Spring Cleaning and Saving

I gave up using Tide laundry detergent a long time ago. It's definitely my favorite but it's also the most expensive. I've been using Era for awhile now and it works fine. I've estimated with the amount of detergent that I use for each load (I always fill the lid to the top line) it costs me 15 cents a load if I can catch the stuff on sale and 22 cents a load at regular price.

Thanks to "Working to Not Work" and the Duggars I've just whipped up a batch of homemade laundry detergent powder. I spent $10.04 of this weeks budget on the supplies (which will make ALOT of detergent and last a super long time). Each batch is supposed to do 40 loads but in the recipe it says to use 1 tbs for a regular load and 2 tbs for heavily soiled clothing. I'll probably always use 2 since I always wash laundry on the largest load cycle. Basically if I use 2 tbs for each batch it should cost 4 cents for each load of laundry I do. That's AT LEAST an 11 cents per load savings. I'm really liking those number.

I just washed a pretty dirty rug that was basically covered in doggie foot prints and I washed some sheets and pillow cases. Everything came out clean and smelling good. And the detergent was really easy to make. Every penny counts  : )

So far this week I've spent $41.53 on the detergent supplies and other groceries. I'm hoping to come in $10 under budget this week in order to make up for some of the overage from March. That leaves $32.47 for the rest of the week. I'm way over budget at present so I'm really going to have to pinch those pennies in order to meet my $74 goal this week. I'm pretty sure I can do it. It'll just take a lot of work and will power.

Wishing you all a super terrific month of May!!!