Wise Bread (Carrie Kirby)

28 Ways to Have Cheap Halloween Fun

Carrie Kirby — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:27:19 +0000

Halloween can be costly, especially for parents: House decorations, candy for trick-or-treaters, trips to the pumpkin farm or other creepy attractions, and especially the costumes can easily add up to hundreds of dollars.

And yet you don't have to spend a lot to have a lot of fun. The amount people pay for new Halloween costumes is especially mind-blowing — hit any temporary Halloween shop to see some of the hugest mark-ups for the lowest-quality junk you'll ever encounter. There are higher quality kids' costumes available for order online — and many are already marked down now — and yet there are so many used-once costumes in circulation you can pick pretty much anything you want if you just look around a little and practice a little flexibility. (I couldn't believe it when I read this post about how the "hot" costumes get sold out early and the prices get jacked up 400% — really, parents, it's just Halloween!)

Here are 28 ways to have a spooktacular Halloween without heading into the holiday season broke. Some of these ideas require planning ahead as long as a year, but there is still time to do many others this year. (In fact, waiting until the last minute is frugal idea #19.)

1. Grow your own pumpkins. Pumpkins are not all that expensive — this week they're $2 at Aldi and $3 at Whole Foods. But a packet of seeds costs $1.95 and (although some fanatics go to great lengths to baby their pumpkins) in my dad's garden the pumpkin plants get no care and still manage to produce two or three fruits each year. How fun would it be for your kids to monitor their jack-o-lanterns all summer?

2. Save the seeds and grow your own pumpkins next year for free.

3. Make the most of the jack-o-lantern by scooping out and cooking the pumpkin's meat before you put it on display. Although small "pie pumpkins" make the best pies (of all places Menards usually has a great price on these), we made some perfectly delicious soups and breads out of large pumpkins last year that I got for free outside Dominick's the day before Halloween.

4. Make roasting and eating the seeds part of your pumpkin carving tradition.

5. Watch the drugstore and discount store sales to get candy for the trick-or-treaters for next to nothing, especially with coupon matchups. I got more than enough this year for FREE by buying coupons to use at Kmart Super Doubles. (CVS will be offering $5 ExtraBucks when you spend $20 on candy through 10/24, for example, and adding coupons can bring your expenditure down to $5 or $10.)

6. Making Halloween treats at home for special kids or parties is a fun activity and a lot cheaper (and better) than buying holiday cupcakes at the grocery store. Pillsbury has lots of ideas using those ever-versatile and ever-bad-for-you cans of dough. If you have a Jewel-Osco in your area, you can pick up eight cans this week for a net profit after Catalina coupons and make all the hot dog mummies or witch finger sandwiches your little ghouls desire.

7. Beware of the costs you'll rack up at the pumpkin farm! Try to find out the prices before you go to one of these places — some are all inclusive while some will charge you separately for each attraction. Go for the fun, but you might not want to purchase a pumpkin there — see above.

8. Look for haunted houses run by schools or other amateur organizations instead of the big commercial attractions.

9. But if you do want to go to a big bang attraction, Fright Fest at Six Flags is a pretty good deal if you buy your season pass for next year now — you can use it for the rest of this year and not only go to the haunted house and other spooky stuff but also enjoy the regular rides. If your region isn't freezing cold already, that is.

10. A simple, free Halloween activity my daughter loves every year: Go for walks or drives to check out neighbors' Halloween displays.

11. Make your own Halloween decorations with these ideas from Family Fun magazine. When I was growing up, the creepiest, best decoration we had was a thermal coverall stuffed and topped with a jack-o-lantern head, sitting in a rocker on the front porch. So easy, yet — at least to my young eyes — so effective. This year, we made disembodied hands to hang all over the house, and not only were they easy to make, they keep the kids from eating all the candy their grandparents gave them in advance of the holiday.

12. Scoop up cheap decorations (and costumes!) right after Halloween for next year. CVS will have Halloween stuff down to 90% off within a week after Oct. 31.

13. Shop for decorations and costumes all year at garage sales and thrift shops. (My daughter's year-round Halloween obsession makes this easy for us. She picked out a ghost and tombstones display in June, sparkly Halloween hats in September and a big box of decor for $5 earlier this month.)

14. Children consignment shops are usually packed with costumes at a fraction of the retail cost.

15. Host or attend a costume swap.

16. Check eBay for costume bargains. In fact the auction site has a dedicated Halloween page, where you'll find an adult "sexy cop" costume for $3.24 or a baby bunny rabbit costume at 99 cents!

17. Raid the thrift shop for both commercially made costumes and for ingredients for putting together your own costumes.

18. But beware bargains that aren't: Our local thrift store has a Halloween section, but it's full of new costumes and decorations, many of them priced at higher than regular retail stores. This week Target had kids' Halloween leggings on sale for $4, but the thrift store had the same leggings, with tags, at $4.99.

19. Shop for costumes in the very last week before the holiday. This is one situation where planning ahead actually costs you!

20. Here's Julie Rains' list of kids' costume ideas you can put together WITHOUT SEWING with things you may already have at home. Not to be outdone, Andrea Dickson has no-sew ideas for adults, too.

21. And more no-sew costumes.

22. And easy-to-sew costumes.

23. With a good makeup job you may not need much costume. Here are some great ideas for impressive makeup jobs.

24. My favorite cheap, easy costume idea this year came from (the now defunct) Cookie magazine: Your kid can be Max from "Where the Wild Things Are."

