Don't underestimate your dishwasher, save a few pennies.

It's Works for Me Wednesday at RocksInMyDryer and I am making my first "works for me" post (though I missed her link deadline.)

My dishwasher has four possible cycles: Quick Rinse, Light Wash, Normal Wash, and Pots & Pans. There are additional options for Heated Dry and High-Temp Wash. For the longest time, my husband and I set the dishwasher on Normal Wash with the High Temperature option (since I almost always run the dishwasher at night, giving them time to dry, I have never used the Heated Dry option). We selected the high temp wash because our hot water heater is on a timer and there's usually no hot water left late in the day (so the dishwasher heats the water up itself.)
At some point in my long history of doing things wrong, I sent the dishes through on the Light Wash cycle. They came out clean.
I did it again. They came out clean.
Now granted, our dirtiest dishes (pans used to cook hamburg, etc.) usually sit for a soak in the sink before going in the dishwasher (or being washed by hand), so the worst caked on things were dried raisin bran residue in cereal bowls. And NOTHING gets that out but frickin' steel wool, I swear! (Numbnuts: I was just being facetious. Soak the dish in water for a little while and those bran bits will come off fine!) Both times the hot water heater had been on, so there was at least a reasonable amount of hot water left.
These days, I always run the Light Wash cycle, and if one or two dishes need a quick scrub in the sink to get off a tough bit, it still saved me electricity and water. If your hot water is always on, or there is likely to be hot water when you normally run your dishwasher, consider trying out a "lesser" cycle on your dishwasher. You might be surprised!

EDIT: The fact that I have posted this comment at around 10:35 pm is evidence that I have not yet kicked the habit of my bad sleep schedule. My husband had to fly across the country for work, and I got up with him at 3:45 am yesterday, and didn't go back to sleep, so my days have been way off. Will get back on schedule soon!)