Frugal Diswasher Soap

Growing up with my parents, my Dad always said that he "never needed a dishwasher" as my sister and I were his dish washers. Well, I have no problem washing dishes by hand, BUT with my husband working the late shift, breakfast, dinner and then a packed lunch must all be made before he leaves for work. On top of homeschooling and keeping up therapy with our second son, dishes were never top priority in our home. I'd be washing dishes until midnight to keep up - No Fun! When we moved into our home, my husband said that he didn't care about anything else that we had or didn't have, but that we were going to get a dishwasher. It bothered me as I wanted to be "the dish washer". Well, this is one area I am so glad that my husband insisted upon. A cheap $200 Kenmore dishwasher has been a real lifesaver when it comes to having free time to finish the rest of the demands of a household. I'm hooked. I literally believe I could have handled Amish lifestyle prior to a dishwasher, but now I'm not so sure :)

Although the dishwasher has been a tremendous help, I have resorted to the easy way of buying the expensive, chemical detergent to run it. Ugh! Frugality is kind of a side hobby of mine, but I try never to add or change an element in our household until things are a bit settled. I vowed not to look on the back of the bottle to see the ingredients, as I knew mentally I wouldn't be able to use it any longer. Well, my husband went to the store to pick up some Cascade detergent (a brand I hadn't used) and when I used it, the chemicals of bleach and chlorine were so strong I could detect my bronchial tubes closing up. It was only a matter of days when I broke my vow and did "the look". I was alarmed and decided we must try something else -as long as my Husband didn't mind as it could have been money wasted. When I found this recipe online for dishwasher liquid, I thought - "Wow, that's easy!" I've tried it and found that it works equally as well as my other dish washing detergent. We do have a newer dishwasher so this recipe may not work as well with everyone's dishwashers.

It is also much more natural than the other detergents as it doesn't contain bleach, chlorine, or other invasive chemicals the store brands list in their ingredients.

Instead of using the anti spot liquid, we pour distilled white vinegar in the spout. It works good enough for our family although not completely spot free, but I feel better having a few spots than knowing my dishes are being sprayed with chemical glass cleaner.

Here is the list of ingredients:

1. One box of Borax

2. One box of Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda

3. Distilled White Vinegar - for spot cleaning.

Combine the first two ingredients 50/50 and add 2 Tablespoons to the dishwasher and you're done. Or you can add 1 Tablespoon of each of the first two ingredients and have the same results.

It's a little difficult to figure out the exact price per load as I'd have to empty the entire two boxes. But I estimated things a bit and found that it costs about .13 cents a load in the homemade dish washing liquid (minus the water and electricity). This is a savings of .25 cents minimum a load and up to .35-.40 cents a load with store brand detergents. Not too bad - a savings of $2.00 minimum a week if you basically only run it once a day and an $8-10 savings monthly. An extra $100-120 dollars savings in a year looks pretty good. Actually it will cover the cost of the increase in our health insurance for the year.