Wash Your Dishes By Hand and Save Money

The modern dish washer seems to have brought an end to the hours spent scrubbing pots and pans in the sink, then having to towel dry each glass, only to find you've not cleaned it well enough. Yes, the dish washer was every housewife's dream come true. For years, I worked all day, then came home and cooked for the family, and at the end of the day, I couldn't bear to do the washing up, so it sat on the side, some times for a few days, until there were no clean plates and it had to be done. The along came the dishwasher, on credit from the catalogue, I thought it was a God send. But as time went on I realised how much I was spending on it, all these extra things I had to buy, it needed a special powder or tablet, as well as salt, and rinse aid, not to mention the sheer amount of water an electricity it used, it was amazing.

Now surly at those prices there's no contest, washing by hand should win every time. In the example above, I've used premium brands for both the dishwasher and hand washing. The cost will come down if you use store own brand or economy products.

The next thing to think about is the time element. I expect you'd like to think that washing your dishes in a dish washer is quicker than doing them by hand. This is true to the extent that you are not personally having to spend time cleaning them, however, the reverse is also true. If you was a cup by hand to have your coffee, it'll probably take 30 seconds, if however your cup is in the dish washer, is can take 1-1 ½ hours to finish it's cycle, so even if you had to hand wash all the dinner plates, they'd still be wash, dried and put away a long time before the dish washer had finished it's cycle.

Other than the method you choose to wash your dishes with, there are other things that can save you money. If you choose to use a dishwasher, instead of putting in one whole tablet each wash, cut it in half, and use half each time you wash, that way your tablets will last you twice as long. You can use clear vinegar instead of rinse aid, and don't worry your dishes won't smell of vinegar, the vinegar simply gets rid of grease, helps to dry the dishes and goes a little way to keeping your dish washer clean and free from lime scale. Choose the correct settings, do you really need to use the pre-wash? Probably not, scrape any remaining food off your plate and give it a quick rinse under the tap, this will remove the need for the pre-wash and prevent the filter from getting clogged up with food, you may have two heat setting on your dishwasher as well, make sure you use the lowest setting, this will be the lowest temperature and normally the economy wash, it will take less electricity to heat up the lower temperature water. And turn your machine off when your not using it, not only is this a safety thing, while still turned on it'll be sucking up little bits of electricity.

If you choose to wash your dishes by hand there are money saving things that you can do, although you may think not. First of all, do you need to buy the premium brand washing up liquid with extracts of aloe vera? No, probably not, if you're worried about your hands, then wear washing up gloves, these last for years. Switch to a stores own brand, you'll be amazed how much cheaper these are, and you still get the same quality of detergent. Next think about what tools you use to do the washing up, do you use a jay cloth to wash your dishes? If you switch to a white (knitted/woven style) cloth, you can wash these with your laundry and use them over and over. Do you use a brush? Bleach or disinfect your brush after you use it, this will prolong it's life and you'll not have to buy another one for some time. And pan scourer, you can get these just as a rough green fabric or with a foam backing, no matter what type you have, cut them into three, for example, if one scourer normally lasts you four weeks, buy cutting it into three, it will last you for 12 weeks, this may not seem like a huge saving as these are normally quite cheap items, however, if your do this for a few years just add up the savings and you'll be amazed.

Drying dishes, unfortunately is something that will probably never change, what I will say is, not to use paper towels for this. Many people use paper towels for drying their dishes as they think this is more hygienic, the problem is if you use one towel for each item you've washed, you'll be throwing away an awful lot of paper towel, which are not cheap to keep purchasing. The easiest way is to stick with a tea towel, if your worried about the hygiene side of using a tea towel, just make sure that you use a clean tea towel every time you do the washing up, and then put it in to the laundry to be washed ready for another use, this is far more environmentally friendly!

The last thing really to consider when washing dishes is the water you are using. Often there are water shortages, and the prices go up, and then we have to heat the water, it seems so expensive just to pay for the things that we have to live on. When using a dish washer, take into consideration the sheer amount of water that is required for each use, and then think about the electricity used when heating the water up to the required temperature. The best bet, is to wash by hand, this will use hardly any water when compared to using a dish washer. You'll need hot water to do the dishes, as the hot water kills any bacteria that may have been lingering, therefore the water will need heating. What you should try and do, is to do the washing when the water has been heated for something else, for example if you have heated the water for a shower, make sure you use some of it to do the washing up as well, there is no point in trying to heat a full tank of water just for a small bowl of washing up, this will cost you much much more, so time your washing up to coincide with other daily events to prevent the rising costs.