I’m going to share a bunch of different recipes of how to make your own dish washing detergent for dishwashers.

Disclaimer: I have never tried any of these. They have been suggested by random people on the internet and I’ve agglomerated all of them together at this source, so follow these instructions at your own risk.

1.) 1tbs (table spoon) Borax and 1tbs baking soda mixed together.

2.) 50/50 mix of Borax and baking soda.

3.) No brand dish washing detergent, then add vinegar.

4.) Just use vinegar.

5.) Washing soda and Borax, then add vinegar to the rinse cycle.

6.) No brand dish washing detergent, then add baking soda.

7.)1 cup washing soda (crystals) + 1 cup borax + 2-3 drops perfumed oil (optional)

From http://www.recipezaar.com/91963

8.)1 part baking soda + 1 part borax + 1 part water +1 drop lemon or orange essential oil per cup of detergent.

From http://tipnut.com/homemade-dishwasher-detergent-recipes/

9.) 1-1/2 cups of Borax with 1/4 cup of Citric acid. Use 1.5 tbs per load.

10.) A few cap fulls of bleach per load. (This is really nasty for the environment)

11.) 50/50 mix of borax and washing soda, then 1tbs of corn starch for the rinse cycle. (Very popular supposably)

Thats pretty much all the recipes for making your own dish washing detergent. The reality of it all is that you can basically do whatever you want when making dish washing detergent. It all just different mixes and then mixing them to perfection or to your liking.

Dish washing detergent for the post part is not that expensive and if you worried to the damage some of these recipes may cause to your machine, then don’t try it. From what I’ve been reading, most people are satisfied with the results of these recipes and the only problem I have heard about is some residue building up over time.

Last night I had a craving for something sweet. No thanks to my frugal lifestyle, I happened to have nothing that could be considered sweet other then a jar of honey and thats not something that ticked my fancy. You know how it is. When you want sweets, you need sweets.

But then my frugal mindset kicked in.

“Wait, you don’t need the sweets. They cost money, you can’t walk because it’s night so you’ll waste money on gas. You’ll waste time going there ….”,  my mind rolled through the reasons why I shouldn’t go. Did it convince me?

Heck no.

I ended  up buying a cookie, yes that’s all. But it was worth it, even though I lost 50 cents on gas and another 99 for the cookie, it was so worth it. The internal struggle was over and I don’t regret a thing. We have to realize that although we may be frugal at heart, it’s okay to splurge every so often. Life should be enjoyable and sometimes that means spending a little more then usual. Don’t hold back if you want something. There is no need to be a frugultralist.