Prepare your money plan_3

66 The 1-2-3 Money Plan environmental reasons and because they con-sider it to be more healthful. Organic produce typically costs 25 percent to 100 percent more than nonorganic. Especially in challenging economic times, that has con-sumers reexamining their choices. Here are some do’s and don’ts when trying to save money on organic food: Don’t settle for “natural.” The term natural on packaging has a lot less meaning than organic, a term highly regulated by the Department of Agriculture. Don’t pay extra for something called natural or all natural. Do pay for some fruits and vegetables. It’s worth paying more for organic versions of some fruits and vegetables that retain pesti-cide residue, even after you wash them. Pay for organic versions of peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, pears, grapes, spinach, lettuce, and potatoes, according to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organic research group. Don’t pay more for fruits and vegetables with thicker skins that have far less pesti-cide residue. You can skip organic onions, avocados, sweet corn, pineapples, mango, asparagus, sweet peas, kiwi, bananas, cab-bage, broccoli, and papaya. From the Library of Wow! eBook Get FIT (Food, Insurance, Telecommunications) 67 Do buy organic protein-rich foods. Meats, poultry, eggs, and dairy products are worth buying as organics because they are free of pesticides, synthetic growth hormones, and antibiotics. Don’t buy highly processed organics. Breads, oils, potato chips, pasta, cereals, and other packaged foods, such as canned or dried fruit and vegetables, are probably not worth buying as organics unless price is no object, Consumer Reports said. Much of the health benefit has been processed out. Do buy organic baby food.Baby food tends to be made from condensed fruits and veg-etables, some of which might contain pesti-cides. Or make your own baby food from organic whole fruits and vegetables. Do buy local. You can find organic food from local farmers’ markets and local producers. Do try store brands. More supermarkets and large discounters, such as Wal-Mart, are offering private-label organics, which are cheaper than name brands. Do use coupons. Look for coupons for organic products in the Sunday newspaper or go online to the free coupon database at CouponMom.com and enter the search term “organic.” Get coupons directly from From the Library of Wow! eBook 68 The 1-2-3 Money Plan organic producers’ Web sites and sign up for their e-mail newsletters, which contain coupons. Examples are OrganicValley.com, SCOjuice.com, ColemanNatural.com, and Stonyfield.com. The site Healthesavers.com has printable coupons for some organic products. Do grow your own. If you are the garden-ing type and have a back yard, grow your own vegetables and receive the side benefits of exercise and a regular hobby. For more information, see GreenerChoices.org, FoodNews.org, and OrganicConsumers.org. 2. Stockpile Sale Items This gets to the heart of the spending smart strategy on groceries: Each week, don’t buy what you need. Instead, buy what’s on sale, and stock up. This cherry-picking strategy sounds simple enough, but it has a few moving parts. • Loyalty cards. In most supermarkets, you’ll have to sign up for a store loyalty card to qualify for sale prices. Supermarkets nowadays don’t typi-cally have sales that apply to everyone. Make no mistake: The supermarket is tracking your pur-chasing habits. That might give you the willies. But in the end, it’s doubtful that anyone will ever examine what you were buying. And who cares? From the Library of Wow! eBook Get FIT (Food, Insurance, Telecommunications) 69 Someone could follow you around the store—a public place—and collect the same information. Anyway, a loyalty card is often the only way to qualify for sale prices, and shopping the sales is your best weapon to lowering your food spending. • Sales flyers. Examine the weekly sales flyers for advertised specials. They often come in the news-paper or by mail. You can also go online to mygrocerydeals.com, which has digital versions of many sales flyers. Pay special attention to what’s advertised on the front and back covers. They are likely to be loss leaders, meaning the store is sell-ing them so cheaply they’re actually losing money. They hope to attract buyers into the store to pur-chase more high-profit items, which compensates for the loss leaders. I’m not going to tell you how to plan your meals, but if you can plan dinners around these loss leaders, you can save big dough. • Unit prices. Some items are sold in different-sized packages. Unless your supermarket lists the unit price on the shelf, you’ll have to do the math your-self. You could bring a calculator or reach for your cell phone. Most wireless phones have a cal-culator function. For each item, divide the price by the number of units, such as ounces or pounds. That allows you to literally compare apples to apples. If you go to the supermarket every week with a list of what you “need,” you’ll be paying far more than you have to. The idea is that when you “need” something, you should go to your own pantry or freezer and fetch the item, which you previously bought on sale. From the Library of Wow! eBook 70 The 1-2-3 Money Plan QUICK TIP Try supermarket store brands. They’re so much better than the “generics” of a generation ago. In fact, many store brands are made by the same manufacturers that make name-brand food products. How much can you save by stockpiling sale items? Most experts put the savings at around 20 percent of your entire food spending for a year. Considering the average American household of four spends about $7,000 on grocery food, housekeeping supplies, and personal-care items, you’re talking about savings of about $1,400 a year. And that excludes other categories of supermarket items that go on sale, such as over-the-counter medications. That’s $1,400 in savings for buying the exact same items, but buying them at ideal times. There can be drawbacks to this strategy. Obviously, perishables don’t stockpile well. Don’t buy more perish-able food than you will reasonably use before it goes bad, or your savings will be lost. Also, some people, especially those living in urban areas, have less pantry and freezer space to stockpile supermarket items. The stockpiling system will only work on a smaller scale for those people. From the Library of Wow! eBook ... - tailieumienphi.vn