Wallet-friendly, eco-friendly fabric softener alternative

I was reading The Simple Dollar the other day and they mentioned using white vinegar as a fabric softener alternative. They did a comparison of costs for it, and the cost-worthiness of it over fabric softener boiled down to "depends on how much you use". The prescribed substitution use is "one cup of white vinegar per load". I'm assuming that is for a top-loader, which uses much more water, detergent and fabric softener. I decided to give it a try.

I used as much white vinegar in my (front-loader) machine as I usually use fabric softener. When the load was done, my laundry smelled...nice. CLEAN without all the overwhelming fake-floral scents of commercial fabric softener. Nice! Soft? Yeah, not a bad job, and considering that I usually only add fabric softener because otherwise our laundry smells horrible (like musty old water).

Considering that using fabric softener means I'm either oiling my clothes (liquid) or waxing them (dryer sheets), neither of which is environmentally friendly and is kind of disgusting when you think about it, I think that white vinegar is a good alternative, and one I think we'll be using a lot more in the future.
And to keep clothes from getting all staticky in the dryer, I highly recommend dryer balls.