25. Frugal use for all that candy: Find a dentist doing a candy buyback.

26. Frugal candy use #2: Thin out your kid's haul and secretly give it back to him in his Christmas stocking.

27. Frugal candy use #3-13: See Andrea Dickson's list that includes my favorite, using it for baking, as well as things I never thought of, like adding some to your emergency car kit.

28. Live on it for a week and save on plumbing by not going to the bathroom. (That's a link to a very funny Suze Orman skit from a recent Thursday night SNL Weekend Update. Frugalites will get a kick out of it.)

Permalink | 3 comments | Carrie Kirby's blog | Channel: Art and Leisure, Shopping

Similar entries:

This article is from Wise Bread.

Save Enough on Meat to Buy a Chest Freezer

Carrie Kirby — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:29:52 +0000

By Carrie Kirby

I've been thinking a lot this year about where my family's meat comes from and how to fit more natural and less cruelly raised meat into our $80-a-week grocery budget. I knew a bulk beef purchase could solve these problems, but I was reluctant about investing in a bulk freezer and spending hundreds of dollars on meat upfront.

Then by chance I was connected with a farmer who I absolutely loved, who genuinely cares for the cattle he raises and doesn't use hormones or prophylactic antibiotics, who grazes them and also gives them pesticide-free corn he grows himself. We took the plunge, bought the freezer and now we've got a year's worth of meat in our basement.

We paid $422 for half a side of beef and $350 for the chest freezer (on sale at Sears). It seemed like a lot to pay up front, but once I crunched the numbers, I realized that I saved enough on the meat to pay for the freezer!

Here's how the math worked for us:

The half side of beef was 158 pounds hanging weight. That translates to about 134 pounds of meat, according to the University of Minnesota Extension. So we paid about $3.15 a pound, and that includes delivery and the "cutting fee."

Before this, I was paying about $6 a pound for hormone-free, antibiotic-free ground beef. Yes, I would occasionally get some at a lower sale price at Super Target, but I preferred to buy directly from the farmer so I could make sure that cattle were being allowed to graze instead of living on a crowded feed lot. At my farmer's market that meant $6 a pound.

So assuming my entire "quarter cow" was ground beef, I'd have saved $2.85 a pound, or a total of $381. In reality, of course, my freezer now holds several T-bones and porterhouse steaks as well as roasts and plenty of sirloin in addition to ground beef.

But that $381 savings paid for my freezer. It doesn't pay for the electricity to run the Energy Star freezer, however. I'm not really sure what that will cost and won't know until I get my first power bill since turning it on. I'm hopeful, though, that the additional savings when you figure in the many cuts of meat I got will far outweigh the electricity costs.

Since I have an $80 a week limit on buying food for my family, I'm putting aside money each week until that $422 is accounted for. If I save $20 a week it will be "paid for" in 20 weeks. Since I have a large stockpile of nonperishable groceries in the house and of course don't have to buy meat at all, I'm hopeful that I can put aside more than $20 a week and pay the money back to my savings account within a couple of months.

Besides the cost savings, the big advantage of making a bulk meat purchase is not having to worry about what meat to buy week after week. The decision is made, and it's a decision I feel great about.

There are disadvantages to a bulk purchase like this as well, of course: The monthly electricity cost, the risk of losing the investment in a power outage or equipment breakdown, and the risk of the meat losing its quality before it all gets consumed. (The USDA advises that most cuts can be frozen "4 to 12 months" without losing quality, but ground beef only 3 months. So I guess we better eat up that ground beef first.) Then there's the fact that we had to buy over 100 pounds of meat (we split the side with my parents) which translates to more than two pounds a wee, more than we would have normally eaten.

But the advantages far outweigh those disadvantages for me. I think a lot of others would also benefit from doing this! In fact, I'm now looking into splitting a pig with my parents to feed that freezer even more.

If you, too, are ready to take the plunge and put a side of beef (or a half side) in your basement, here are some resources:

Eat Wild's State by State Directory of farms that sell pastured meat

How to Buy a Side of Beef from Get Rich Slowly

Cowpooling: Share a Side from Mark's Daily Apple

Side Buying Q&A from Rivercrest Farm

Permalink | 25 comments | Carrie Kirby's blog | Channel: Food and Drink

Similar entries:

This article is from Wise Bread.

Super Doubles Are Back at Kmart

Carrie Kirby — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:00:01 +0000

By Carrie Kirby

Kmart is doubling coupons again this week, reportedly for the last time in 2009. Every time they do "Super Doubles," it kicks off an internal argument for me:

Me 1: Hey, you could get free hand soap! We need hand soap!

Me 2: But I haaate going to Kmart. You know what Rainman said, Kmart sucks!

Me 1: Free stuff! Cheap stuff!

Me 2: But, I always end up spending like 3 hours digging through my coupons before I go. And then half the stuff I'm looking for, they're either out of or my local store doesn't carry it at all.

This week, I'm going through the same internal struggle. Sure, Super Doubles have paid off for me, but at what cost in time and hassle? And I'm not the only bargain shopper who has had major problems with Kmart Super Doubles.

Here are some of the problems I've had with Super Doubles:

1. Cashier error -- failing to scan some coupons, attaching the coupons to the wrong items resulting in a higher total.

2. Register problems -- coupons that won't scan for no reason, prices ringing up wrong.

3. Equipment problems -- Catalina machines that are out of paper or don't work.

4. Lack of manager backup -- Service desks unstaffed.

5. Inventory -- Lots of items I brought coupons for have been out of stock or just not carried at all. Others are hard to find, often in the wrong place.

