Homemade Liquid Hand Soap - So easy and best of all its really cheap

After reading Cluttercut's blog the other day, I found her recipe for Liquid Soap and I decided I just had to give it a try.  You can read about it here and get this brilliant recipe which will definitely help you to save and also supply your family with a nice basic soap that is very gentle to skin and is great when you have family members with sensitive skin.

http://cluttercut.blogspot.com/2010/08/really-really-easy-liquid-soap-recipe.html

I had a little bit of trouble finding the Glycerine but finally tracked it down in a Woolworths supermarket!!  It is only a 200ml bottle but it will last a while considering you only need to use 1T of it per batch.

Here is my first attempt at making the soap.  I produced this full jar plus approx 250ml which is happily sitting on my kitchen bench being used now.

I really like it.  It doesn't leave you with a scent on your hands, so if you like to have that fresh just washed hands smell you may like to add a little essential oil, but I find that it is fine without it.  I have one boy who gets dermatitis and he has found it great to use, it doesn't aggravate him at all and another boy who tends to sneeze at any strong scents so once again it is perfect just as it is for our household.

I have noticed that it has solidified a bit in this glass jar but that will be solved with a quick jab with the stick mixer when it is time to use it.  The bit that is sitting in our soap dispenser is fine, it hasn't solidified at all.  I think if it did, I would just add a little water and give it a shake and it would be back to perfection again lol.

I figure that it will save me quite a bit.  I was only buying the homebrand liquid soap which was costing me approx $1.40 for a 500ml bottle.  Even at that cheap price it would still have cost me approx $4.80 for the same amount I have just made for less than $2.00.  So this to me is a bargain.  It took very little time to make and very little effort on my part.  We are trying to save money wherever we can so this will be a great help, it may not seem like alot but it all adds up.

On the subject of saving money, we were amazed when we counted our spare change that we have been accumulating in our piggy money box.  All year we have been putting our spare change into our pig to save up for a trip to the Royal Adelaide Show.  This always costs a considerable amount when you have 4 children in tow especially when the rides are $10 a pop (we take my boys one year and then Hubby's two children the next year).  This year upon counting our Piggy we were amazed that we had managed to save $457.65.  Add that to the $82.00 worth of empty bottles we took to the recyclers and there is the show paid for and hopefully change at the end to put back in the jar!!

Okay I am off to enjoy the sunshine while we have it,,,,it has been a wild weekend and apparently more bad weather is on the way.