My biggest tip is to not be stingy with dishwasher usage. If you already have one, use it always.
- The cheapest store brand powder detergent works fine and its way cheaper than liquid dishwashing detergent for manual usage
- PS: Pods are unnecessarily expensive and you'd need two of them to make good use of pre-washing cycles making it even more wasteful.
- Some people like to think they're super water-efficient doing the dishes, but they're not; dishwasher saves water.
- The only extra cost is electricity, but it's easily offset by the savings brought by cooking more often caused by the reduced hassle of doing the dishes. It's like 1-2 dollars of electricity per use (YMMV but it's that order of magnitude: less than a tenth of a dine out).