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How many loads of laundry do you do a week? A day? There's two adults and a child living in my house, and we would put on a load of washing every day, and about half the week there will be two loads.

Every penny counts around here, especially at this time of the year when I'm trying to save everything I can for the summer holidays. Here's some great tips I came across when I set out to find out if I was making the most of my washing machine.

Sometimes when I stare at the huge mountin of laundry waiting to be cleaned in our house I think to myself. You know, what if I just threw it all in the bin and simply bought new clothes?

It is ever so tempting. And it was the first thought that sprung to mind when I started to write this feature. My clothes are dirty - buy me some more! Oh to be that rich. But I'm not. Nor am I really that wastful. It is, but a dream. Sigh.

So what can I do to actually make that mound more managable and save time on laundry? The answer, I suspect with a feeling of doom, is to be more organised. I went online and to our PlayPennies parents in search of top tips for keeping the washing and ironing in hand. Here's the most useful and/or interesting tips I came across.

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Laundry is possibly the biggest annoyance to me as a mum. It doesn’t matter how much you do, or how often, at the end of the day, there’s always more. If there was an environmentally friendly, cost effective way of using disposable clothing, I’d so go for it.  Even more annoying than all that laundry, however, is doing the washing and then, when you’re hanging it up finding stains still firmly in place!

We were sent a set of Dr Beckmann’s stain removal products to test, so we sent it on to PlayPennies mum Linda. We figured with a young boy in the house, she’s bound to have stains that need removing.

Dr Beckmann Stain Devil - Curry & Sauce

“It was funny to get this one for review,” said Linda, “as I already have it in my laundry cupboard. In fact I have a range of Stain Devils. I found with my older two that when they got to school, there was an amazing range of stains to get out of clothing every week: ink, grass, food. Especially tomato sauce.”

Linda really loves the Stain Devil – especially for ink and sauces. “For these two you really do need to use Stain Devil. I'm talking from long and bitter experience here! As long as you follow the instructions on the bottle you'll be fine.”

Dr Beckmann Non-Bio Travel Wash

The Dr Beckmann travel wash is a special concentrated washing gel, formulated to use when you’re travelling and away from home. It comes in a handy travel size, which Linda likes.

“I like the size of the tube because it is about a third smaller than the stuff I usually use. This means it will be easier to carry (a bugbear of mine as the other tube does not fit in my toiletry bag).”

Linda also really liked the smell. “It’s fresh, clean with a light floral scent. I didn't need too much to get a good froth up on the shirt I was washing. Much less than the other brand I use. It also rinsed out really quickly, which is always good. You don't want to waste time cleaning clothes on holiday.”

“But,” says Linda, “It did not clean as well as my usual stuff. There weren't any stains to worry about but the shirt was a bit smelly, and after it had dried it, it did not smell as fresh as it does after I've used my usual travel wash.”

Service-it Washing Machine Cleaner

“I've actually been using the washing machine cleaner for some years now.” Linda confessed. “I've used lots of different types of products in the past, including just plain detergent, white vinegar and household soda. Oh and lemon juice too.

The soda is great for keeping the limescale at bay, and I've found lemon juice to be a great way to get the innards of appliances shiny again. But for cleaning out that horrible detergent drawer, a good soak in this stuff has always worked best.”

The washing machine cleaner from Dr Beckmann has been formulated to remove residues from the door seal, detergent drawer and drum – including those hard to reach places. According to reviews on their website, it’s also really good for getting rid of the foul odour that sometimes comes from washing machines.

“Service-it gets rid of detergent residue from the drawer but also from the drum, pipes, seals and elsewhere in the machine. According to the packaging, it gets rid of dirt and grime and nasty odours, and I can say from experience that it does leave it smelling clean afterwards.”

Linda likes to use the machine cleaner every three months or so to keep limescale at bay too.

“We're in a really hard water area, and limescale is a bane of my existence. I'm forever fighting it on the taps in the bathroom, in the sink, the kettle, you name it!

White vinegar is good at keeping limescale at bay too, and when we bought our washing machine the chap who installed it told us to run a cup of household soda through once a month to keep it clear. Dr Beckmann is my back up insurance! This approach seems to work, I've never had a problem in ten years (touches wood). “

Well, Linda does seem to love the Dr Beckmann products – so much so that she even recommends those we weren’t sent to test.

“While we're on the subject, if your children's school uniform includes a white shirt then I heartily recommend their Glo-White product. In the summer, if you can hang your clothes outside, then just put in a squeeze of lemon juice with the wash and let them dry in the sun. That will naturally whiten whites. But in the winter time, Glo-white achieves a pretty good result.”

