A simple thing to think about when turning on the dishwasher is to avoid activating the prewash.
The new dishwashers are plenty powerful enough to get your dishes clean without pre-washing.
If a plate or pan is especially dirty, clean it by hand with baking soda.
Pre-washing is frankly useless if you have a dishwasher modern that washes very well without.
On the other hand, having a dishwasher is a smart stingy trick because it saves water compared to hand washing.
In addition, a dishwasher will save you time and since time is money, you win all the way!