Home Made Laundry powder

I started out with these ingredients, and Rhonda Jean's recipe from her book, although it is on her blog as well at http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com

There are four bars of soap in that pack, and I needed to use two of them.

So I grated 2 bars of soap, with an old cheese grater, and then put it in a bowl with 2 cups each of borax and the soda crystals.  I gave it all a jolly good stir and put it into a tub with a lid, and included an old tablespoon measure which I can keep specially for this purpose.  Two tablespoons per load is the recommended measure.

I have done two loads of towels with this new mixture, and not only have they come out clean as required, but they smell faintly of soap, which is quite pleasant.  I didn't add the essential oil although I might do in future.

And the cost?  Very impressive!

The pack of soda crystals cost 99p for the 1kg, and I used 350g, so a cost of 35p.

The borax pack is £1.29 for 500g, of which I used 400g, so that cost £1.03.

The four pack of soap currently costs £1.33 at Tesco, and I used two of the four bars, which cost me 66p.

Total cost is £2.04 for the batch of laundry powder.  I then did the boring but predictable thing - I measured how many loads at 2tbsp each I would get from the batch and realised that 30 would be about right, hence a  cost per load of just 7p.  

Washday blues

The rain still keeps coming and I finally had to do some washing today, so it is now hanging in the verandah, and spread across airers in front of the fire - it Has Got to get dry by tomorrow evening so I can iron the uniforms for Monday morning.  All the shirts and t shirts are on hangers so that they take up less space.

Today I went to the hardware shop in town to try to buy some borax substitute in order to make my first batch of Rhonda Jean's recipe for home made laundry powder.  I can't make the laundry gloop until I save enough containers to put 10 litres of it in, so I am just aiming to make the mix of grated soap, washing soda and borax. I bought some, so I am going to make that tomorrow - I am using the last of a bottle of Surf Small and Mighty which I bought months ago when one of the supermarkets had an offer on it.  I will have some washing left to do tomorrow and can try it out - I am quite excited in a homemaker's way!  I know it is not rocket science, but if I can wash the laundry with such cheap ingredients, I will be very happy.  Fingers crossed it works.  I know that there is not much fragrance to it, so I bought a small bottle of lavender oil in Boots today so that I can have slightly scented linen for a few pennies.

The chickens have had the run of the garden today as I nearly lost a welly in the run as the mud is so gloopy and deep.  They have been very very happy out on the grass and scratching up the bugs in the gravel as well as turning over the veg beds once more to find tasty worms.

I hope you are all coping with the rain - I am thinking particularly of friends in Dorset who seem to have a lot of flood water rather close to home.

Osprey watch

The daily visits have risen on a consistent basis, whether I post or not, so I am concluding that some of you are visiting me as a gateway to the osprey webcam.  In order to further support your interest, I have put the link to the osprey watch blog on the sidebar now so that it is easier to find.

I am finding it very interesting to pop on to the blog each evening to find out what has been happening on the nest, and I do enjoy a quick peek at the webcam a couple of times each day - it has been lovely to see the bird sitting there peacefully, but not so pleasant to see her drenched by heavy rain.  She is persistent, though, so I am hoping along with everyone else, that she is rewarded towards the end of May with some chicks.

Reconnecting

 This week I made one of these, and it was very much enjoyed!  This kind of cake is not made here as often as it used to be, and consequently on his six monthly check up with the cardiologist today, the FH has lost 4kg, and they were pleased with him.  Unfortunately they have given him a pretty potent drug today which has a rather unpleasant side effect, so he will be losing more weight pretty rapidly this week!!  Let's think positively - he only has to take it for a few days.

This is the courgette pickle I made last summer when we had a glut of courgettes, and it was set in the cupboard with a label which indicated that it needed to mature until at least November.  The FH has been eating it with cold meats, cheeses and in sandwiches, and reports that it is even better now for a longer maturing period.  He has asked for more - perhaps I should get round to sowing some courgettes seeds!

Life is getting particularly difficult at the moment in that I am spending long hours in school.  There are some significant developments going on just now, and they are going to lead to further work which will take time to reconcile to get the school back on an even keel for September.  

