Homemade Laundry Detergent

I currently purchase 3 different laundry detergents due to my high maintenance family.  I have one baby who uses Seventh Generation.  My other child, my husband and I use Tide, while we use Arm and Hammer liquid detergent with Oxy Clean for our cloth diapers.  I will be able to replace all of these with this soap because it fits all our needs.  There are no dyes, chemicals, softeners, and they get tough stains out! 
After searching the internet for homemade laundry detergent recipies, this is the one I decided to try first. 

- 1 Bar Shaved Bar Soap (4 oz).  I used "Zote", a natural Laundry Bar Soap. I found it at Home Depot
- 1 Cup Borax. I used 20 Mule Team Borax, found at Target, Meijer and Wal-Mart
- 1 Cup Washing Soda (made by Arm and Hammer). I only found this at Wal-Mart

My bar of Zote was a 14.1 oz bar. After a few minutes finely shaving my large bar of soap I figured this out, which lead me to quadruple my recipe.  I did four cups of the borax and the washing soda.  mixed them all together and added a few essential oils to make it smell lovely. 

A few disclaimers after reading blogs and talking to friends who have used this
* You only need 1 Tablespoon!!!
* It wont sud... but that doesn't mean it isn't cleaning.  Bubbles are made by ingredients not listed.  You might ask why I chose not to include them.  The reason is, bubbles don't clean. So I figured if my purpose in doing this is to save money, why not leave the expensive non cleaning bubbles out.

Cost Breakdown -
Zote Soap (14.1 oz) = $1.67. I used the whole bar (about 5 cups shaved) = $1.67
Washing Soda (55 oz) = $3.24. I used 4 cups/32 oz = $1.89
Borax (76 oz) = $2.98. I used 4 cups/32 oz = $1.25
Cost/oz = $.06
Total Cost = 4.81

This recipe (times 4) yields 208 loads
Assuming you use 1 Tablespoon per load... each load only costs = $.02

Tide:
$15.95 for 100 oz yields 64 loads - $.16/oz
Each load costs = $.25

Seventh Generation:
$22.00 for 150 oz yields 99 loads - $.15/oz
Each load costs = $.22

Arm and Hammer Liquid Detergent:
$8.35 for 62.5 oz yields 35 loads - $.13/oz
Each load costs = $.24

OxyClean vs. Borax to soak diapers
$10.99 for 56 oz. I used 1/2 cup in my bucket of water to soak diapers.  Cost = $.20/oz
Use Borax instead.  Still use 1/2 cup in bucket of water to soak diapers. Cost = $.04/oz

If I buy one of each of these a month, I spend $57.27/month.  (Ah!  I didn't know that!).  You may be thinking yeah but that's for all three.  All three combined yield 198 loads! 
If I use my detergent, I will spend $4.81/month!!!! And that is for 208 loads!  This is a no brainer for me and my family.

I have bought Borax and Washing Soda in bulk... keep checking my blog to see what else I have been doing with them!