How to save money washing clothes?

Bigjenny

I use Asda Non Bio Sensitive, and half the amount, 40c wash for most thing, no strong perfume either.

[Deleted User]

I usually by what evers on the offer I am not a bit loyal when it comes to washing powder I'm more interested in making sure I don't spend too much .At the moment I am just finishing off a bottle of Surf that I bought back in March for £3.50 from Wilkinsons It was a big bottle of liquid that did 54 washes, I only use half the amount recommended with a few soda crystals and some white vinegar for conditioning.I only have myself to wash clothes for and as I am a retired lady who doesn't get very mucky (no plumbing or mining for me :)) then I am quite happy with it Funnily enough as I was almost finishing the bottle I had a look at the prices and boy have they shot up in the past 6 months I bought a bottle of non-bio stuff from Asdas yesterday for £3.00 for 30 washes so that will do me until at least after Christmas unless I see something on offer at a reasonable price My DD has quite a big bill for her stuff as her washing machine is on twice a day every day as there is 6 of them and four are mucky little school boys who roll in the mud I think when playing at school

mavisangelica

pollyskettle wrote: »

I buy the 3 x 10kg bags of non bio *cough*Persil*cough* for about £22 from eBay and this lasts me ages and ages - I bought the last lot on the 1st May and I still have about 1/4 of the first bag left plus 2 full bags (although we were away for 4-5 weeks over the summer. I reckon a full bag must last us about 4 months. I wash for 5 people, one of whom is a plumber and another is a filthy 10 year old boy!

Me too. And I have a small scoop which makes it last even longer.

LutonGirl

I've been using the Aldi Almat liquid for a while now. I will take the advice posted here and reduce the dose to half. Thanks for that!!

cjez_2

I use ecoballs. Very nice to use and clothes come out nice and clean. They say it works out at about 3p per wash instead of 18p using detergent. Who knows! I'm not sure how often I do a wash to work out the sums. Anyways, they're good for the skin and don't pollute the sea and save me buying them from the supermarket every month so worth it I think.

newgirly

Hi, I make "laundry gloop" I don't know how to do links but its probably in the index at the top.

1 grated bar of soap
1/2 cup borax subsitute (r*bert dyas about £1.60)
1/2 cup soda crystals (everywhere about £1)
few drops of essential oil if desired

add all items together in a pan, add about 1 1/2 litres boliing water and cook on hob until melted, get a large bucket of lukewarm water 3/4 full and add whats in the pan. Decant into used milk cartons/coke bottles/anything else!

Its fab , I have 3 gruby kids and have been using it for about 6 months , it costs pennies per bottle and is more gentle for sensitive skin.

Oops, don't add to drawer put a big squirt into the drum before loading.

twofishes

Use water softening tablets in the machine if you live in a hard water area, helps reduce limescale build up and you don't need to use as much washing powder. Wilko does them very cheaply. Otherwise, Aldi's Almat/Lidl's Formil is very good. Will have to check out the ebay sellers!

donnysan

This is exactly what I've been doing the last few times I've done laundry and it works great! There's no need to waste money on fabric softener. :T

kettlenic wrote: »

apparently it is good to use plain white vinegar for fabric softner as it removes all the soap and does not leave a smell

donnysan

Here's a nice recipe for a cheap and all-natural laundry soap powder. I used this a couple of days ago when I did a bunch of laundry.

Basic Laundry Soap Powder
1 cup washing soda
1 cup baking soda
1 bar finely grated pure soap (Dr Bronner's) http://www.drbronner.com/DBMS/BAR.htm

Combine all ingredients and store in a plastic container.
Use 1/2 cup for an average laundry load.

Makes enough for about 6 average laundry loads.

donnysan

Here's a great cheap and all-natural fabric softener recipe that I used when I did my laundry.

Orange Glow Fabric Softener

8 cups water
6 cups white vinegar
1 cup baking soda
25 drops orange essential oil

Combine all ingredients in a large plastic jug (I used an empty plastic olive oil container)

Shake Well before adding 1/2 cup to the rinse cycle.