Money Saving Laundry Tips.....

Living frugal does not have to mean living without. For my family, it means saving money in one area so we can spend it in other ways.

Laundry is one area of my life that I find it easy to save money. Money that I would rather spend on other things! I hope you find a few of my tips to be useful.

1. Wash in cold water. Unless you have heavy grease on your clothing, warm water is not necessary and just costs you extra money by having to heat the water. I do almost all my laundry in the cold/cold cycle.

2. Use half the amount of detergent that is recommended on the bottle. If you try this and do not think it worked well for you, move up to 3/4 of the recommended amount. I have never heard anyone say they had to go back to the full amount after trying this experiment.

3. All summer long, I do use liquid fabric softener since i hang my laundry to dry. I also use half the recommended amount of this also. If money is short, I have turned t white vinegar (which is extremely cheap by the gallon). No, my laundry does not smell like a pickle. Vinegar actually cuts the soap suds so the laundry is cleaner and softer. When I do use the dryer, I cut my dryer sheets in half too.

4. Only wash full loads. Why waste the electric or water on a small load? Wait till you have a full load and get better use out of your money.

5. From March through October, I hang laundry outside to dry as often as the weather allows. Sometimes this means watching the weather report to see which days would be best for me to do laundry. A little planning saves us a ton of money. Nothing beats the smell of laundry dried in the fresh air! I hang socks and undies on a drying rack in my laundry room since I choose to keep them private.