As tasty as most of my posts are (at least to me) I thought I would share a 2 year experiment.  I am all about saving money. I started making everything from scratch for two reasons, one...my intestinal issues cannot take the processed foods, and two....I am cheap. Homemade is often much more economic, especially in bulk. Over time I have made everything from my own version of spices and rubs to dish soap and body wash. Even toilet bombs.  But there were so many different recipes for laundry detergents that I had to work through a few to find the one that worked.

It had to be powder form, liquid is just a storage nightmare.
It could not be scented, I break out in hives.
It had to be cost saving.

Over time this is the recipe I found. It is from Being Creative's site

Now her version lasted 9 months and cost about $20.00, mine lasted about 24 months (but at the time I was the only one using it).

I did tweek the recipe a bit, I suggest you check out the original and try what works for you. 

1 4 lb 12 oz box Borax (2.15 kg or 76 oz) found in the detergent isle

 

1 4 lb box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (1.81 kg) found in the cooking isle

1  box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda 55 oz (3 lb 7 oz) found in the detergent isle

5 bars of Fels-Naptha soap, found in the detergent isle (if you use Zote bars use 2 bars instead, Zote can be found at Home Depot)

1 huge container of Oxy Clean or store brand Oxy Clean (5 lbs total )

Sam's Club was great for finding huge amounts. 

or 

You should be able to find all of these items at your grocery store.

I grated the naptha soap, and in a large bucket combined all the other ingredients until completely mixed. I use a 2 tbs scoop.