Asda have a 2 for £6 deal on Fairy Non-Bio Gel at the moment.

• Click HERE to go to Asda

Nothing can prepare you, your wallet, or your washing machine, for the relentless laundry onslaught that comes from having kids in your family; nothing.

It makes no difference whether you have tiny babies, toddlers or teenagers, it's always the same - 90% of the vast quantities of weekly washing belongs to them.

Laundry detergents aren't a luxury you can drop from your shopping list, so it makes sense to keep an eye out deals like this 2 for £6 on Fairy Non-Bio.

Washing powder that goes in the drawer, washing powder tablets in string bags that go in the drum, washing gel capsules and gel that you squirt into a 'thing', I've tried them all and it's the gel - like this Fairy Non-Bio - wins hands down for me.

You have absolute control over the amount you use, without ending up with a drawer clogged with powder; small wash (it can happen on the odd occasion), use a tiny amount of gel. You can also use it as a pre-wash stain treatment too if you put a small amount directly onto a stain before putting washing.

The usual price for 667ml of Fairy Non-Bio Gel is £4.69 - you can have two for £6 and being Fairy and non-bio you can rest safe in the knowledge it isn't going to irritate sensitive skin.

Yes, I do. I wash plastic bags. Not the carrier bags you get from the supermarket. But the sandwich bags you buy on a roll, and the re-sealable freezer bags. I turn them inside out, put them in a pillow case and then run them through the washing machine with biological powder. Then I give them a rinse and let them air dry using a system of tall bottles I keep for the purpose (these used to contain things like port and posh lemonade).

It isn't just about saving money because really that's a very small amount. It is far more about the waste. Although I have to admit that I do resent paying for the bags then just using them once.

There's a lot of other things that are a bit wasteful too. Like cling film. When did we stop just putting a plate on top of a bowl to keep food fresh in the fridge? I remember our fridge being full of leftovers like that when I was a kid.

So I started doing it again. And you know what? It keeps food fresh, maybe not as long as cling film but long enough. I don't like to eat leftovers after about day three anyway. Plus you can put another bowl on top. I now buy a whole lot less cling film than I used to.

Which got me thinking. What else could I do that saves money, and is better for the environment?

Heating Help

Put aluminium foil, shiny side out, behind the radiators. The theory is that this then reflects more heat back into the room. There's no end of places that will sell you radiator foil for the purpose either. One of the cheapest places I could find this was at B&Q, where a roll that will cover 2.5 square metres costs £8.98. Or there's a variety of sellers on eBay selling it for about half that.

Does it work? The jury seems to be out on that one. I searched a number of forums on the internet and came to two conclusions. First, a surprisingly large amount of people like to talk about radiator foil. Second, this wasn't helpful. In short, some people found it made a difference, some found it made such a small difference it was hardly worth the effort and other people thought it a total waste of time.

What about lining your curtains with thermal curtain lining? You can buy some fairly cheaply from eBay for around a fiver including VAT. Or there's this alternative I found on the internet. Sew a cheap PVC shower curtain to your existing curtains, and then sew the lining on top. And the draughts are kept out!

Removing Stains

I've written before about making your own laundry detergents and the like. Well I don't actually do that myself right now but I do cut in the powder with soda. That's just common sense really, as it works as a water softener too.

I love this recipe though that I found for DIY stain removers recently. Apparently chocolate stains can be removed by mixing egg yolk with lukewarm water and rubbing it on the stain. Well I haven't tried it yet myself, but I always have plenty of eggs to hand so next time I'll give it a go.

By the way, Iceland sell half a dozen free range eggs for a £1, and I've found that my local corner shop often has special deals on where you can get a dozen free range eggs for £1.39. It really is worth shopping around for affordable free range as really and truly you don't want to support battery hens.

Baking soda works well at getting stains out of coffee mugs. But, I've found that an even better alternative is a half a scoop of biological washing powder. Soak the cups in that for five minutes and then just wipe them out. They come out shiny clean too.

Dumpster Diving

I've worked hard over the last two years to make sure I don't waste food at home. Supermarkets on the other hand waste food on a daily basis. And there's a group of folks who exploit that to get their food for free.

Now, I've got two good bookcases and a set of drawers from Freecycle. I've also got three really lovely Lloyd Loom cane chairs rescued from the dump. I'm not averse to casting an eye over skips as I drive past. But honestly, I really don't think I could quite do something that's known as Freegan. A sort of play on the word Vegan meaning someone who doesn't eat animal products. A freegan eats free food. And they get it by rummaging around in the bins behind supermarkets.

