Savings Mom: Go Organic for Earth Day
April 19, 2006 — -- Earth Day is Saturday, April 22, and Savings Mom Stephanie Nelson answers a viewer's question on how to save money by going organic.
Question: Can you tell me where to find coupons for health food and organic food? -- Angie in Frankfort, Ill.
Savings Mom Says: Angie's question comes at just the right time, because April 22 is Earth Day. One goal of Earth Day is to draw attention to the ways organic products support a healthy environment. Organic products include not only food but organic fibers such as cottons and wools grown without pesticides, synthetic fertilizers or artificial flavors. Earth Day also reminds us to take advantage of other simple ways to reduce waste and pollution to preserve the environment.
More shoppers are buying organic products. Earth Day organizers report that sales of organic products have increased at a rate of about 20 percent a year.
The "Go Organic! For Earth Day" campaign includes money-saving coupons that are available in free booklets at participating retailers. Selected retailers will also have organic food demonstrations, product samples, educational materials and Earth Day events. Organic recipes, coupons and a store finder to locate participating retailers in your area can be found on the campaign Web site organicearthday.org.
If your local retailer is not listed, you can also get a free coupon book by calling 866-I-GO-ORGA (NIC) to request one. The Earth Day coupon book has $12.55 worth of coupons in each booklet.
In addition to the coupons found in the booklet, shoppers can also visit the Web sites of their favorite organic food manufacturers and sign up for their e-mail newsletters that may include coupons. You can also send e-mail messages to some organic food manufacturers through their Web sites and request that product coupons be mailed to you. Be sure to let them know how much you like their products and remember to include your mailing address. You can also call their 800 number (found on their Web sites) to request coupons from their customer service department.
Some of the organic and natural food manufacturers that have printable coupons available on their Web site or in their e-mail newsletters are stonyfieldfarms.com for yogurt and smoothie coupons and kashikids.com/coupon.asp for a $1 coupon on kids' cereal.
You can also visit the printable coupon Web sites like boodle.com to find coupons for products like Stonyfield Farms frozen organic yogurt, Nutritious Living cereals, Sugar in the Raw, frozen Nutritious Living entrees and even the nontoxic Simple Green cleaners.
Having a recycling mind-set also helps the environment. If you do not subscribe to a recycling service that picks up at your home, look for recycling receptacles in your community, such as at schools and places of worship. The recycling programs at nonprofit organizations generate revenue for them, so your recycling will not only help the environment, you will also help others at no cost to you.
Another way to help the environment is to bring your own bags to the grocery store. The Earth Day coupon booklet reports this shocking statistic: One hundred billion plastic shopping bags are thrown away in the United States each year. And we go through a lot of paper grocery bags, too. If every household in the country substituted only one canvas tote for one shopping trip, we could save about 60,000 trees. Imagine how many would be saved if we saved the bags from previous trips and used them to bag our groceries for every trip, instead of just one?
I'm going to start bringing my own paper bags when I shop this week. That's an easy way to save some trees, and it doesn't cost a thing. Why don't you join me? Happy Earth Day!