What’s the Best Buy for Dishwashing Detergent?

Packs or Gel Dish Detergent

A couple of years ago I got a great deal on dishwashing detergent. I was able to get the packs with 20 individual cubes in them for about $1 each. So it was a really good deal or so I thought. Fast forward to a few months ago (well more like 8 months) and I’m  running out of my stock of dish detergent cubes.

I just couldn’t find any really stellar deals on the dishwashing detergent packs,  so I purchased a couple of the gel dish detergent on a buy one get one free sale. After coupons and the sale I paid about $4 for each bottle. Not a super deal but not bad either.

Date on detergent bottle

When I opened my first bottle I put the date on it. Just so I could see how long it would take to use the gel dish detergent up. I thought I would be writing this post in three to four months. But it took just 3 days shy of six months to finish that bottle of gel detergent.

I was really shocked, but it made me think

At first I was shocked and then I started thinking. If one of those bottles last me 6 months how much does it cost me each month for the gel dish detergent. So I whipped out my calculator (I am a budget nerd that way, I always want to know the bottom line)  and after punching in a few numbers. I had my price per month, which was $.67 a month. At about 20 loads a month that is just $.03 a load.

$.67 a month is based on my purchase of 75 ounces of gel dish detergent, costing $4 and lasting me approximately 6 months. That really beats my buy price of the 20 packs for $1 each. Since I run my dishwasher approximately 4-5 times a week a 20 pack box will last about a month.

Can I consistently get the price of $4 a bottle or not?

Now while the switch to the gel dish detergent only nets me a savings of about $4 a year which isn’t much. I can more easily find the gel detergent on sale for around $4 or sometimes less. (I recently pick up some for $3.50)  While the 20 pack dish detergent squares are much harder to come by for $1 or less.

Storage Concerns

Also storage comes into play. I need to store at least 12 boxes or bags of dish detergent packs for a years worth of dishwasher loads but only two bottles of the gel detergent. So I can stock up on enough of the gel dish detergent for a year, without filling up my stockpile cupboard. Which in turn saves room for other items I need to store.

With the gel you can also adjust the amount of detergent you need for a load of dishes. Not so dirty of dishes I use less, more caked on food I use more. I wasn’t able to do any adjusting with the packs they are one size fits all packaging.

Watch for future posts, when I compare homemade to store-bought costs

Now I have a recipe for make your own dish detergent tablets.

In that blog post I also compare the prices of homemade dishwashing tablets to the store-bought tabs.

Do you make your own dish detergent? Or do you purchase the powder, gel or packs? What’s your “buy” price on dish detergent?

7 Comments

  1. This post is really food for thought Shell! I’ve been buying the little packs when they go on sale with coupons, and I usually pay about $1.99 or less. I will have to get some of the gel detergent next time, seeing as how it is so much cheaper.

    1. I really thought the detergent packs would be less expensive too, I was surprised at how long on bottle of the gel detergent lasted our family.

  2. I recently started making my dishwasher detergent. I already make my laundry detergent, so I’m not sure why I’ve never made dish soap before! LOL

    Anyway, it works out to be about a penny a load and I already have most of the ingredients on-hand.

    1. I also make my own laundry detergent, but I haven’t tried out the dish detergent recipe yet. I want to try making my own dishwasher detergent to see if it works as well as the store bought ones. Good to know it cost about a penny a load, thanks Danica.

      1. It worked even better than Cascade! I did borax, washing soda, kosher salt and sf lemonaid koolaid.

  3. My husband is an appliance repairman. After many years without a dishwasher we finally moved into a home with one. He loves all my bargain shopping, but his one request to keep the dishwasher running properly and dishes coming out nice, I am only to purchase Cascade Complete, the powder version only. Never liquid. Just thought I would throw in my 2 cents worth.

    1. Sue, thanks for sharing. I still have to test out the cost of the powdered dishwasher detergent. I am thinking it will be an even better buy but I’m not sure. I only purchased the powdered kind for years until I started to coupon shop. Our current dishwasher is about 12 years old so maybe all those years of powdered detergent is why it has lasted so long.

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