This means that the house is continually untidy - I managed to clean some bathroom washbasins today and fling some bleach down the loos this morning, but I could have done more if I had had time.  The constant rain is hampering the laundry - why wash something if all the drying spaces are full of damp stuff already?!  And I even went to the length of looking on the internet for a tumble dryer this afternoon - I saw the prices and soon reconsidered, so don't worry, I haven't succumbed.

The YFG has recommenced the piano lessons and is beginning to prepare for her Grade 1 exam.  She will start back at ballet on Saturday.  She needs a ballet leotard so I went to the local shop for one today - I was so relieved to find that they are more reasonably priced than the gymnastics ones, which are nearly £40 each, but then she wears those for far more time each week.  Ballet ones are half the price, but then I had a shock when the chap said that the character skirts are £55.  I soon decided that we will look for a second hand one!  It is ridiculous to pay that much for something she will wear for less than 20 minutes a week!  Getting things into perspective, I wouldn't pay that much for a skirt for everyday wear.

The EFG is working very hard for her upcoming GCSE exams - we have a timetable fixed to her bedroom wall so we can see exactly when they are all to be held.  She starts on Monday with two full days of Art.  She went to help at Guides last night but found that she wasn't really needed and spent the time looking through her folder, so she has decided that she probably ought to be using her time at home with her work.  Guides can go on the back burner for a few weeks.

I am longing for better weather again, as I am sure most people in the UK are.  May is on the horizon already, so I do hope that it will bring us more springlike weather.  I do feel for all those people whose homes are threatened by floodwater at this time, and hope that you are all safe and well.

Banking on us

Listening to Stephanie Flanders on the BBC news now, I have just heard her say that the economic recovery depends on consumers spending money..........what money would that be, then?

What with the rising prices of fuel and food, the changes to the taxation system and the benefits for families, and the general malaise in the country, I am not sure what money the bigwigs think that we might all have spare to spend on getting Britain out of recession.

As a family, the girls have held sway today, and we seem to be going on holiday in the Skoda - packing it will be the challenge of a lifetime.  It makes economic sense - I can get almost 600 miles on a tank of diesel for £55, so I am sure that that would be enough diesel for the week, and more!  But we will have to be very canny with the luggage and think twice about what we want and need to take along...The FH was having doubts today that we can afford to go on holiday, but I soon put him right - the accommodation is already paid for, and we have our pot of spending money, so all we need now is some food, which we would need anyway if we stayed at home.

Spending here will continue to be kept fairly strictly under control.  I went into the Co-op today for a packet of pork chops, expecting to pay about £3 or £4, so I was very pleased to come out with a reduced £1.75 pack and even more pleased to be able to report that that was all I bought!  We continue to track our spending on a spreadsheet, and I can see how we are doing against all the annual figures.  Some sections are doing better than others, and so I know where I need to think more creatively.

I hope you are all keeping track and managing your money, rather than letting yourselves be managed by money, or lack thereof!

RIP Rosie

The EFG's aged and beloved female rabbit, Rosie, died last night.  When the EFG went out to them yesterday evening, she knew that Rosie was leaving us, and she called me out there to see her as well.  She sat in the corner of her hutch, quiet and peaceful, not moving at all.  She let us touch her, stroke her, and talk to her.  We said our goodbyes, blessed her and wished her peace.  This morning, she had indeed gone.  UJ has taken her body home with him tonight, and he will bury her under the trees in his orchard, where she can truly rest in peace.

Cheerio! Adios! Dasvidanya! Auf Wiedersehen!

I'm not ticking someone's boxes any more as I have one less follower tonight than I had this morning, I think!

Whatever it is that you are looking for, I hope you find it somewhere, and wish you all the best for the future, whoever you are....I'm not going through the list to see who has gone!

People's lives change and their aims and ambitions are also continually under review too, so I am not surprised that someone would change their mind - I regularly review the blogs I have in my sidebar, and if a blog is not interesting to me any longer, it gets the boot.  Sometimes it depends on what I am looking for information and support with in my own life, and by whom I want to be inspired.  Life changes and we need to make sure we change along with it.