What is wrong with these balls!?!?!?!?

My last day of full-time employment is April 19th.  I admit it, I am scared.  Scared to death actually.  I have no idea what is going to happen, but what I can tell you is that when I started to doubt that I was suppose to "come home", God made it painfully obvious that it was his plan.  So, we are stepping out in faith that he will provide.  I am doing all I know to do.  We are analyzing the budget and trying to find ways to cut costs.  We are pairing down the cable to the bare minimum that will not cause us to cancel our contract and pay the early termination fee.  We have saved my last couple of paychecks.  And we have been working on cutting lots of other things - especially the food budget - or as I call it, the "Walmart budget".  I mean, who buys just food there?  Someone always needs something that is NOT food related and it always gets bought.  Know what I mean?  Yeah, you do!

So, there has been lots of hubbub over make it yourself cleaners, laundry soap, glass cleaner, and these stupid BALLS!!!!  These balls have become the bane of my existence the last couple of weeks.  There are directions all over the Internet for these balls, but for some reason, mine are not working.  Take a look:

WHAT IS WRONG HERE?  I'm getting mad now.  You may be wondering, um, what is that ball exactly?  This is suppose to be a "felted wool dryer ball".  Only, mine aren't felting.  No idea why.  I followed the directions.  I actually washed them multiple times and they STILL will not felt.  Then, when I tried to felt them one more time they unwound in the wash.  What's up with that?  UGH!  I went to JoAnn's Fabrics because I was able to "convince" Rob to let me try one more time, so i was looking for wool roving (no, I have no idea what this is, but i was looking for it.)  Couldn't find it, so I am contemplating what to do next with these things.

Next, thanks to my friend Laura, I made my own All Purpose Cleaner:

You know what?  I like it!  Alot!  Here is the recipe:

All Purpose Cleaner

2 Tablespoons Vinegar

1 teaspoon of Borax

a few drops of mild dish soap

10 drops of essential oil (optional)

 

In a 16 spray bottle put vinegar, borax and hot water. Swish around until borax has dissolved. Add the drops of dish detergent and fill the rest of the bottle with water. Add the essential oil - any you want - lavender, orange, lemon!

 

 

Then, there was a thread on saving money in one of the adoption boards about making laundry cleaner.  I had made the liquid one before and was not very excited to do it again, but the cost effectiveness is unbelievable.  Then, someone posted a powder form and I knew that was the one:

 

 

This is pretty awesome!  I was SO SURPRISED how well this worked.  The whole thing cost about 16 dollars to make - including the tub you see.  It is going to last about 4 - 6 months!  Can you imagine?  6 months!  That's alot of savings!  Here is the recipe, in case you would like to try it, but be careful, it makes ALOT!

Laundry Detergent

1 box of Borax

1 box of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

3 bars of Fels-Naptha

1 small tub of Oxi-Clean

1 large bottle of Downy Unstoppables (for the fresh smell)

 

Dump all ingredients into large container.  Grate the Fels-Naptha with a cheese grater, the smallest grater, into the tub.  Mix well.  Use 1/8 cup per load.  I found that a coffee scoop is exactly 1/8th cup!

 

So, needles to say, I am pretty excited about these cost savings.  If you can help me figure out what is wrong with my dryer balls, please let me know, I'm dying to fix them!

 

I'm sure some of you were hoping on an adoption update - I am too!  Will update with more exciting stuff later this week or early next week - not adoption related!

 

<3,

Christy