Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

Only a few more products to go and this house will be au naturel.  This afternoon I said buh-bye to the expensive Finish Powerball Dishwasher Tablets that I've used for years.  Don't get me wrong, they work so well however those bad boys will run you about $8.00+ for a 25 pack and who knows that type of chemical crap is going down the drain.  I just made a huge batch of homemade dishwasher detergent and it worked out to be about $0.12 a load. Can I get a BOOYA!?! It was super duper easy and only took about 4 minutes to make.  Amaze-balls.

*Update: I ran 1 load using 1 tablespoon and it sucked.  I tried again today and used 2 tablespoons and it was pretty good. Not as spectacular as the Finish tablets I usually use. It left some water spots so I'm going to take the advice of some other bloggers and add a splash of white vinegar in the bottle of the dishwasher before running it next time.

*Update #2: I decided that this recipe is a bust.  It works best when you use at least 2 tablespoons with a splash of vinegar but the cost savings wasn't enough as I'd like so I have converted back to my power ball detergent tablets. There are a few commercial household products that I cannot seem to face getting rid of, and this is one of them.

Yield: 50+ loads

Ingredients
2 cups borax (laundry isle)
2 cups washing soda (laundry isle)
2 cups Epsom salt (personal care isle with bubble bath)
1/2 cup citric acid (this is hard to find this time of year.  Bulk Barn carries it year round)
1 of those silica gel packets you get in shoe boxes or vitamin bottles (this keeps it from clumping)

Method
In a large bowl mix everything together (except the gel packet).  Pour into an air tights container and put the silica gel packet on top.  Put 2 tablespoons of powder for each load of dishes.  If you have hard water apparently you can put a splash of vinegar in the bottom of the dishwasher.