Inexpensive Soap?

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Go to or call a local restaurant and ask the manager if they have any used fryer oil you could take off their hands. In most cases, restaurants have to pay someone to take their oil and "dispose" of it. I've made soap with used fryer oil from a restaurant my family works at. It's a great way to recycle, which can be a strong advertising point, if you're looking to sell. It also makes the same quality soap, without the awful smell most people think the used oil will produce- the lye cancels out the odor. I've managed to cut my expenses in half this way, and it gives my soap a brown sugar color which I really like. ImageUploadedBySoap Making1388420704.390523.jpg
 
The sluggish American economy has helped make dollar stores an increasing segment of the retail industry. As they increase, one such store is trying out an in-store pharmacy. There is little doubt, however, that the dollar store is a rapidly growing segment of the retail market. Stores are expanding to sell a wider variety of brand name merchandise at rock-bottom prices, in a collective bid to steal market shares from the big box stores.
 
Liquid Castile soap. It has only olive oil. I prefer Castile as liquid soap rather than solid soap. You do not notice how slimy it is if you make it as liquid soap.
 
Go to or call a local restaurant and ask the manager if they have any used fryer oil you could take off their hands. In most cases, restaurants have to pay someone to take their oil and "dispose" of it. I've made soap with used fryer oil from a restaurant my family works at. It's a great way to recycle, which can be a strong advertising point, if you're looking to sell. It also makes the same quality soap, without the awful smell most people think the used oil will produce- the lye cancels out the odor. I've managed to cut my expenses in half this way, and it gives my soap a brown sugar color which I really like. View attachment 5087

That surely is cheap, but I would add the small cost of the salt for salting it out and get a clean white soap without the unhealthy and maybe carcinogenic residues from the frying. Salt can be bought in big sacks.
 
Unless you want to render your own lard or tallow, buying lard or vegetable shortening locally would be the least expensive in the U.S. The reason I say unless you want to render is because after a few times of rendering, you may get tired of that, as it is time consuming. Of course there is kitchen scrap oils that can be used after "cleaning" but I wouldn't want to sell those, and would use the soap quickly as chances of used oils going rancid seems higher. And, I agree with engblom about used restaurant fryer oil. It would have to be cleaned, and keep in mind, most don't change it as often as they should, so some smell would remain, and, it may not be something that others feel is safe to use. I know I worry about the carcinogens from eating foods fried in restaurants as some really wait a very long time to change the oil.

{Cannot believe I just watched eight and a half minutes of commercials. :crazy: Much like our Palmolive commercials. Why didn't they rinse those dishes, aaahhhh?!!!}
 
I don't know if you are still interested in replies but my teenage daughter and myself :) loves my 100%lard bar with lots of ground oatmeal and a generous squirt of honey which gives it a natural scent which lasts. It matures brilliantly and isn't drying. I don't know if lard is inexpensive there in comparison to olive oil. After experimenting with recipes i always go back to it! Wishing you the best!
 
Refined coconut oil tends to be fairly cheap (especially compared to the little jars of extra-virgin CO you get at health food stores), 100% CO soap with a 20% superfat would be fairly inexpensive. Home-rendered lard/tallow soaps are very cheap too, the fat portion of the soap could even be virtually free if you ask a butcher for fatty scraps. Or maybe they'd be willing to do a trade for some of the finished soap :) You could also just save the grease leftover from making ground beef and then just clean it in a stock pot after you have a couple pounds.
 
You can get 56 oz of Coconut Oil at Sams for $9(ish). Lard at Walmart is under $4/lb, cheap Olive Oil at Walmart also reasonable. Castor Oil $3/6oz bottle. Makes splendid soap. Add something that smells good.
 
I found nice quality lard (manteca) on sale for a couple dollars for 3 lbs on sale at a grocery store grand opening nearby. That made a nice 4 lb soap for maybe $3.00
 
It ended up being 13 (dont ask how I got 13 bars out of a slab mold) of chunky soap - this one. So about $.23 cents a bar without factoring in the EO. The scent was a 1.3 oz of Litsea cubeba and tangerine 5x so add a couple dollars to the total cost, color was carrots that were about to go off anyways. But yeah, fun cheap soap.

orange-piggy-soap.jpg
 
OK, and if you bought the EO from WSP in the 4oz bottles, you paid $9.99/bottle which brings the EO price to 0.51/bar which brings the grand total of materials to(drumroll please).....$0.74/bar. AND I would venture to guess it provided a couple of hours of entertainment as well as soap to use. Compare that to the cost of syndet bars as well as a movie or something else you do for fun, and I would venture to guess that you will actually save a large chunk of change by making soap. You can actually give soap as gifts for birthdays and Christmas, thereby saving even more money!

And that soap is gorgeous! I have got to try using carrots in my soap!
 
the cheapest soap??

just make 100% palm oil soap and add sugar as a foam-booster...
palm oil is the cheapest oil here

*this is the cheapest soap, not the best one*
 
I just made my first batch of soap (shampoo bars actually). I used really cheap ingredients because I was certain I was going to mess it up. I used lard and castor oil. It was less than $7 for the oils. I threw in some peppermint EO that I had sitting around collecting dust, and some dried ground rosemary. It worked fine.

Today, I am going to make a batch of 100% olive oil castile soap. I bought a big bottle of olive oil (51 oz) for $10. Takes months to cure, but if it turns out ok, it'll be Christmas presents. My relatives will probably enjoy a break from homemade jam. Or maybe they'll get both :).
 

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