Making laundry soap

Recently, I started on an adventure in making my own laundry soap and cleaners. I'm on a mission to make things for less money and to make cleaners that really clean with natural ingredients. I've bought the ones at the store and they don't seem to really clean the way the ones I can make at home do. Most recipes have baking soda, vinegar, washing soda or borax in them. They clean very well too!

A couple weeks ago, I ventured into making my own liquid laundry soap. I spend about $20 every other month on laundry soap for a total of about $120 a year. This recipe makes it so I spent less than $10 a year. It's very simple and can be found one this website:
http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap.htm

I also have become concerned with how many ingredients are in items in my house particularly soaps and food. By making my own products I know exactly what is in it. I've not gone crazy and begun to make everything. Some things truly work better or cost less if bought at the store. I've focused on laundry soap, multi-purpose cleaner and fresher food.

I started making Lila's baby food at first to save the hundreds of dollars we would have spent buying it. I also wanted to make the transition to adult foods easier since they would taste the same. It does take a lot of time and planning. Looking back I wish I'd done it for Ethan. We gave him organic jarred baby food. I don't think he's harmed because I didn't make it, but I'm glad we're doing it now.

Lila's eating baby food!

This time around I decided that I was going to make baby food for Lila. It been kind of addictive. I love that I'm saving money and she's getting fresh food. So far, I've made avocado, sweet potatoes applesauce, bananas, peas, carrots, zucchini (to try later), and mangoes (for later). I've also made some applesauce (cinnamon & strawberry) for Ethan.

She doesn't care for avocados so I've been mixing one cube with two cubes of sweet potatoes to put in with her breakfast each morning. We do things backwards here. She has fruit with rice cereal at dinner so she'll sleep longer and veggies in the morning. Her favorite is bananas.

When she turns 6 months I'll start making her cereal but for now the kind you buy at the store can make it finer than I can. I'm looking forward to learning how to do that too.

We've recently started getting fresh fruits & veggies to the house through a company called It's Organic. We love it! Thanks to a neighbor who told us about it and a groupon that made it even more affordable. On Tuesdays when it's delivered I get to making baby food and cleaning fruits & veggies for the next two weeks of eating. I have become addicted to making my own food and cleaners. But, I'll write more about that in my next post.

Lila is growing very fast and loving eating real food! She even opens her mouth half the time now.