Wash your hands

I love the bath and body works hand soaps but they are about $5 per bottle. Even when they go on sale and I stock up they aren't cheap. I go through at least 1 bottle per month in the kitchen and the 3 bathrooms go through about 1 bottle every 2 months. This is roughly $100 per year on hand soap. So I decided to make my own hand soap. I made one gallon of soap and I spent $1.03 to make the whole gallon. I figure a gallon will last 4-6 months. So for $4.12 a year at most I made some awesome soap.

Ingredients:

8 oz of bar soap. (I bought one at the 99 cent store for a whopping 99 cents)
2 TBSP of glycerin. (I bought a bottle with 10 oz for $6. This should make at least 20 batches of soap)
1 gallon of water

Shave the soap. I used a cheese grater. Add the soap, the water and the glycerin to a pot. Turn the flame to a medium heat and stir to allow the soap to melt. Don't boil. (If you buy unscented soap you can add fragrance to it at this point. My Aunt Beth gave me the great idea to put grapefruit rind in the water and boil it before I add the soap to have a nice natural grapefruit soap. I am totally doing this next time.) Let it sit for 10-12 hours to cool. I used an immersion blender to get the clumps and top layer nice and smooth. Then fill up your soap containers. I had lots extra and have it in a container to refill as I use what's in the house.

This is a $95.88 savings per year. So we are now at a total of $677.40 in savings for 2012. I am still waiting to make the dishwasher soap. I am almost out so we will make this when we run out.

Next post? Adventures in do it yourself hair color.