Credit: Life as Mom
Every Friday I share five must-read blog posts about saving money.
The top holiday photo deals are gathered in one place at the Faithful Provisions blog.
Find two designs for free holiday gift tags that you can print at home, thanks to The Thrifty Mama.
Prepare for cold season by stocking up with these over-the-counter essentials. I would add generic Zyrtec and cough drops to the list. (Surviving and Thriving)
Want organic coupons? Frugal Shopping with Julie has 15 resources for where to find them.
File this under depressing news. How many jobs do we need created for the recession to go away? Yikes.
Bonus: Main Street has ideas for how to pay off your January credit card bill. That’s thinking ahead!
iLoveButter/Flickr
If you are interested in eating organic on a budget, finding a nearby grocery store can be a challenge. Stephanie of KeeperoftheHome.org recommended AzureStandard, which is an online organic food catalog and delivery service. AzureStandard delivers to much of the Western states (see below) and can ship orders to other parts of the country, including Alaska and Hawaii. I’m considering eating organic for an entire month as an experiment and may well use AzureStandard! Here’s how it works.
Register on the site to access their sales flyer (free), delivery schedule (free), and product catalog ($.45). Charging for the product catalog strikes me as odd, because you’d think free access would entice potential customers, but perhaps it means only people who are truly interested (more…)
HoskingIndustries/Flickr
Tagging along with my post about eating organic on a budget, here is a list of blogs and sites to find organic coupons and coupons for natural products.
The Thrifty Mama- http://www.thethriftymama.com/
Organic Deals and Coupons- http://organicdeals.blogspot.com/
Organic on a Dime- http://organiconadime.blogspot.com/
Your Green Helper- http://yourgreenhelper.blogspot.com/
Saving Naturally -
http://savingnaturally.com/
Also consider Stephanie’s regular Friday morning guest blog post on Money Saving Mom that shares the best organic deals and coupons of the week. Here is last week’s post on organic grocery deals.
Another option is to order organic groceries and products through the online delivery service AzureStandard.
Wayne National Forest/Flickr
This is a post by BargainBabe.com writer Yazmin Cruz.
Green trends are everywhere these days – in the news, politics, fashion and even technology. Everyone is trying to be environmentally conscious and that’s great – but I am trying to be money conscious.
My family and I have been recycling since before it was the “in” thing to do. Recycling is one of the green changes that makes sense and cents. But when I think about changing my lifestyle to be more eco-friendly, the money adds up. Is being green actually frugal?
Organic Food
There are many benefits to organic food, like the fresh taste and lack of hormones and pesticides. With the high prices, however, not every one can afford it. Thankfully I have a garden that provides me some organic fruits and vegetables. I’ve learned to cut corners by using Organic.com’s Dirty Dozen list, which shares the 12 most and least contaminated produce items. The list helps me decide when it’s best to buy organic. Organic milk and meat are often twice as much as non-organic. Overall eating organic food, which is greener than non-organic, is not frugal.
Organic Beauty
Like organic food, the down side to organic beauty products is added expense. Organic shampoos and lotions can run anywhere from $10 to $20 a bottle and there aren’t a lot of coupons. Similar non-organic beauty products cost about $1-5. Unless prices drop, organic beauty products remain decidedly not frugal.
Alternative Energy
Solar panels are another green change that is too expensive for me to afford. Residential solar panels can cost tens of thousands of dollars and they generally pay for themselves in 10-20 years, but I just simply do not have the money to invest in them today. A cheaper alternative is changing incandescent light bulbs to florescent light bulbs around the home. Florescent light bulbs are a few dollars more than regular bulbs but will reduce your energy costs. A couple years ago, we changed out our bulbs for florescent bulbs and saw a major dip in our utilities bill, from $54 every two months to $33. Energy is one area that can be frugal.
How do you reduce the cost of being green?
