Homemade laundry detergent

I have been seeing/hearing people talk about how they are making their own laundry detergent a lot lately. I never paid much attention to it, because to be honest I thought it wasn't going to be the same as my trusty old Gain powder. I am very picky about my laundry. I like my clothes to smell fresh and clean, but not scented. Also in our house we have some VERY messy things that need to be laundered. Jim's uniforms get all sorts of wonderful things on them i.e bodily fluids, blood, etc. from his patients. Katie is a NON-STOP puker which leaves a lovely scent on towels and her bibs if not washed with a good detergent.
I will be honest, my motivation to try this homemade stuff, was simply a financial one. Most people are doing this because it is all natural and better for the environment and for us, but I am NOT one that falls into that group. I am tired of spending $20 every few weeks for a box of detergent!! So when it was brought to my attention that this would cost me less than that, I was willing to give it a try.
So I purchased all of my needed supplies for $26-it only cost $21 for the supplies but I had to buy a container to keep it in and I didn't have one with a locking lid in case it got knocked over or dropped(I'm clumsy so I plan for these sort of things) and that was $5 on sale.
The goods: Borax, washing soda, and TWO bars of Fels-naptha soap. I don't know why I only have one in the picture.

Now it is SO easy....
You mix 3 cups of borax.
3 cups of the washing soda
and then you grate up the fels-naptha and use 3 cups of that. I used my good old square cheese grater. I had started using the food processor, but I didn't want to dull the blade with this, and plus I got a decent arm workout doing it by hand. And it seriously took me 10 minutes.
Just mix the ingredients together in a container and you are good to go.

I have an HE front loading machine so I use 1/8 of a cup per load.
The first load I did was whites. I really wanted to test this stuff out on the hard stuff. I did NOT use any bleach because I wanted to see if it would clean by itself. Imagine my surprise when the clothes(dirty socks and all) came out sparkly white!! And the smell....it was good. It just smells clean and fresh. But I use dryer sheets that help kind of give it my kind of scent:)
I have since washed 5 loads of Katie puke towels and bibs(she really wanted to try it out too I guess. :/) and I just finished washing Jim's uniforms. It didn't leave behind any build up or residue, and the clothes look great!
I am SOLD!
The next time I need to make more, I will only have to buy the 2 bars of fels-naptha soap, because I have plenty of the other stuff. The bars cost $1.29 so I am going to save TONS of money!! I LOVE that!!
I purchased everything at Raley's because that is where I shop. I tried to get the stuff at Target but they don't carry a single item(at least our store didn't) I was told Walmart has all of it, and its probably cheaper than Raleys but I didn't have plans to go to Walmart just for that. Next time I am there though I will check the price and compare.
There are also recipes for liquid detergent if you prefer that.
Try it for yourself. I bet you will be thanking me:)