Despite all those problems, I'm STILL tempted to hit my local Kmart for Super Doubles this week. Here's my advice if you are similarly tempted:

1. Take advantage of the labor of others. There are lots of lists of coupon matchups online, like at My Frugal Adventures and Abundant Food Savings.

2. Find the biggest, best Kmart you can. Usually I don't like to drive out of my way to get a deal. But if you are investing the time to gather up your best coupons, it'll be a lot less frustrating if you drive to a Kmart that is likely to have the things you want in stock, process your coupons properly, and give you good customer service if problems arise. Does such a Kmart exist? I dunno.

3. Call your chosen Kmart before heading out to make sure they're participating. Use the store locator to get their number.

3. Review the official AND UNOFFICIAL Super Doubles rules so you know what to expect. Like, officially there's a limit of 10 double coupons, but unofficially stores don't all count them.

4. Avoid Catalina deals. Not everyone will agree on this one. Indeed, on my first Super Doubles attempt, there was a Catalina deal that printed $2 coupons that would double to $4, allowing me to get all kinds of merchandise for free. It worked like a charm. HOWEVER, the next time I tried a Catalina deal at Kmart, none of the registers I approached had working printers and I had to send away for my coupons. I'm still waiting 6 weeks later and don't know if I'll ever get them. And if I do, I'll have to go BACK to Kmart to spend them.

5. Sweeten the deal (non-doubling) high value coupons. Use the $5/$50 coupon from the back of today's flyer, or sign up online for similar coupons, print the free item coupons (thanks Money Saving Mom), and combine store coupons with manufacturers coupons on toys, as Abundant Food Savings explains (scroll down in this post to the Toys section).

Permalink | 6 comments | Carrie Kirby's blog | Channel: Shopping

Similar entries:

This article is from Wise Bread.

Summer Freebies and Bargains for Kids

Carrie Kirby — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:39:03 +0000

By Carrie Kirby

Summer vacation can be expensive for families with children. If the kids are not enrolled in camp programs which are in their own right pricey, the empty hours can weigh heavily and lead to an excess of wallet-emptying entertainment. Here are some things that kids can do this summer for free or for cheap:

Free bowling. The AMF chain of bowling alleys offers a kids club granting children two free games EVERY DAY all summer long. You sign up through your local alley (the Web site lists locations in 33 states), and individual locations may have rules and caveats like specific hours when free games can be played. The freebies can't be used by large groups like day care outings.
Free movies and free or discounted books: On Frugalista, my new blog about Chicago-area bargains, I outlined the a number of free and cheap summer movie series for kids as well as the summer reading programs at major bookstores and libraries (the store programs usually give kids a free book or at least a discount; the library programs offer varying goodies). Most of these programs are available nationally or you can find the same at your local theaters, stores and libraries.
Cheap museums and zoos. If you have multiple kids and the whole summer to kill, it can be worth it to invest in a pass to a local kids' museum. But if you live in an area with lots of museums like I do, you'll want to buy a pass that gets you into multiple places. In this post I share the secret ticket that gets you into the most places for the lowest price. An even cheaper strategy than the above is to stick to museum and zoo free days -- check the Web site of your local -- or to latch onto other families that have memberships and can bring guests (reciprocity is nice!).
You all know about using your local library, which usually has the added advantage of free air conditioning, but newer parents may not realize that most urban and suburban park districts offer low-cost or free activities too. In our neighborhood, teen-aged park employees bring a "fun truck" to the local playground once a week with a slip and slide and other delights.
Fairs. You won't get off scott-free at the state or county fair; in fact you'll shell out for entrance, overpriced ice cream and corn, and ride tickets, and maybe even parking. But there are lots of things to keep little ones busy most of the day for free, like looking at animals and watching animal shows, and the costs pale in comparison to an amusement park. Speaking of which ...
Amusement park discounts. Six Flags and its ilk are never cheap, but there are ways to pay less. If you live nearby and your kids are old enough to be dropped off, a season pass for them can really pay for itself pretty easily. Even if you're going for one day, check the park's Web site and do a little Googling for promotions; right now Six Flags tickets are buy-one-get-one online; you also often see discounts on soda cans, at fast-food restaurants, and the like.
Mix in a bit of the always free.We're taking advantage of many of the above programs intermittently during the summer, but I unabashedly admit that my kids' regular summer days include a lot of less-structured free activities. Playing in the backyard, visiting local playgrounds, sitting on the porch watching for the ice cream man (OK that will cost me a few bucks if he actually shows up but he hardly EVER drives down our street), hitting rummage sales with mom (now that my oldest is 5, giving her $2-4 at a rummage sale will keep her happily absorbed in bargain-hunting while I do my own shopping), playing with neighbors and friends, and reading (she's been devouring The Boxcar Children mysteries) have been the prime activities so far. Oh, and even a little work beyond the normal "pick up your toys": Now that the 5-year-old understands that money can get her toys at rummage sales, she's become a willing weed bounty hunter in the backyard.

Permalink | 4 comments | Carrie Kirby's blog | Channel: Art and Leisure

Similar entries:

This article is from Wise Bread.

Supermarket Angst Part III: How to Buy Better Poultry

Carrie Kirby — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:40:50 +0000

By Carrie Kirby

As I wrote in previous installments of my Supermarket Angst series, I've been using extra money in our grocery budget to improve the quality of the food I buy my family. Buying organic for produce with the highest danger of pesticide contamination was an easy choice, but I've found it difficult to know what's worth the extra money when buying animal products -- eggs and dairy products, for instance.

