Laundry on the Cheap!

I've been (slightly) addicted to Pinterest for a few months.  I don't spend hours on it, but I do my fair share of browsing in the mornings and evenings.  Some things I am absolutely loving are the recipes and DIY projects.  I found a smoothie recipe for a 7 day weight loss and dropped 8 pounds in a week.  I've found recipes that my family loves and craft projects I have really enjoyed. 
One thing I found a while back has been on my mind since the day I pinned it;  Homemade Laundry detergent.  I figured I would get to it when I ran out of Tide, then I did, but couldn't find all the ingredients at the grocery store, so the last time I had to buy some, I bought the smallest bottle. 
I finally got done with that bottle and found all the ingredients I needed at two stores.  I could have found them all at one, but I am a Target shopper all the way and avoid Walmart like the plague.  I found 2 things at Target yesterday and drug my butt into Walmart today for the other 3 (4).
The recipe I used is from here.  I read through most of the comments and found them extremely helpful in my decision to make this.  I have an HE washer and have never used powder in it.  Most people said they put it in the soap dispenser and not directly in the drum.  SOLD!
Here is what it calls for:



 The rundown of cost is this:
4 lb box Borax:  $3.49 @Target
Arm and Hammer Baking Soda, two 2lb. boxes:  $2.09 ea., $4.18 @Target
3 Bars Fels-Naptha soap: $.97 ea, $2.19 @Walmart
2 Oxy Boost I got the Sun Oxy (Oxy Clean or whatever): $1.97 ea., $3.94 @Walmart
1 3.7 lb Box Super Washing Soda: $3.08 @Walmart (this price is a guess, my receipt didn't print right.  The other 2 Walmart prices I am pretty sure about.)
The total is:  $16.88 without tax.  Probably under $20 for all of this!  I did buy a $5 glass container to put it in, so it was a smidge over $20, but I can use that again when I run out.

All of this gets mixed into a bag/bucket and is supposed to last almost a year.  Give or take a little depending on how many loads you do.  I maybe do 4-6 a week. 
Here's what you do:

Shred the 3 bars of soap like cheese.  I used my food processor's shredder attachment and shoved those bars in and viola!

Didn't really want long strands of soap, so I put the blade in and ground that up to get granules.

Take all those goodies outside and use a 5 gallon bucket with a black garbage bag inside.  Dump all that stuff in there and mix it up.  I kind of layered everything and then pulled the bag out and moved it around from the outside with my hand.  I put it back in the bucket and scooped with the plastic Oxy containers and poured into the glass container until full. It made enough to full up both of those Oxy containers and 2 1 liter Ball jars.

Use the scoop that comes with the Oxy boost as your laundry scoop.  1 scoop for small, not too dingy loads and 2 scoops for large and dirty loads.

This is what the result looks like.  Smells very fresh and clean!  You can use your fabric softener with it.  Some of the comments from the site said they use the Downey Unstoppables and add a whole canister of that into the mix.  I am thinking of going the "green" route with softener and doing Vinegar and  Essential Oils.  I also use the Bounce bar that sticks to the side of the dryer as well instead of sheets.