Is Tide worth breaking the budget?

[wanttobeinvienna]

Just thought I would throw my .02 in here

I NEVER dreamed I would be a person who would make their own laundry detergent-- I really really like convenience-- BUT I saw a recipe on pinterest- (and you know if it's on pinterest, it has to be a little cool) and made my own.

It cleans as well, if not better than tide, has an initial cost of about $15, and it is SUPER easy to make (I make the powder kind). It took a major ding off of my monthly household expenses- we go through a lot of laundry detergent It works to get the grass & red clay dirt stains off of football uniforms, sweat stains out of my running clothes, make up off my daughter's cheer uniforms!

Recipe:
Homemade Laundry Soap Recipe

1/3 bar Fels Naptha or Ivory
½ cup washing soda (Arm and Hammer) (not to be confused with baking soda-this is in the laundry aisle)
½ cup borax powder

Grate soap, put it, soda and borax in food processor, blend very well-
you can add a little oxy clean or essential oil if you would like, but I dont find it necessary .

The average cost per load of store bought laundry soap is about 60 cents a load (based on price of Tide from Amazon). This is without coupons – it would be lower depending on the coupons & sales that you find.
The price per load of homemade detergent is 3.5 cents per load!!

 

[msmetal]

For me Tide is worth it. I've tried a bunch of other brands and made my own, but what I found was that Tide is the only one that really cleans well with cold water. Everything else performs noticeably better in warm water, and the energy cost of heating the water eats up the savings of buying the cheaper soap. And since our clothes really take a beating - DH is a roofer, DS plays football, and the girls love gymnastics on the grass and playing in the gardens - more cleaning power is something I'm willing to spend a little extra on.

Another Tide fan here! It gets the dirt, grease out of my husband's clothes with no pretreating. Also, the dirt, grass stains and normal little boy stains from my son's clothes. I wait until I have coupons and find a sale! I won't buy anything else.

 

[charliesmom86]

We love Tide but refuse to pay that much for the detergent. We buy Fab or All and they work well and smell good too. We don't use fabric softener(another way to spend $) but we have the Bounce bar(we replace every 3 months and its like 6 dollars) in our dryer and our clothes smells and looks good.

We have entertained the idea of making homemade detergent though...thanks for posting that recipe wanttobeinvienna, we may try it out soon!

 

[Aurora D]

OP here! Thanks everyone for the responses. Well, I took the plunge and bought Tide last night. LOL. The first load is going right now. My husband works at our county landfill so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will work well on his dirty neon green work shirts!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

OP here! Thanks everyone for the responses. Well, I took the plunge and bought Tide last night. LOL. The first load is going right now. My husband works at our county landfill so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will work well on his dirty neon green work shirts!

I'm sure it will. And it won't fade them, either, like some detergents will (which is what finally pushed me over the edge).

Try using less than the recommend amount to start, and adjust as necessary.

 

[pixiewings71]

Just thought I would throw my .02 in here

I NEVER dreamed I would be a person who would make their own laundry detergent-- I really really like convenience-- BUT I saw a recipe on pinterest- (and you know if it's on pinterest, it has to be a little cool) and made my own.

It cleans as well, if not better than tide, has an initial cost of about $15, and it is SUPER easy to make (I make the powder kind). It took a major ding off of my monthly household expenses- we go through a lot of laundry detergent It works to get the grass & red clay dirt stains off of football uniforms, sweat stains out of my running clothes, make up off my daughter's cheer uniforms!

Recipe:
Homemade Laundry Soap Recipe

1/3 bar Fels Naptha or Ivory
½ cup washing soda (Arm and Hammer) (not to be confused with baking soda-this is in the laundry aisle)
½ cup borax powder

Grate soap, put it, soda and borax in food processor, blend very well-
you can add a little oxy clean or essential oil if you would like, but I dont find it necessary .

The average cost per load of store bought laundry soap is about 60 cents a load (based on price of Tide from Amazon). This is without coupons – it would be lower depending on the coupons & sales that you find.
The price per load of homemade detergent is 3.5 cents per load!!

That's basically the recipe I use, only I use a full bar of Fels Neptha and 1 cup of the soda ash and Borax. Works great!!

OP here! Thanks everyone for the responses. Well, I took the plunge and bought Tide last night. LOL. The first load is going right now. My husband works at our county landfill so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will work well on his dirty neon green work shirts!

Great!! I'm sure you'll love it! As Pea said I'd start with a bit less than they suggest and adjust from there.

 

[Mic]

Homemade Laundry Soap Recipe

1/3 bar Fels Naptha or Ivory
½ cup washing soda (Arm and Hammer) (not to be confused with baking soda-this is in the laundry aisle)
½ cup borax powder[/I]

I use a similar recipe, a liquid version for my HE washer, and add a little extra soap and a little BAKING soda, and glycerin. I have tried the Zote soap, Calgon, Ivory and Fels Naptha in my recipe, and decided Fels Naptha worked best for us. For really dirty loads, I add a little oxyclean. Before I bought my frontloader, I used a powdered version of this recipe, and it is a little cheaper to make than the liquid because I did not add the glycerin, and making the powder is easier. I feel like a witch stirring my brew when I make my liquid laundry detergent...but it's only 3 or 4 times a year!