cup of each and keep going till I run out of 1 or the other.
Then I use 1/8 to 1/4 cup( I have a small scoop so that an aprox) in my front loader, no problems with spud or residue left behind. Clothes are nice and clean smell fresh( no perfume) and don't irritate the skin( big isuse here).

easy as.just grate your soap on the smallest you can, I have to do it by hand as I don't have a food processor, but I have kids 

Speaking of gross and spending money (Cheesy) we don't flush every time we use the bathroom - only if there's a lot of toilet paper or you-know-what in it (ever heard, "If it's yellow let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down"? Yeah, that's how we roll).  It saves us money since we pay for our water and it's more environmentally friendly also.  However, when you do this, the toilet gets scales of protein in it from urine (yeah, gross, right?) and ordinary toilet cleaner doesn't quite take care of it.  So when it gets bad, I just pour in some bleach and leave it for a few hours and it does the trick.

we do this at night too, so no one gets woken up.

I have never been able to get rid of the scale in the bottom of the toilet. I even used CLR(really heavy duty cleaner) and it did nothing.......I think for us if we ever sell the house we may need to replace the toilets.....

I try not to use any chemicals in the house, my skin reacts to them too much, I even had to put a water filter in the bathroom shower as my older boy was allergic to the chlorine in the water.
And how the hell do you work around the flouride in the water systems when your allergic to it?
Not fun I tell you, no wonder my throat hurts most of the time.....now I just keep filtered( from an under bench twin system) water in the fridge and it seems to remove the chemicals from the water....

I have been told that cutting a lemon in half and cleaning with it works better than bleach.

I make my own furniture polish from lemon juice, lemon EO and Olive Oil, I keep it in the freezer and when we need it I thaw it out. works really well too.

You can use a pumice stone to get the scale off your toilet too.  We are on well water and don't flush every time either (So. Cal water rationing) I use a pumice stone every time I clean the toilets. It works wonders. You just have to make sure its wet and you are not scraping dry porcelain or you will scratch and ruin your toilets.

I also make all my own detergents and fabric softeners, even my own oxy-clean. I use a small amount of grated fels-naptha as a soap base. Then use washing soda and borax. I add orange essential oil because I like the clean scent. I have HE appliances, it just means I use less. I have had no problems.

[pinkleo]

I should have a spot open soon...I'll keep an eye on this swap!

[PixieVal]

Is anyone hoping to get plarn? I am getting ready to sit down to a Bones marathon, and make a whole lot of plarn!