Thrifty Thursday

This year my husband and I hosted our extended family for the holidays.   We had a great time, ate a little too much, and definitely gained a few pounds.  I spent a large amount of time in the kitchen and definitely loaded the dishwasher more times than I can count.  Luckily, I had caught a sale ages ago on dishwashing detergent and was able to make it through December without buying any more detergent.  I decided I would keep my eyes on the sales and restock as soon as Christmas was over.

Somewhere I had miscalculated the amount of detergent I had.  I ran out as I was loading the dishwashing one night.  I could only fill the reservior about 1/2 full of powdered detergent.  Not sure if the dishes would still come clean, I decided to add another 1/2 of baking soda.  I turned the machine on and let it work its magic.

The next day I noticed that my dishes appeared cleaner.  I believe the baking soda actually enhanced the generic powdered detergent.  I believe that this is really going to help me in the kitchen and also help me financially.  Now my detergent will last twice as long.  With this knowledge, I will not be scouring the ads for sales.  I will buy my Dollar Tree detergent and add my baking soda for much cleaner dishes.  To me, this is another way I will be able to save for those things that mean more to me than namebrand cleaning supplies. 

Now I feel I must add a disclaimer.  If you have a high-end model dishwasher, please follow manufacturer's instructions.  I unfortunately do not.  If my dishwashwer bit the dust tomorrow, my husband and I would probably do a happy dance to the home improvement store.  We hate the rack area and the general set-up on the inside.  It also has a broken handle.  We keep it because ultimately a dishwasher is supposed to work and it does.  ;-)