Homemade Laundry Detergent

There are lots of good things that have come from penny pinching.  

We make most foods from scratch -- which most often taste BETTER! We make our own chicken stock, french fries, potato chips, pancakes, waffles, cookies, cakes, biscuits, salad dressings, and lots of other things.    

I've learned how to improvise when I'm lacking an ingredient (or two) -- I have the Food Network show "Chopped" to thank for this!    

I have learned how to change the brake pads on my car.  I can repair an iPhone without killing it (most of the time).  

I've learned how to do so many things because, if I need anything done, I pretty much have to do it myself.  

Today, let me expound on the joys and virtues of homemade laundry detergent!  I started making it because it was cheaper than most detergents but also because it is pure and basic and simple and old fashioned.  Some member of my household always seems to get a rash when I change detergents so I quit with all the detergent roulette. 

I found a recipe on Pinterest.  Then I modified it a bit.  The recipe called for Fels-Naptha soap which I think just plain STINKS!  It smells like anti-septic and pine sol which is not how I wanted my clothes to smell.  So I substituted good ole Ivory soap.  Now I LOVE the smell!

Here's my modification of the recipe:

Homemade Laundry Detergent

1 box washing soda (whatever size they have)

1 box borax (whatever size they have)

1 box baking soda (I usually get a large box, put half in the detergent, and use the other half for household cleaning)

1 bar of Ivory soap

Grate the Ivory soap with a cheese grater.  Mix all the ingredients together (be careful not to breathe the dust or you'll be trying to get it out of your nose and throat for the rest of the day).  Store in some fun container -- a cookie jar, a metal bin, a big mixing bowl -- whatever you like.  

Use 1-2 Tablespoons in the washer.

All the ingredients are available on the laundry aisle at most grocery stores, the combined cost is under $10, and it lasts a LONG time because you use so little.

I was skeptical that it would work as well as "regular" laundry detergent but I've come to believe that it works BETTER!  

And it smells like Ivory soap.  Who doesn't like the smell of Ivory soap?

And no one gets a rash!  

Raising the Dead

There are so many cliches to describe the phenomenon.  "A blessing in disguise".  "Every cloud has a silver lining".  "It is darkest before the dawn".  It's just that this hopeful concept is so hard to remember when you are cowering in the scary part of the dark before the dawn.  I'm a firm believer in the "larger plan" but I often live deeply rooted in the terror of today's narrow perspective.

I've said often to my daughter, Tessa, when she finds herself in difficult circumstances. "What are you supposed to learn?  Now she says it to me, "Ok, Mom.  What are you supposed to learn?".  Ugh.  You're ruining my pity party, kid!  But she's right (and so was I when I was in the prettier shoes). 

What I've just learned from my recent experience of being "fired" from the realty is that I probably should have shopped around a little more before I chose a realty in the first place.  Or maybe it's just that I was supposed to have trusted the process and had faith that something better would come along for me.  Still, the free-fall is scary and painful and it's hard to have faith and trust as you fly downward and watch things go by on the decent.

Yesterday I met with another realty.  They have better support, better structure, better supervision, better perks, and, essentially, if I choose to join up with them, I get a raise.  Yes, I thought I got fired but, instead, I seem to be getting a raise! 

They pay a starting commission of 70% (that's a 70/30 split with the realty on the buyer or seller agent portion of the total 6% commission on any given transaction, to be specific, if you care).  I was at a 52% rate before. 

Granted, the new realty charges a $78 monthly fee but that is easily compensated for.  $78 a month adds up to $936 a year.  The difference between a 52% commission and a 70% commission on the sale of just one $175,000 sale (the average sale price around here) as the buyer's agent (the buyer's realty gets 2.7% of the total 6% commission on a sale while the seller's realty gets 3.3%) is $945.  An entire year's fees could be covered by just one sale.

Another compensating factor is that realtors with this particular realty can get a 25% discount on their AT&T phone bills.  That would amount to saving $87.50 per month for me -- $9.50 more than the $78 fee.  Either way, it it makes the fee tolerable. 

I haven't decided for sure that I'm going to join up with this realty or even if I'm going to continue in real estate.  I'm pretty sure I will because real estate is something I really want to pursue, it has the potential to pay periodic four-figure commissions what are far more desireable than the dead-end $10-$12 an hour I can make elsewhere, and, as I've said previously, the decision to quit or stay in real estate will be made by ME, not by my former broker. 

A week ago, my real estate career seemed dead.  Now I've essentially gotten a raise, or at least the potential of a raise.  Within a month or two I'm hoping to have the $600 that I need to reinstate my license and pay for everything I need to go back to real estate with this new company. 

My suspicion that I was supposed to be in real estate somewhere else is probably going to turn out to be correct.  I feel as if I have been plucked out of one situation and am about to be plopped down into a better one -- kind of like when you pick up a bug and move it to a safer location for its own good.  The bug doesn't know you're trying to do it a favor by moving it from here to there.  It has to go through the fear of being picked up and not knowing what's going to happen next.  I'm always happy for the bug when it figures out that it's been done a favor.  I guess I'm the bug at the moment.  I am very grateful for the favor.