ScavengeUK is a site dedicated to folks who are keen to find something for nothing and can offer some good advice on how to go dumpster diving. Tips on other sites include aiming for small to medium sized stores, as the big ones are more likely to lock up their bins. Also, take a torch, rummage after dark, and don't ignore No Trespassing signs. Oh and give anything you find a good wash. Honestly, none of that makes me inclined to want to try it at all.

So now you know my little secret. Is it a penny pinching step too far do you think? Or quirky but acceptable? And go on, confess. What secret little money/environment saving things do you do?

Children, despite their smaller size, generate a load more washing than the adults in my house. I’m guessing that it’s probably the same in your house too. So I’ve done a little investigating, to find as many money saving tips for the laundry as possible.

It’s a cold wash

I’d feel like I’ve been lied to all these years, except to be honest no-one has. At least not explicitly. Somewhere along the way I fell for the advertising and marketing. I came to believe that you couldn’t get a clean wash unless you used hot water, or special low temperature detergent. It came as a revelation to find the number one tip on every website that I looked at was: wash at cold temperatures, and you don’t need to use special cold water detergents.

I felt like a bit of an idiot when I excitedly shared this with my mum only to find out that she’s used a cold wash all her life. Except, of course, when sterilizing (as you’d want to with sheets and towels). According to the Energy Trust if you just turn down to 30C you’ll save up to 40% of your electricity usage. The site says that “today's washing powders work just as effectively at lower temperatures, so there's no reason to use a hot wash unless there are particularly stubborn stains on your laundry.”

One Play Pennies reader, Jennifer, says she’s done her laundry for years using cold water, and ordinary detergents, and never noticed a difference. So there you go!

Detergent savings

Another Play Pennies regular, Sho, cuts her washing powder with household soda. This is also called soda crystals, or bicarbonate of soda. It is inexpensive – Tesco sell a 1kg packet of Dri Pak Soda Crystals for 70p.

Soda is quite an effective stain remover, and particularly good for grease based stains. “You can knock a third off the recommended amount of detergent and still get your clothes just as clean. Replace some of that with the soda,” Sho suggests.

Soda also softens water, which is a big bonus for me and anyone else living in the Thames Valley region where water is so hard it is almost solid. Even the chap who installed our washing machine recommended it. He told us to forget spending money on softeners like Calgon and just stick soda in the wash. It’s what he always did, and said it worked just as well.

I love this page at the Green Store. It lists 30 different uses for bicarbonate of soda around the house. Brilliant stuff.

If you’re really keen, try making your own detergent. I found this recipe on a US site called the Simple Dollar. Not quite sure I’d want to have a go myself, but it looks pretty eco friendly.

One thing I can’t help noticing as I peruse the detergent aisle in the supermarket is that biological detergents are much cheaper than non-bio versions. Often they’re a third of the cost. So what is the difference between the two? Should we be worried about using a bio?

According to environmental website Big Green Smile “Biological detergent contains enzymes which aid the removal of stains. They do this by reacting with the water through hydrolysis. These enzymes will often work at lower temperatures than non-biological detergent, which does not contain enzymes.”

On the down side, the site says that biological detergents can irritate the skin of some people, so you may want to try just a little before running all your clothes through a bio wash. My other half was convinced that he was allergic to bio detergents, and that it bought his skin out in a rash. Except he only told me this a few months ago, when he finally read the box of washing powder we used. And I’ve been using bio’s since we got married 18 years ago with no complaints from him!

DIY fabric softeners

If watching Kim and Aggie on How Clean is Your House has taught me one thing it is that the only cleaning product you really need is white vinegar. And a little lemon juice. Although now I’m adding soda to that list!

Those Americans sure do love making their own stuff. I found this tip on a website called Stressless Country - I like the sound of that! Here’s its recipe for making your own fabric softener. “Plain white vinegar is a good substitute for fabric softener. Environmentally safe and nonalergenic, just add ½ to ¾ cup as you would a liquid softener.” Definitely sounds stress free to me. My only concern is – will it make your clothes smell like chips?

Finally, a few more tips

Never spend another penny on dry cleaning. Well, OK, I’m exaggerating. But KT Campbell’s excellent Hand Washing 101 site  has saved me a fortune over the years. And I’ve found her tips worked too. Although do read the disclaimers carefully!

Eco Salon has some more tips to offer on whether or not to dry clean (even if the washing label says ‘dry clean only’).

