Last week I finally ran out of laundry detergent. I had been planning for months to attempt making my own because I am SICK AND TIRED of spending so much money on laundry detergent (I do not like what it does to my grocery bill). And it sounded kind of fun in a productive "look what I can do" sort of way.
I got the recipe from the Grocery Cart Challenge lady. (Check it out here.) I gathered my supplies and whipped up my batch. I was so proud of what I had done.
Then I went to my parents' home for supper to celebrate my dad's birthday. And my mother just always has to one-up me. Here's how it went down. I informed them that I had made said laundry detergent and my mom asked how I did it. I proceeded to tell the family how I had grated up a bar of fels naptha soap, dissolved it in hot water, added washing soda and borax and stirred the whole thing together.
My brother said, "Oh, well Mom used to make laundry detergent." I had no memory of this so I asked her how she had done it - wanting to compare recipes and all - and she responded: "Oh, I kept all my kitchen grease, cooked it to remove impurities, combined that with lye, waited for it to harden and then ground it into a powder."
Huh, so she created soap and I basically just mixed some soaps together. I'm not feeling quite that excited about my detergent now; cheap lazy soap that it is. No blood, sweat, tears, and planning required for this load of bologna.
Someday I'll find a way to beat that woman at her game.
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