Today I'm tackling one of the most baffling buying categories, for me -- poultry. Unlike beef, where I know I want hormone- and antibiotic-free, I'm unclear on whether chickens and turkeys are given hormones and antibiotics to begin with. I've seen labels like "natural" and even "Amish" and "Kosher" on chicken -- do those mean it's healthier? And what about turkey? I don't think I've ever seen special labels on that, although I have heard about people spending big box on organic turkeys at Thanksgiving.

First of all, let's look at the most expensive category: organic poultry. Birds sold as organic must eat organic feed, which should in theory reduce the chance of pesticides building up in the meat that we eat. But according to a 2004 Business Week story, pesticides in meat is a much smaller health concern than pesticides on produce:

"While 47% of the produce sampled by the USDA in 2002 had detectable pesticide residues, only 16% of grains and 15% of meat tested did. Most of the residues found in meat (almost always in the fat) were from long-banned chemicals like DDT, which remain in the environment and is not a problem organic farming methods can solve."

That passage was enough to convince me not to worry about pesticides in my poultry. But is getting hormone-free birds another reason to buy organic? According to the United States Department of Agriculture's food labeling FAQ, no.

"Hormones are not allowed in raising hogs or poultry. Therefore, the claim "no hormones added" cannot be used on the labels of pork or poultry unless it is followed by a statement that says 'Federal regulations prohibit the use of hormones.'"

However, the USDA does allow poultry producers to use the phrase “antibiotic-free.” As with beef and milk, antibiotic overuse in raising fowl is more of a public health concern than a worry for the consumer of the resulting food. The routine use of antibiotics when raising livestock, it is feared, can contribute to the creation of superbugs resistant to current antibiotic drugs.

After reading the USDA's sheet, I would feel comfortable skipping “organic” birds in favor of those labeled “antibiotic free.” Of course, at many stores you'd be lucky to find one or the other, so you might end up buying organic just to be sure you're not feeding the antibiotic problem.

What about “natural” or “all-natural” chickens? Can I count on those to be healthier than other birds? According to the USDA, all “natural” means is that it doesn't have added color or other artificial ingredients. Yegads, the idea of farmer's injecting their dead birds with color isn't even a problem I'd contemplated. But no, I'd say a bird labeled "natural" isn't worth much or any extra money.

Then of course, just like with eggs, there is the issue of how one's chicken dinner was treated while it was alive. This is mostly a matter of deciding between caged versus cage-free versus free-range birds, but it is possible to go beyond those labels, which I'll address in a minute. I wasn't even sure if the crowded cage conditions I'd heard about for laying hens also went on in the meat chicken industry. But this paper, found on PETA's Web site, makes the life of a broiler chicken sound even more miserable than that of a laying hen. The paper also touches on the miserable working conditions in the poultry industry, which are documented in plenty of places.

The short answer is yes, meat chickens are typically raised crowded into cages, and so buying something labeled “cage-free” or “free-range” would be a plus. But as with eggs, the meaning of these terms is pretty limited and by no means ensure that the bird you're eating had a good or even bearable life.

In fact, the unsettling reading from the link above has the effect – as I'm sure many things found on the PETA Web site do – of making one wonder if it's possible to eat meat at all without being complicit in the mistreatment of both animals and workers. After all, even a chicken labeled “free-range” may well suffer a slow painful trip through the slaughterhouse. I've never seen a “cruelty-free” label on a frozen chicken.

Of course, you might say that eating meat CAN'T be cruelty free because you have to kill the animal in order to eat it. But personally, I'm not a vegan or a vegetarian, and I'm not interested in becoming one. I'd just prefer if the animals I eat suffer as little as possible in the process of being turned into my dinner.

Ideally, I'd like to buy chickens who lived in a place like Polyface Farms, which I read about in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. Polyface moves its chickens from one patch of pasture to another throughout the summer, using portable pens to ensure they always have access to their favorite greens (clover, apparently) and lots of juicy bugs, not to mention space to move and fresh air. But finding a supplier whose environment meets those standards takes more research than reading labels in Super Target (where I typically buy my antibiotic-free chicken on sale), and yes, it will cost me more too.

This site lists some farmers in all states that pasture their poultry like Polyface does. Apparently I could order whole chickens that have had pretty good lives, and are antibiotic-free, from one of these places for around $2.75 a pound. That's not bad when you compare it to the price of beef, of course, although a whole chicken contains a bunch of bones, skin and fat that we won't be eating. I could even order a meat share from a Community Supported Agriculture farm that would take care of all my egg, meat and poultry worries at the cost of around $5 a pound – that's my guess of the average cost of what they provide, which would probably be less for the chicken and more for the beef.

Considering that I often find beef and poultry at Super Target that meets SOME environmental, cruelty and health standards for $2-3 a pound, am I willing to sign up for a CSA where I'd pay around twice as much?

I'm seriously considering it. On top of ending my supermarket angst in one fell swoop, the idea of having my meat and egg shopping done for me every other week is a time-saving bonus.

The one thing I haven't had the chance to address here is turkey. Are turkeys caged and given antibiotics? Is there such a thing as a free-range or organic turkey?

I found one good article defining terms that label turkeys -- it basically says that yes, all the same terms that apply to chickens mean the same thing when applied to turkeys. The same limitations apply, too – a package of ground turkey labeled “free range” may have come from a bird allowed very limited access to an outdoor porch or pen while still enduring very crowded or otherwise unfavorable conditions.

