Cheap Stain Removal

I will second ZOUT!!! It really is the best. You can find at Target. Spray on and rub in when you take the babies clothes off and then give another spray right before you put in laundry and the stains will come out! Good luck!

Try Simple Green. I get it in the automotive section of Wal Mart. It is wonderful at getting stains out of my husbands white work shirts and my sons white baseball pants. Just spray it on straight (don't dilute) and wash as normal.

Oxiclean Max Force! I can't believe the array of stains it has gotten out - chocolate, blood, grass, tomato, etc. Of course it is still best to treat and wash the stain ASAP. The occasional stain it doesn't get out can usually be fixed by a soak in the original Oxiclean powder. Don't bother with the regular Oxiclean pretreatment or the gel. Get the Max Force pretreatment spray. Amazing stuff.

Fels Nappa pink bar soap. $1 at Walmart. It cleans cloth tennis shoes like brand new.

I always treated the stains as soon as I took the clothes off of the kid.
One thing that works great for stains is Fels Naptha. It's cheap and comes in a bar like soap. You can apply it directly. I often put the bar in a bowl of warm water and let it make suds to apply to the stains.
Do a test on an inconspicuous area of the clothing, such as the inner waist band, to make sure it doesn't fade the color.
Adding the sudsy solution to the laundry water works well too.

Best wishes.

You may be right. Especially if you have some good thrift stores.

However, here is my last-ditch stain removal system, if it comes down to fix-or-toss: a combination of dishwasher detergent (yes) and dry non-chlorine bleach, in the hottest water you can get. Let the item soak for at least an hour, and then wash it as you would usually do.

Sometimes it works! Sometimes it simply doesn't. And sometimes it ruins the clothing item further, so you don't feel guilty about buying a replacement! (Told you it was last-ditch.) ;^)

Zout! It is in a red spray bottle, under $3/bottle, and is awesome!! I have 3 boys under age 5 & a hubby who spills a lot, and Zout is my best friend in the laundry room.

A bar of Ivory soap works wonders on stains. You can usually pick it up at a dollar store 2-3 bars for a dollar.

Does your child wear a bib? If not get a couple of plastic ones that tie or snap. It helps so much and you can simply swish in a sink of warm soapy water and hang to dry. If it dosn't dry by the next meal use the other one.

Use a liquid detergent. Measure out the amount and then pour/rub a little on the stains before putting them in the washer. Add the remaining, if any, to the wash.

You can do the same with a powdered detergent. You just have to make a paste with the powder.

The best stain remover I've found (and I've tried them all) seems to be original Dawn dishwashing liquid. Especially on greasy stains like butter. It lifts them right off.

soaking in a bucket of oxyclean and water. Better yet if you have a soak cycle or stain treat on your washer, do it there. This even gets rid of yellow armpit stains - couldn't believe it!

My first instinct is vinegar. Yes, plain, ordinary vinegar. Dilute it with water and soak the soiled stuff in there. The acid in the vinegar works as a great stain-lifter and disinfector. And it's CHEAP!

The other thing I know of is this stick of special laundry soap. It's like old-school laundry soap that only comes in a bar form. It's called Fels-Naptha (looks like some others have mentioned this). A girl at my son's school did a science fair project on which stain fighter did the best job getting out various stains and found that this Fels-Naptha stuff worked the best on every type of stain. (this was versus Oxy-Clean, Zout, Shout, and 2 others)

Good luck with the stains!

OxyClean Stain Remover Spray takes EVERYTHING out from grass stains and dirt to raspberries/strawberries and blood! I LOVE it!