Self-sufficient households; help!

[okiemommy]

Is the liquid recipe posted here beekissed?

 

[Beekissed]

Either this thread or the other one on here with a similar title....but I think its this one!

 

[Redfeathers]

I made the liquid version yesterday and ran my first load today. I have to say I am impressed, the clothes are clean and soft with a fresh smell, not perfumed but just the smell of clean. I put mine in three liter bottles and it works like a charm.

 

[Chick_a_dee]

Quote:
For us self-sufficiency is a huge money saver, we're 5 KM's to the nearest town, and something like 40KM's give or take to the city where we can do real shopping. With the high gas prices (and our gas looks like it's more expensive than most prices in America) and the distance to travel just to get some veggies, even just potatoes... we kind of HAVE to use our land, and plus our veggie patch is something like a quartre acre, possibly bigger. When we can buy locally, we do... for instance we go to an Organic Strawberry farm and buy qrts of strawberries to make jam out of.... it's something like 75 cents a quart. Plus we frequent the farmers market in all the towns surrounding us, but being in Southern Ontario we don't have a Mexican market, and thus we cannot buy laundry soap really cheap, and the cost of the store liquid or powder is outrageous, plus the cost to get in the car, drive to Belleville, and buy it - that's a little much. We can get the ingredients for our powdered soap (the recipe that is on this thread) at the local valu-mart, home hardware (yes!), or foodland for really cheap, and we've been using the same batch for almost a month now, one of those big jugs would last us maybe 2 weeks.

Edited to add: PLUS we're on a greywater system, so our soap MUST be environmentally friendly... as this recipe is, especially since we run a hose from the washer to a sprinkler and it waters the veggie patch

 

[dirtdoctor]

COOL Chick-a-dee, Imagine fuel costing soo much? Im thinkin owning a mule might be a good thing after all.

Thank you for posting about the cost per application., Thats what i was wondering about. At a $1.00/ application that is a great savings. ( My Sil makes some concoction that costs her twice the money for what she buys in the store. and she is fooled to thinking that shes saving money.) I will look up that recipe and see about puttin a batch together. Mrs Dirt, hates it when the creek muddies and her favorite clothes beating rocks dont clean up well.
This Recipe might just do the trick.

thanks
Jack

 

[Cassandra]

I made a batch of the powder today & have been washing clothes with it all day. Seems to work great. Though, we don't usually have highly soiled laundry. (We're all have office jobs. LOL)

Cassandra

 

[Acre of Blessings]

dirt doctor---I hope this answers your question.

Quote:

 

[MandyH]

Quote:
I wasn't terribly impressed with it the first time, so I tweaked it a little. I use a 1/4 cup which is 4 tblsp. (i measured out my tblsp Intomy 1/4 cup measuring cup), and I also decided to soak the clothes for a little bit. They came out great. I pre-treated some really bad stains by rubbing the mixture into the stain and let it set for about only 5 min. That lightened the stain a lot. Previously I hadn't been able to make a dent in those stains with the spray and wash treatment setting for about 30 mins.

Nope it doesnt smell like tide, It doesn't really have much of a smell at all, but it's healthy and it's cheap, and it's worth it to me....as long as hubby isn't alergic!!

I'm not sure, but if you have hard water that could be affecting the results. We do, and I don't know if that was the cause, but once I tweaked it, I was happy with it.

I DO have hard water, AND I am using a half a cup!!! Still not impressed. We DO have highly soiled laundry, we have a farm and we have to work on it, I also have a 3 year old that "helps" and Liquid Tide will take ANYTHING out. I really wanted this stuff to work, but I can afford to buy laundry detergent better than I can new clothes. I have enough stuff left to try the liquid before I give up totally.

 

[dacjohns]

dirtdoctor and others,

For me the attempt to be more selfsufficient is more than economics. If it was all economics I would not be raising chickens. It is trying not to be as dependent on a seemingly fragile consumable goods production and distribution system. It is learning how to do things yourself so you can do those things if the time ever comes that we have to. It is reducing waste and our impact on the environment. Sometimes the homemade stuff, whatever it may be, is better than the store bought stuff.

Chicken jerky. I don't think the giblets would make very good jerky. They are good in soups and stuffing.

 

[Alaska animal lover]

Quote:
Thank you, I feel the same way.
I am happy for those that have the dollar generals, the mexican markets, the land to raise meat/grow large gardens, the seasons to get a variety of produce, etc. I just don't have all of those luxuries here. I do what I can. Trying to use less fuel means more than just not going places in my eyes. It means cutting back on plastic items and not buying so much stuff that has to be shipped. That is hard to do in Alaska.
If laundry detergent is the first step to being more self-sufficient for someone, good for them!