So, as you might guess, the more I read about animal treatment on conventional farms, the more motivated I am to buy more-expensive products in dairy, eggs AND meats. Can my family maintain our $80-a-week grocery budget while getting all particular on animal products like this?

I'm not sure, but I think it may be possible. One tactic will involve limiting the meat in our diets. We currently eat meat about five times a week. If I order a $20-per-week meat CSA share, it will provide us with enough meat to eat about three times a week, judging from the list here. Add a vegetable CSA share for around $28 a week, and, at least through the Midwest growing season, I'd have the basics taken care of with around $30 to spend at the grocery store each week on milk, fruits and grains/packaged foods.

Permalink | 8 comments | Carrie Kirby's blog | Channel: Food and Drink

Similar entries:

This article is from Wise Bread.

Supermarket Angst Part II: What Eggs Should I Buy?

Carrie Kirby — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:03:06 +0000

By Carrie Kirby

Recently I wrote about marketplace confusion when it comes to milk -- in terms of cost, health, the environment and animal welfare. Today, I'm taking on eggs, another area where my bargain-sensor and desire to eat better end upmutually lost in a sea of terminology. In future installments, I'll look at poultry and meat choices as well.

Eggs are very nutritious, and conventional eggs represent one of the best protein bargains on the market -- you can often get a dozen eggs, 12 protein servings, for around $2 or less. When you get into cage-free, organic and other more rarified eggs, you're looking at $3-$5 a dozen or more, which is still a bargain when compared to the same amount of meat with similar classifications. A meat protein serving is 3 ounces, which means to equal a dozen eggs you'd have to buy 2.25 pounds of meat. You're not going to find 2 pounds of organic meat for $5.

But are eggs with organic and cage-free labels worth the extra cost? What about other labels, like free range and "fertile," and those labeled touting high levels of Omega-3 fatty acids? In the past couple of years, I decided that I was willing and able to pay the average $1/dozen price difference to purchase cage-free eggs instead of regular. I usually buy a brand called Spareboe, whose cage-free eggs sell at my favorite store for $2.67 and for around $2.99 at some other bargain stores.

But I wondered: How was this one brand able to sell cage-free eggs for less than other producers? Were their chickens living under worse conditions than others? And does cage-free equal cruelty free? Are the eggs I'm feeding my kids safe even though the chickens aren't eating organic feed?

The Humane Society of the United States has campaigned to ban battery hen cages, a movement that so far has succeeded in California, and the organization's description of a typical laying hen's life in a cage is enough to confirm at least one thing for me: I don't want to go back to buying regular eggs. The same page also comes right out and confirms my worry that cage free is not equivalent to cruelty free: "the mere absence of cages doesn't necessarily ensure a high level of welfare."

But it does sound like buying cage-free is a big step in the right direction; cage-free hens usually get to lay their eggs in nests and express other natural behaviors, sparing them a lot of stress. But if I do want more assurance that the eggs we eat are truly cruelty free -- and my neighborhood does not allow backyard hen-raising -- what should I be buying? The Humane Society also has a handy guide to a whole bunch of labels that appear on egg cartons, many of which I have never seen.

One claim the guide gets out of the way: "natural" doesn't mean anything when it comes to animal welfare. It also explains that USDA has no standards for use of the term "free range" when it comes to egg production, but as a general rule, the difference between eggs labeled cage-free and those labeled free-range is that the latter has some degree of outdoor access. There are no rules dictating whether that means they spend most of their lives in sunny pastures, happily pecking at bugs, or if they get to venture out a little door into a tiny outdoor dirt pen once a week. Hens laying certified organic eggs are required to have outdoor access, but again, how much and what kind are not specified.

Eggs labeled fertile are layed by hens who are kept around roosters, which would not be the case if they were caged. So it's another way of saying cage free or free range.

Based on this information, I DON'T feel that it would be worth it to spend more to upgrade from the cage-free eggs to free-range or organic, just based on animal welfare. There just aren't adequate standards to guarantee that these labels mean less animal cruelty.

There are two labels that guarantee hens a better life -- "certified humane" and "animal welfare approved." But I have never seen these labels, and no wonder -- according to the Humane Society, the second, stricter category has NO participating producers who sell to supermarkets.

Another strategy for getting eggs I'd feel good about would be buying from a local producer or Community-Supported Agriculture program where I can see that the hens are doing ok or where people I trust could vouch for their welfare. That's definitely not out of the question, but it will take some research.

Then there's the question of health -- is it worth it to upgrade to organic or Omega-3 eggs for health reasons? Well, the main advantage touted with organic eggs is the pesticide-free feed consumed by the hens. But is pesticide residue from chicken feed really a health risk in conventional eggs?

I have found this a tough area to research; there are plenty of health food advocates out there who simply state that conventional eggs contain pesticide residues, but any reference to studies I've found online are too technical for me to decipher. The only straightforward advice I could find came from Shape magazine, which advised that eggs contain a minimal level of pesticide residue if any and that I needn't worry about it.

As for the claim -- touted on many health food Web sites -- that organic or free-range eggs contain more nutrients?

Well, it does seem sensible that chickens allowed to indulge in a natural diet of bugs and grass would pick up a broader range of nutrients to pass on to their eggs than those pecking at ground-up corn all day. But I was unable to find anything resembling a study on this, and besides, as I said before, there is no guarantee that an egg labeled free-range or organic comes from a hen that ate anything different from caged hens or cage-free ones kept in a warehouse. A chicken eating organic corn is still eating corn.

