Thrifty Thursday - washing day!

When the sun is high in the sky, and I am dreamily looking out over the garden, I often have the same aspiration - that one day when I need groceries I open the door to my garden and most of our "shopping" would be in the dirt at my feet.Rather than load up the car with children, bags and lists and come home with a lot less cash, over priced food and cranky kids all I would do would be to pick and wash my home grown fresh produce and make simple but nourishing food. Of course, my dream also has a line of fresh,  pure white laundry on the line and on that score i have definiely found the alternative to commercial products. Today I made gloop. I'd read about it for years on forum posts from other smart mums and eco-warriors but only started to make it last year. Its wonderful, I can't figure out why I didn't use it years ago - it washes our clothes perfectly, any stubborn stains would remain anyway no matter what I use. My only gripe is I can't find borax in this country so make do without. I use this recipe,  found purely by surfing around.

The soda crystals are £1 for this bag which works out atabout  25p per cup and the soap was £1 for 6 bars. So it total for the month it costs me less than 50p . Now that is a thrifty tip I like!

When its like this I also add a few drops of essential oil - this month I added geranium - yummy smelling, clean clothes for one tenth of the price of commercial powders. Maybe you have something different? Thrifty? Eco friendly - let me know by posting a comment.