Dishwasher Soap Hack

Sometimes, saving money means going back to basics more than it means shopping sales and using coupons. This particular life-hack is one of those examples.

If you have a dishwasher that washes dishes for you (and I don't mean a spouse or kid in your household, either!), you need soap for that dishwasher. You can't use liquid dish soap in it, because the foam and bubbles are too much and make a mess as they spill out of the closed machine on to the floor. Don't ask me how I know this, I just do. ;)

Even with coupons and sales, dishwasher soap is expensive, so if you're trying to tighten the belt and still get the job done, how do you work around that?

You go back to basics and figure out how to make it yourself. You'll spend $10 or so on the ingredients, but you'll get far more for your $10 than you would if you simply bought boxes (or bottles) of dishwashing soap.

Here's the hack recipe:

1 part borax
1 part baking soda (NOT washing soda)
1 part powdered dish detergent (I use Cascade)
3 kool-aid packets, any flavour

I generally make this up in a double-batch and do 2 cups of each ingredient, which also takes takes 6 pkts of kool-aid. Mix it up in a metal or glass bowl and store it in a container of your choice. The kool-aid adds citric acid to the mix, and if you're in an area with hard water, that's necessary to help condition the water and leave your dishes cleaner than otherwise.

I fill up the spot in the dishwasher with the mixture and everything comes sparkly clean. I'm still on the same $10 purchase with my stuff -- and so far, I've made 3 batches with it and have enough to make another 2 batches. Far better than using straight dishwashing detergent, and it gets the job done with less expense and only a small amount of effort to mix it up.

~Sue