I'd say that if you take the health claims seriously, you've got to buy eggs from a source that you know allows its hens to get outside and eat the good stuff.

As for me, my reading has encouraged me to seek out a source of eggs that are probably more nutritious than the supermarket fare, but once I find my local options, I'm going to look hard at the price before I make any final decisions. I think eggs from hens that get outdoors are probably a bit healthier and a bit kinder, but there are limits on how much more I'd be willing to pay for these hazy distinctions.

That leaves just one fancy label to decide on: Omega-3-enhanced eggs. Fortunately, this is an easy one. There are LOTS of sources out there that advise these eggs are not worth the extra cost. In fact, the Center for Science in the Public Interest conducted a campaign asking the FDA to stop egg producers from claiming Omega-3 eggs provide any extra health benefits at all.

Permalink | 28 comments | Carrie Kirby's blog | Channel: Shopping

Similar entries:

This article is from Wise Bread.

Grocery Store Earth Angst -- Tackling Some of Those Questions About Buying for Health and Environment

Carrie Kirby — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:03:14 +0000

By Carrie Kirby

It seems like the more I get into eating and living earth-friendly and frugal, the more questions and doubts come up. Since yesterday was Earth Day, I set aside some time to track down answers to questions that nag me. (OK, I would have posted this yesterday, but the weather in Chicago was finally sunny and instead I had a long walk with my kids and a date with my husband.)

There are so many causes for confusion out there -- greenwashing (marketing that makes brands appear earth-friendly when they really aren't), labeling, standards and pricing. Throw in the need to shop on a budget -- $80 a week for our family of four -- and I feel like I need a PhD in both food science and math to make sense of it all. It certainly gives me an understanding for why more and more folks are growing their own food and even raising their own milk cows and laying hens.

Today I'm tackling the questions that nag me about buying dairy products, and in a future installment I'll take on my questions about poultry.

The questions: Am I doing the right thing by buying milk labeled "no added hormones?" Should I upgrade my purchases to the more expensive "organic" milk?

My answers: The Food and Drug Administration says that milk from cows injected with bovine growth hormone, aka BGH or BST, is safe. Here are some quotes from a scientist who agrees. Here on Wise Bread Paul Michael wrote a post awhile back challenging companies like Horizon that market their milk as superior because they don't use BGH. However, I feel enough doubts have been raised about the safety of milk from such cows that I don't want to feed it to my children, especially since milk from cows without hormone injections is readily available for similar prices. Sources of doubt include the suppressed reporting described in the film "The Corporation" and the fact that the hormones have been banned in other countries.

So I'd say: Yes, buying milk free of added hormones is a good move.

Organic milk, on the other hand, can cost three times as much as conventional, so it's a harder purchase decision. To be labeled organic, milk must come from cows that don't get hormone shots, don't get preventative antibiotics, eat organic feed or grass, and have access to pasture. After reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "Fast Food Nation," this sounds ideal to me. Once you read about conditions on feed lots, animal products raised in the conventional industrial way, whether meat or milk, sound less appealing for environmental reasons as well as cruelty and human health reasons. And nutritionists say the most nutritious milk come from cows that eat grass.

This post makes a good argument for buying organic milk on both environmental and health grounds.

Yet, the U.S. organic standards leave a lot of unanswered questions, such as A) Is antibiotic-free important? and B) What does access to pasture mean?

A) When cows are given antibiotics, residues of those drugs remain in the milk, but the FDA has set a threshhold below which it doesn't feel the antibiotic residues endanger the public. This University site discusses the dairy industry problem of milk with antibiotics exceeding the limits. My personal reaction to this is to say yes, I should buy organic milk. I don't have a lot of confidence in the FDA and its standards at this point in history. I'm concerned about the antibiotics my family is exposed to in our environment, and this seems like a good reason to purchase organic milk. I also like the idea of not supporting the overuse of antibiotics in industrial farming, for fear that these important drugs lose their power for all of us.

2) The "pasture" part of the FDA standard is so vague it's maddening. I'd like to think the cows for whose milk I'm paying a premium are living the way cows were meant to live, grazing freely in pastures and not confined to milking parlors. I'd like to think they aren't at high risk of getting sick because they're not confined to close quarters or fed corn that mucks up their digestive system.

The reality, at least at large industrial organic dairies, is nothing like that, according to this 2005 Salon piece about practices at Horizon, owned by Dean's. "Horizon cows graze for only four or five hours a day and during only three months in the summer," the piece alleges. The rest of the time, the cows are confined and fed grains.

My conclusion: Yes, buying organic milk is probably worth it, but not if you buy from companies that produce it industrially. I just won't pay triple the cost for a product that may only be marginally better. Which leaves me overwhelmed wondering what brand to buy, where to get it, and how to know if I'm really getting milk from grass-fed, humanely treated, cows raised in an earth-friendly manner -- but at least now that I've decided it's worth it, I can start reading up on what milk to buy and where to buy it.

Permalink | 17 comments | Carrie Kirby's blog | Channel: Food and Drink

Similar entries:

This article is from Wise Bread.

How Many Will Lose Money on Those "Frugal" Gardens This Year?

Carrie Kirby — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 04:36:54 +0000

By Carrie Kirby

In the past two seasons, there has been a huge uptick in interest in vegetable gardening. There are plenty of good reasons to garden right now -- food prices went up last year and haven't come down, or at least not much; people's incomes are stagnating or shrinking; people are interested in eating locally and nothing is more local than your own back yard; with food poisoning and contamination becoming commonplace, people want to know where their food is coming from; and finally, producing your own food should help quell some of that rampant uncertainty plaguing most of us these days. Even if you lose your income, if you've got a successful garden this summer, you won't starve, or at least not for a few months.

