GRANNY'S KITCHEN: Homemade Laundry Soap

Out of laundry soap again! Luckily I have all the ingredients on hand to MAKE my own laundry soap!

I usually use FelsNaptha soap, but this time I used a bar of Ivory soap, because my mother had found an OLD one in her cupboard that was turning brown.  I put it on the sink, but noone wanted to use it.  I therefore decided that it could be used in my next batch of laundry soap.  My recipe calls for 1/3 bar of Fels Naptha, but states that you can use a full bar of Ivory instead, which is what I did.
  I took out my big pot so that it would hold the whole batch.  Some people do this in a smaller pot and then transfer to a bucket -- I like to skip that step.  I grated the whole bar of Ivory soap into my big stock pot then added 6 cups of water. I kept it on medium and stirred with a plastic spoon (don't want a soapy taste to get in my wooden ones!!).  Once it was all melted, I added 1/2 cup each of washing soda and borax powder and heated until they were both dissolved.  Once dissolved, I added 26 cups of water and stirred.  I put the lid on it and carried to my laundry room to set overnight. In the morning this will look like egg drop soup.
I will stir in pour up into soap and juice containers that I have saved for this purpose (These are plastic juice containers that have the handle on them).  Once in the smaller bottles, I have a variety of essential oils on hand to add scent (although I often do NOT add scent, as I like the clean, fresh smell of just the soap -- and I think the Ivory will be one I may not add scent to).  BUT, if you wish, I bought some at the $1 shop and some at the health food store.  My scents of choice are lemon, Jasmine, and ocean breeze.  I also have rose oil which smells lovely, but I've decided my whole laundry doesn't need that!  I will put some of that in a smaller bottle of laundry soap to use when washing my lingerie.
When using this, you only need about 1/2 cup (or a little less for front loading machines).  This means that I now have enough laundry soap for at least 64 loads of laundry!!
*I paid NOTHING for the Ivory soap since this was some my mom gave me, but I have found it for .50 and with a coupon, I have paid as little as .25 for Ivory soap. If using Fels Naptha, it runs about $1.30 (and since you need only 1/3 bar of it, you spend about .43 per batch.
*The Borax and Washing Soda cost less than $4/box.. and you only need 1/2 cup. I believe there would be enough for about 16 batches in each box. If that's the case, and IF you had to spend $4/box, that would be about .25 each.
*I paid only $1 for some of my oils (paid more for the Jasmine), and you only need a few drops. If a bottle lasted for only 16 batches, the cost of the scent would be .06
THEREFORE, I just made enough laundry soap for 64 loads of laundry and it only cost me an estimated .56! That's less than .01/load! WOW!! How's that for a thrifty granny?!!