Another frugal posting. My friend Jill came across this experiment while looking for good deals and coupons online: The $39 Experiment. Basically, this guy spent $39 in stamps and mailed all his favorite companies asking for samples and coupons. Well Jill decided to save the $39 and just email people. So a group of us are doing this now and what is happening? That's right! We are receiving not only coupons and samples, but coupons for free products as well! It is so much fun and doesn't take much time. Just come up with a generic email and then personalize it with one sentence for every company. Then take a few minutes to email those companies you like. We try to buy as locally as possible, and eventually want to be producing the bulk of our food. But some things we just can't find locally, or are too expensive for us right now. So this is helping out alot! The other day I went to the grocery store and rang up $56 worth of items but only paid $22! It works. Here is a list of organic and natural food companies that you can try for yourself (I'm sorry I didn't post urls with this list, it's long!):
* Amy’s Kitchen
* Barbara’s Bakery
* Kashi
* Pacific Foods
* Hansen’s Natural Beverages
* Brown Cow Yogurt
* Cape Cod Snacks
* Bigelow Teas
* Boomi Bars
* Kagome
* FruitaBu
* Zatarain’s
* Wallaby yogurts
* Arizona Iced Tea
* Alexia Foods
* Odwalla
* Ian's
* Arrowhead Mills
* Blue Diamond
* Bob’s Red Mill
* Casbah
* Cascadian Farm
* Celestial Seasonings
* Cherrybrook Kitchen
* DeBoles Pasta
* Eden Foods
* Garden of Eatin’
* Health Valley
* Imagine Foods
* Westbrae Natural Foods
* Lundberg
* MaraNatha
* Muir Glen
* Near East
* Van’s Waffles
* Yogi Tea
* Horizon Organic
* Organic Valley
* Stonyfield Farm
* Santa Cruz Organic
* Knudsen Juices
* Sunspire
* Apple & Eve
* Ecover
* Seventh Generation
* Method
* Coleman’s Natural Meats
* Tazo Tea
* Kind Fruit/Nut Bar
* Rachel’s Yogurts
* Riceland
* Attune Bar
* Earth Friendly, Ecos
* Robert’s American Gourmet
I am about half way through that list and am receiving things almost everyday now. The picture above was our first arrivals.
It is always better in my mind to buy locally and organic, or grow it yourself. But if you can't do that because of space, money, etc., then this can help keep you stocked with the foods you want and still be buying as responsibly as you can even with bigger companies. One day we'll reach our goal of self sufficiency. My major inspiration is Karl. Check out what he's doing with his place! It's just wonderful!
Happy shopping, planting and eating! And here's to Jill's Experiment!Labels: Family, Frugal Living