I like to save money, and I like security. And yet, I'm very tentative when it comes to jumping into the gardening craze.

Why? I watch my dad garden every year, and though the payoffs for his labor are many, I have also heard him say year after year that his garden doesn't save him a dime. The way he figures it, he pays for a lot of inputs: renting a machine to break up the earth each spring, seedlings, seed, a compost-rich "soil conditioner" called Father Dom's Duck Doo, vials of concentrated fox piss to ward off rabbits, herbicides, insecticides, fencing and of course water.

Then again, my dad doesn't do much grocery shopping, so I suspect he does not realize the street value of all those delicious tomatoes he pulls out of that garden, not to mention the green beans, zucchini, cucumbers, corn, peppers and kale. And you'll have noticed from my list that he does not garden organically -- surely, I figure, I could save more if I eschew the pesticide and herbicides and compare my harvest to the prices for organic produce.

I was able to find some estimates for how much you can save by growing your own food, but they are all pretty vague:

BusinessPundit.com estimates a mere $20 savings from growing a few tomato and pepper plants on his patio.
Get Rich Slowly estimates a $1.91 return for each $1 invested in his garden -- but acknowledges that 60 hours of labor also went into the project. This gardener saved about $300, so you could say that he and his wife earned $20 an hour, tax free, for working on their plot.
In this New York Times article, a Burpee rep estimates that a $100 investment in a garden will yield over $1,000 in savings. In the same piece, an experienced gardener says she hopes to save $20 a week, which, extrapolated over the course of the year, is about the same thing. She mentioned drying and freezing some of her yield, so I think she meant over the whole year and not just during the harvest season.

Invest $100, save $1,000 in a year, tax free? What am I waiting for? Gardening seems like the investment deal of the century!

And yet, I'm still hesitant to put in more than a few plants and spend more than a few bucks. Here are my reasons: The output from any investment in a garden is uncertain. I've seen my dad's crops get decimated or at least severely diminished by so many things -- pests, hail, late frost, mysterious failure to thrive. He has had years when he had to replant three times -- increasing if not tripling that initial investment. Realistically, I have to assume that my results will be worse than his. My yard is not as sunny, pests (squirrels) are more rampant, I have no track record of successful gardening in this yard, I lack his experience and skill, I have less free time to tend to the garden, and, at nearly 7 months pregnant, I won't be as physically up to the task. Finally, since I want to skip the chemical fertilizer and pest killers, I can assume that I will lose more to pests and/or have to work harder than he does.

My dad might be surprised if he ever did the math and figured out how much he's saving, on average, with his garden. But I think a lot of newcomers to gardening will also be surprised at the amount of work and risk involved. I'm willing to bet there will be a lot of abandoned gardens come midsummer, and a lot of folks who spent more than $100 who end up getting $0 worth of produce. But for those who do stick with this new hobby, there will be nonmonetary rewards as well as the hoped-for return on investment. Ever bite into a BLT sandwich when the T was picked just as the B hit the pan? You could pay hundreds for a haute cuisine meal that doesn't match it. Ever see a man teach his grandchild how to space out green bean seeds, and then watch that same grandchild help bring in the harvest?

I have, and that, more than the uncertain prospect of being able to recoup my investment, is what drives me to put in at least a few plants this year. Squirrels be damned.

If you do invest your time and money as a new gardener this year, here are some tips to help avoid losing that investment:

Myscha Tehriault's recent post about cheap garden hacks right here on Wise Bread.

Get Rich Slowly has great tips, including: Start small, pick high-yield plants (berries over corn), and share seeds with friends.

Growing Plants for Free is supposed to be a good book for beginners and experts alike on splitting plants and harvesting seeds so you don't have to buy them.

This article has some tips for frugal gardening, like making your own fertilizer with worms (I'm gonna wait until fall to make another go at the worm bin) and which seeds you can save and expect to come true.

Note: This post contains an affiliate link.

Permalink | 32 comments | Carrie Kirby's blog | Channel: Frugal Living

Similar entries:

This article is from Wise Bread.

Where Oh Where Are My Worms? Be On Your Toes When Ordering From Small Web Businesses

Carrie Kirby — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 03:22:42 +0000

By Carrie Kirby

I was hoping to be sharing my adventures in vermiculture with you all around now. Vermiculture is using worms to compost kitchen waste, and it's attractive to apartment dwellers or those of us who live in cold, snowy climates because you can keep your worm box right in your home without too many foul odors (or so says the author of the book I used to prepare my worm bin, Worms Eat My Garbage.)

Alas, I can't tell you whether my worm box is smelly or not, because the worms I ordered online never arrived. So instead I'm talking about the greatness -- and possible pitfalls -- of patronizing small businesses online.

I love the fact that small and home business are multiplying on the Internet, many with the help of EBay and the craft site Etsy.com. As local businesses close on Main Street, squeezed out by WalMart and Amazon.com, it's nice to know that you can still support the small businessperson. And in a world where nearly everything is mass produced, I love that you can get a handmade baby sling designed by a stay-at-home mom that will be different than what any other mom at the playground has.

