Borax: a treatise on cheap effective detergent

I try to buy the cheapest laundry detergent that I can. Because we use a lot of it around here. But I also have small children who don't just wear their clothes. They get them DIRTY. So I need a detergent that will CLEAN.

So I've been buying cheap detergent (was using Arm and Hammer till my daughter was allergic to it, now using All Free and Clear) and adding a scoop of Oxyclean to every load. This works pretty well, but Oxyclean is expensive too! So shouldn't I make it simpler and just buy the expensive detergent (Tide!) and skip the booster?

Enter Auntie Leila, who suggested that I substitute Borax for Oxyclean. At $2 per box as compared to $10 for Oxyclean it is a definite savings and I am here to tell you that it works!

That being said, I still think Oxyclean is best for soaking out pesky stains. Like when Ann crawled through the mud in her white tights and turtleneck, I soaked in Borax to little or no effect whereas the Oxyclean did the trick.

And while we are on the subject of detergent, let's move to the kitchen. I've been using liquid soap (just about the cheapest: Palmolive Eccosomethingorother) in my dishwasher, because I figured that if the soap didn't have to spend time dissolving it would spend more time cleaning and that should be a good thing. Last week a dear friend suggested I try the powder instead (again about the cheapest available: Cascade) and low and behold, it works so much better! Yay! cleaner dishes!