Friday 13 December 2013

Keeping track

(image from mysupermarket.co.uk)

This is the box of washing powder that I bought earlier in the year in some quantities because they were on half price offer at £6.  A quick check here will tell you that Ocado [internet delivery service only] have it at half price right now, at Asda it is £9.50 and Sainsbury have it at £10 but Tesco and Waitrose currently sell it at "full" price of £12 a box.  I am content that I got a bargain when I bought my six boxes.

I have been carefully measuring out my powder with an old Aldi yogurt pot, because I don't have a proper scoop.  Each time I take a measure out of the box, I make a tally mark on the side of the box, and I also noted when I started the box, back on the 13th November.

Yesterday I did the 50th wash with the powder from the box.

There is still approximately 2kg [about half] of powder in the box!

This tells me that I was about right in my estimation that a box would last nearly two months; although I must be using less than they recommend, our clothes are coming out clean on a low-temp quick wash, though I do use a longer and hotter wash if the stuff is really dirty, which is rare.

Having bought the box for £6 and squeezing approximately 100 washes from each box is bringing each wash cost in at 6p - quite a contrast with 50 washes at £12, which would have made each wash four times as expensive at 24p!  Definitely worth keeping track and doing the sums to see how we are doing.

5 comments:

Angela said...

I use Aldi's Almay tablets, and stock up when they are on offer. I use 1½ tabs per wash instead of 2. I reckon on between 7p and 8p a wash.

I also use low temp quick eco washes when I can. We dont get horrendously dirty usually [that's what overalls and plastic aprons are for]

blessings xx

Anonymous said...

I buy any generic tablets and use 1 tablet per wash - I can't remember how much I paid for the last boxes.

It definitely pays to stockpile :)

Morgan said...

Thanks for dropping by, both of you! Good to hear from you.

Haven't tried tablets in a long time because I didn't like the way I couldn't put however much powder I wanted in the drawer - hadn't thought it was possible to divide them, Ang, as I thought they would crumble. I did use some Ariel get tabs as part of a BzzAgent trial, but they were definitely inflexible!

I have used some cheap liquids with success too, but I don't think they come out with quite as low a cost per wash as the powder.

I may try some Aldi powder next year, when I have washed my way through my six boxes of Persil!

Kim @ Him, Him Me said...

I have a scoop which measures up to 60ml but only use 30ml powder most times unless its really dirty stuff

Morgan said...

Kim - thanks for that - I could have looked on the box to see what the recommended dosage was, I suppose, but I am going by eye, and what I am using looks like plenty to me! I do wonder if I could cut it down a little more, actually....