However, my little worm problem reminded me that when dealing directly with small businesses, we can't always expect all the customer service we get from the big companies. To tell the truth, we regular patrons of large companies are spoiled rotten. When we have a problem, we know that the customer is always right and that if we are persistent enough, a large company will probably make things right. And even if they don't, things won't get too ugly because it's not personal to whatever customer service rep we're talking to. But with the small company I ordered from, things got ugly quickly, and my request for a refund ended with them sending me an email calling me a word that starts with B and rhymes with "itch." Now, if I'd complained to Amazon.com, even if I was in the wrong, I doubt Jeff Bezos woudl have called me that word.

My vermicrisis went as such: I Googled and found a Web site that sold worms. I ordered two pounds of Red Wrigglers from Best Buy Worms, cringed at the $11 shipping price but figured they needed to ship fast to keep those little buggers alive. It was the end of a very long day with the kids when I got around to putting my order in, and I remember little except thinking, "That was a little too quick and easy." What I didn't realize until too late was that the order went so quickly because the company never asked me for my address.

When I didn't receive any order confirmation, I felt a little nervous. Would I actually be getting any worms? But I did get an email from PayPal telling me my payment had gone through, so I hoped for the best.

Eventually I received a brief email from the company, saying my wrigglers had shipped. I waited. I started saving kitchen waste in a little box on my counter. Eventually the kitchen waste got smelly and I tossed it, started another box, and still I waited. I worried that if they ever arrived, the worms would be DOA.

After two weeks, I emailed the company to inquire, and asked if they had my address down correctly. They replied that the worms had been shipped, their tracking info (which they had not shared with me) said they were received, and that I must have moved because they sent them to a different address than the one I had just emailed them. The address on their form was an apartment I'd left two years ago.

After a little investigation, I realized the problem: My PayPal address was out of date. This had never come to my attention when I used PayPal in the past because most retailers -- notably, EBay, where I usually use my PayPal account -- ask for a shipping address.

I asked the company for a refund and they are resisting, saying the whole thing is my fault. Personally I feel that we both made mistakes -- they by making assumptions about where I wanted it sent instead of asking, and me of course by forgetting to update my PayPal address. I complained to PayPal, but since the company had proof that the worms were delivered somewhere, PayPal didn't help me. The company finally did offer to send me two pounds of worms for the price of one, but I replied that they'd been so rude throughout the whole process that I didn't really want to send them more money. That's when they replied, among other choice words, " Admit it, you are just a bitch!"

Wow. I felt as if I had dropped a jar of pickles in a grocery store, and the store manager not only expected me to pay for them, he called me nasty names while doing so.

Something like this wouldn't have happened with a large retailer, because they ask for and double check all the necessary information. But if it somehow had, I expect the big retailer would have replaced or refunded my order right away. After all, a good reputation isn't built on charging people for things they never received, even if the customer was largely at fault. Big retailers can afford to make things right when they go wrong.

The moral of my wormy story? I certainly haven't gone sour on all small businesses on the Web -- one potty-mouthed entrepreneur doesn't speak for the rest of them. Go ahead and patronize small merchants online, but be proactive about making sure all the details are correct. If you don't get a confirmation or tracking info or you are not asked for important information during the order process, contact the company to make sure they have the info they need. Or if you don't want to do the legwork (fingerwork?), only patronize small merchants through larger sites like EBay or Amazon or Etsy.

Permalink | 50 comments | Carrie Kirby's blog | Channel: Consumer Affairs

Similar entries:

This article is from Wise Bread.

Using PAPER Coupons When You Order Online

Carrie Kirby — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 22:17:35 +0000

By Carrie Kirby

Lately online grocery service Peapod has been trying to work the frugal angle, with TV commercials touting good prices and easy budgeting (since the site keeps a running total of what you've put in your cart). But whenever my mom friends evangalize about Peapod and other online grocery delivery services, I always resist. "I need my coupons," I tell them.

Then I found out that Peapod TAKES manufacturers' coupons, clipped right out of the Sunday paper. You just give them to the driver upon delivery and they should be credited to your account. I'd love to hear from Wise Bread readers who have taken advantage of this -- do the coupons reliably get credited? What if they're close to or even past their expiration date when you hand them over? What about coupons printed off the Internet? I'm assuming those are a go since the Web site states that "Peapod accepts all manufacturers' coupons."

This is not enough to get me using Peapod right now; I still blanch at the minimum $6.95 delivery fee, and although the site says tipping is optional, it's mandatory for me if I don't want to feel like a jerk. Also, since I only buy specials at my predetermined threshhold prices, I doubt I'd be able to put together the $100 worth of stuff you need to get the lowest delivery price. Their specials look pretty comparable to other grocery deals, but I don't see anything that gets me excited.

However, when I have my third kid this summer, I can certainly see myself resorting to Peapod for awhile until I get my groove back or until the oldest goes off to kindergarten. And at that point, the coupon policy -- combined with any coupon codes I can scrape up -- will certainly soften any budget blow we take in exchange for the convenience of delivery.

As retrograde as it feels to clip or print out coupons and sent them into Web retailers, this paper coupon thing may be a trend. This week I noticed that Diapers.com is also accepting manufacturers' coupons, by mail. That's especially nice to hear since I just printed some high-value Huggies coupons today from Coupons.com that would get me a box of 152 newborn diapers for $30 (or $20 if you are a first-time customer and use the code AFF10).

Has anyone out there noticed other Web retailers that are taking manufacturers' coupons, not just coupon codes but paper ones? I'd love to know.

Note: This post contains an affiliate link.

Permalink | 13 comments | Carrie Kirby's blog | Channel: Shopping

Similar entries:

This article is from Wise Bread.