Going for Not Broke

I enjoy watching basketball, but I LOVE watching my nephews play. I try to go to every game I can. Over the past couple of weeks, though, the schedule has gotten crazy. Some weeks, there has been a game every night. That can be tough on the pocketbook, both for the gas used to get there and for the admission fees. So, I've skipped a few games, just getting an update via text message at the end of each quarter. Not fun, but it's the grownup thing to do.

Buying laundry soap bugs me. Big time. I despise that without fail, every time I buy it, my grocery bill is roughly $10 higher. Several months ago, though, I read in the Everyday Cheapskate column  in my local newspaper that the columnist, Mary Hunt, makes her own laundry soap. The cost, Hunt said, was pennies per load, though the column didn't give details on how to make it. So I did a web search and found that there are several recipes out there. Some create liquid laundry soap, but I opted for a dry laundry soap recipe I found at DIYNatural.com . (You can view the recipe here .) So far, this experiment is going well, though I notice some dinginess on a few clothing items that I didn't notice before with store-bought detergents. The next time I make the soap, I'm going to add an extra 1 cup of Borax to the mix to see if it makes a difference. I'll follow up with another post afterward to share whether the extra cup works.