Back to the Stressless Country again. I love the sound of this and I'm going to try it out on some of my older clothes to see if it’ll put the colour ‘zing’ back into them. Definitely cheaper than buying new clothes. “When washing dark clothes for the first time use cold water and put 1 tablespoon of salt in the water. The salt helps set the colour. To brighten dark clothes after they have been washed several times, repeat the procedure.”

The last word

Do you have any laundry money saving tips to share? Let us know! We’re also after all your homemade efforts. Have you found a nifty little trick to make something yourself and save a few bob? Let us know – we’ll be running a feature on this in the next few weeks.

Today I'm treating you all to two reviews for the price of one! How's that for a bargain, eh?!

First up, which laundry detergent do you use? I know some folks who swear by one single brand and who would never dream of being disloyal, and others who prioritise price above all else and who shop around to get the best deal on their detergent, with little regard for who makes it or what the label looks like.

I was raised a Persil girl but I'm happy to shop around for whatever's on offer and have found that Asda's own brand of detergents are pretty good. It's amazing, isn't it, how brand loyalty changes when you become a parent and you find yourself doing a zillion more loads of laundry than ever before?! Having once suffered an allergic reaction to another brand, I do feel I can trust Persil's Non-Bio  version of detergent and if I'm buying Persil I usually opt for the squidgy caplets which seem to do the job.

But when someone recently asked me to sample Persil Small and Mighty for the purposes of this review, I'll admit I was a bit dubious.  I'm perfectly happy with my usual Persil caplets so couldn't really see the point in another Persil option. I've always thought the product seemed on the pricey side for what seems to amount to a smaller bottle, too. In other words it was with some reluctance that I tried out Small and Mighty but I admit; I'm a convert.

Persil Small and Mighty is 2 x concentrated. That means it's kinder to the environment as it uses half the water, half the packaging and half the lorries used to transport the product compared with regular non-concentrated washing detergents; supposedly without compromising on the quality of the wash.

I'm told (by Persil, of course) that since its launch, Small & Mighty has saved 91 million litres of water in Europe alone, enough to fill 605,000 bath tubs. The plastic saved is the equivalent to the amount that would be used to make 590 million plastic bags.

It's available in Biological, Non-Biological, and Colour Care varieties, and is made with pre-treating agents so you can still get good results at low temperatures.  The easy-to-use, no fuss measuring cap is also designed to help ensure correct dosages, to help keep your wash load efficient. I like that, and loathe cheaper alternatives which are impossible to use without dribbling wasted drops of detergent down the sides of the bottle.

I think Persil Small and Mighty actually lives up to all that hype, too. I tried it on a low temperature and a short, economical wash and even my son's grass-stained trackie bottoms came out looking clean, and smelling divine. It has that unmistakable Persil whiff of wonder that I associate with piles of deliciously fresh laundry. So if you're looking for an economical option when it comes to laundry detergent I can happily recommend giving Persil Small and Mighty a go.

I've revised my thinking on the price, too. I've just checked the price and it's currently £6.84 at Asda for the large 1.47 litre bottle which is enough for 42 washes. Compare that with the £5.98 you'd spend on Non-Bio liquid capsules which will stretch to 20 washes, and you can see that Small and Mighty is the more economical option of the two. The small bottle is deceptive and you need to remember that the concentrated formula means it goes further.

However there are cheaper detergents out there, it has to be said. Asda's own alternative is more than half the price at £3 (although it only promises 28 washes) but admittedly two bottles of Asda's version will set you back less moolah but get more washing done than Persil Small and Mighty. But whether it performs as well as Small and Mighty is another issue, and of course in buying two bottles you've got twice the packaging. I think I'll be inclined to stock up on Small and Mighty whenever I spot it on offer at my local supermarket. I probably wouldn't choose it over another brand if the other brand was on offer but as a reliable, eco-friendly and economical option, Persil Small and Mighty gets my vote.

Now talking of economical consumer choices, wouldn't it be brilliant if you could buy a single cup to take your baby from weaing right through to toddlerdom without having to shell out on several different cups for each stage of development. You know what I'm going to say, don't you: now you can.

Brother Max was created by Jonathon, a product designer and dad of two. The idea for the products came from his first hand experience of being a dad and wondering why there were so few products available that would make the family's life easier and quicker so that they could focus on the important things in life, like playing with the kids!

Cue an innovative range of products, including the 4-in-1 cup which strikes me as a revelation in baby cup design. It converts in 4 ways, cutting out the need for different staged cups, therefore saving money in the long run.

The RSP is £5.99 and it is available at John Lewis, Mothercare, Kiddicare.com, Amazon.co.uk, Blooming Marvellous, JoJo Maman Bébé and leading independent nursery retailers.