Frugal Friday Recipe: Clothing Spot remover (gel)

Cost per 16oz jar full  (including power): $.03 cents (geeky calculations at the end of the post)

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: None but must sit about 2 hours before first use

Laundry is a big deal at our home (can  you tell by all my frugal recipes related to laundry?). My husband loves to garden and work outside, and my girls are both little enough to create quite alot of laundry related messes. Saving money in the laundry department has saved us sooo much! My favorite laundry cleaner used to be “Shout Gel”. I loved that it was so easy to apply, was thick enough not to leak over everything and stayed in place and worked! But through a bit of experimentation (and some suggestions from Jon’s Grandmother who grew up without such luxuries) I discovered something much cheaper that I think works just as well! In the pictures you can see my girls love helping me make this, what a great impromptu “preschool” time we have!

1. Gather your ingredients

• Soap bar pieces (we use leftover soap too small to wash with) Enough to fill 1/3-1/2 your container
• A glass or heat safe container with a lid
• A hammer or rolling pin
• Boiling water

2. Crush the soap bits

We use a mallet or hammer, you can use a rolling pin or just jump on them. We keep a ziplock bag under the sink where we throw soap when it gets too small (or hotel samples) so we always have some on hand. This is the part that is kid friendly. We end up getting our soap extra tiny because everyone loves this so much!

3. Pour soap bits into your glass jar 1/3 – 1/2 full

We use an old peanut butter jar. It works great!

4. Pour boiling water into the jar until full

*Note* The soap will clump and gather toward the top. I give it a few good stirs with a whisk or fork as it cools. The chunks look odd but won’t matter in its cleaning ability and will dissolve more as it cools. If they bother you though whisk away!

5. Allow to cool before using

When it cools it will form a thick paste.

6. Apply to stain and allow to sit before washing.

When you have a stain that just won’t get out apply to clothing and let sit overnight. Then just throw it in your wash cycle with your other laundry (pretty easy eh?). I apply mine with a spoon. Our solution is very hypoallergenic as we use sensitive skin soaps so it doesn’t bother even my baby. You can see how thick it is when you apply it to the clothing. I recommend washing within 24 hours (as do most stain removers) to avoid fading.

Geeky CALCULATIONS:
Soap = no cost

Container = no cost

Cost for water and heating water = .03 cents (approx)

TOTAL: $.03 cents

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