Here are a few homemade recipes given to me by a friend

 Homemade Oxi-Clean

List of Ingredients
1/2 cup hydrogen peroxide
1/2 cup baking soda
1 cup hot water

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Dishwasher soap
In a plastic container with a firmly fitting lid, mix:
1 cup borax (20-Mule-Team Borax, available in any supermarket)
1 cup baking soda
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup citric acid (available in brewing stores among other places–if you haven't tracked it down yet but must try this formula, use two packets of Lemonade-Flavored Kool-Aid, ONLY lemon, or you'll dye your dishwasher! and ONLY unsweetened Kool-Aid!)
30 drops citrus essential oil–lemon, grapefruit, orange, tangerine, or a mixture
Put all of it in the container, shake it up.
To use, put a tablespoon or so into each cup of your dishwasher. I've found I no longer have to use the scrubbing cycle but can get by fine with the short cycle, thus saving even more money. On average, it looks like this is about 8 cents a load compared with Cascade at 22 cents a load. Compare it with EcoVer or Seventh Generation and it's a steal. I have also started putting some of this in a shaker canister–the one I have we got at a restaurant supply, it's aluminum and was made for popcorn salt. I use it to clean my sink and anythi…