Buy or make home detergents

Have you ever wondered exactly WHAT your annual expense for home detergents really is? I did it.

Ideas come like a blast; sometimes we know what caused the explosion, sometimes we simply accept their arrival. I decided to start producing my home detergents, after two courses I attended at Uopeople: “Introduction to biology” and “Introduction to environmental sciences”, see the explanation in another article, here.

This recipe was personally tested.

Water: 5 lt

Organic soap 250/300g.

Baking soda: 2 spoons.

Essential oils:10 drops as you like (lavender, tea tree, lemongrass or peppermint).

Boil water -grate the soap- drop the grated soap into the water- mix- add the baking soda- let it stay there along the night- the morning after just mix with a blender. Ready. Store in special containers.

Use: drop directly into the detergent unit of your washing machine – you may even add a small amount into the basket.

You can use it to wash clothes, both washing machine and hand washing and you can wash floors. In the second case, fill a bucket with hot water, drop 2 tablespoons of the home detergent you made, add 2 tablespoons of ethyl alcohol and a few drops of essential oils as you like. These detergents have a huge cleansing power, particularly when floors are greasy; you get even better results by using microfiber cloths.

	Alternative 1 make detergents	Alternative 2 buy detergents *	Differential Amount	Alternative 1 is:
Variable costs
Cost to buy from outside	0	211,92	211,92	lower
Direct materials	€10,32	0	€10,32	higher
Direct labor	0	0		–
Manufacturing overhead	0	0		–
Fixed costs	0	0		–
Total production costs	€10,32	211,92	201,6	lower

*Note that I didn’t write values in the labor costs, because it takes less than half an hour to produce it (totally).

Cost to buy from outside *Data from the Italian National Statistical Institute. € 17,66 is the average monthly expense for a family.

17,66*12= 211,92

Direct materials. A Soap bar costs € 0,70. 70*12 (months)= 8,40

Baking Soda 1 pack each year € 1,80 ( kg. 1)

Water. (Tap water). It costs € 0,002 each liter. 5 liters per month are= 0,01 each month and 0,01*12 are 0,12 each year.

Thus=

Soap € 8,40

Baking Soda € 1,80

Water € 0,12

Total €10,32

The Home made detergent is suitable for clothes (hand- washing machine), for floors and other purposes like cleaning some surfaces. It can be used instead of many other bottles but is not suitable for dishes. In this case, we should compare our expense, with the same detergents and get another table.

	Alternative 1 make detergents	Alternative 2 buy detergents *	Differential Amount	Alternative 1 is:
Variable costs
Cost to buy from outside	0	131,93		lower
Direct materials	€10,32	0	€10,32	higher
Direct labor	0	0		0
Manufacturing overhead	0	0		0
Fixed costs	0	0		0
Total production costs	€10,32	131,93	121,61	lower

Detergent for clothes (washing machine). 5 liters cost €5,89 (lasts 1 month).

Detergent for floors. 1 liter costs € 3,65 (lasts 1 month).

Detergents for general surfaces (kitchen counter, light fixtures). 1 liter costs € 1,39

5,89+3,65+1,39= €10,93

€10,93 *12= 131,93

Here we can discuss the origin of data. In the first case, they are general data from the Italian National Statistical Institute, in the second case, they are data from direct prices of detergents I have found in the web.

About the tables. In the first case, you save €201,6, in the second case, you save €121,61, but the first amount is more general and it includes other detergents like dish washer or softeners.

My idea is that, in each case, the difference and the amount we save is important and it’s worth it making other attempts with further detergents, (for glasses, dishes or dish washers).

Special thanks to teacher  Allman, from the “Managerial Accounting” course of University of the People. 

Sources:

University of the People, course of Managerial Accounting. Heisinger, K. & Hoyle, J. (2012), Managerial Accounting. Chapter 7. Creative Commons license. Available at: http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/managerial-accounting-v1.0/

[October 8th, 2014]

Italian National Statistical Institute . Available at: http://dati.istat.it/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=DCCV_SPEMMFAM [October 28th, 2014]

Background music: “With a little help from my friends”, by Joe Cocker.