Home Made Soap - Cheap and Easy

     I developed a new habit over the last six months of using the dishwasher only as a drying rack. It was an effort to save energy and water. I was also seeking the benefits of regular physical labor and periods of standing. Doing dishes is barely exercise but it sure beats sitting on the couch. Well I just finished week four of this school term and things have started to get very busy for me as far as projects and homework.
     Today the dishes we stacked high and my partner and I had a big project we needed to get done. I felt a deep regret at my decision to not buy any dishwasher detergent. In light of all my recent frugal thinking I still couldn't help feeling negatively about buying those little washer packets. My partner suggested I make my own and I could not believe I had not thought of it myself!
     I did a little bit of research and looked at many different home recipes for dishwasher solution and even found a recipe that created similar little packets as the store bought kind. It seemed a bit extensive and I needed soap quickly. I eventually just threw together what I had available and hoped for the best. It worked wonderfully!
  
This is what I came up with:
    2 Parts Baking Soda (about 1/4 cup)
    1 Part Salt
    1 Packet of Pink Lemonade
    1/4 tsp (or less) Liquid Dish-soap
    2-3 Tbsp Vinegar (separately, per load)
    I mixed the baking soda, salt, and lemonade and stored it in an old seasoning container. To wash a load I put two spoon fulls of the powder in the soap box and added a few drops of liquid soap ( just a teeny tiny bit) and then I splashed some vinegar in the extra soap container that immediately gets mixed into the first rinse.

The first load I ran a normal cycle with high temperature water and an extra rinse. The dishes were spotless. The second run was not a full load so I ran a light cycle and didn't add any extras. The dishes looked wonderful. I couple of forked spoons and a spatula had some food still stuck in cracks but it reassured me that a normal cycle would be sufficient without the high temp and extra rinse.
   Next I plan on making my own liquid dish soap. I have read speculations of whether antibacterial soaps are good to use on such a regular basis. I am going to research natural bacteria fighting oils and I will at least be able to cut out all the unnecessary fragrances and colors :)
   Today I managed to be inventive and frugal and it was remarkably easy.