Saving Money on Dishwasher Tablets

We are finally down to the last dishwasher tablets from the stockpile so I wanted to use a coupon at the supermarket to get some more but they were out of stock. So was the second and the third shop I tried. We use a phosphate free eco brand to save disturbing the septic tank. I tried looking them up on the internet but that would take quite a time to arrive and were only 3p a tablet cheaper than the supermarket. Then I thought of cutting the tablets in half, that would halve the cost and would make driving 15 minutes to the next town worthwhile to pick up a large stock. But they would not necessarily have them and would potentially be a waste of petrol.

So I had another look on line for alternatives, one of the eco home stores had dishwasher gel which would bring the price down still further but I would have to buy a case and wouldn’t know whether or not the product was any good before committing to 6 bottles. So then I decided we would try and run the dishwasher with just a touch of washing up liquid in it. If  a gel works maybe a gel like washing up liquid would too ?

Guess what ? It worked ! Certainly good enough for emergencies, so I can look for a good price on the tablets !