Save some green

In this tough economy everybody is looking for ways to save money and to earn money.  I have found a few ways to save a little green and even one way to earn a little green while saving a little green by becoming more ecoconscious and buying natural products.

The first one I noticed last week when I was at Wal-Mart.  In the pasta isle they have Great Value brand pasta sauce in 66 ounce plastic jars.  I got the traditional one.  If I remember correctly they were like $3 or $4.  It has a nice flavor to it and is basic enough that you can doctor it up to be whatever you want.  Like spaghetti, lasagna, manicotti, eggplant parmesan, chicken parmesan, or it could even be used as a base for goulash or chili.  So far I have gotten a small lasagna and a good sized batch of spaghetti out of one jar and have enough left to make another batch of spaghetti.  Two of those jars cost about $8 together and take up less space in my pantry than 6 regular size jars of spaghetti sauce.  When we could afford it I used to get several jars of Italian baking sauce for spaghetti sauce.  I don’t remember the brand name at the moment but it was more expensive.  The great value traditional sauce is cheaper and still has a good flavor. 

Also in the same isle they have a box of spaghetti noodles that are also great value brand.  It is just 4 of their 1lb packages of spaghetti noodles but it is cheaper to get the box than to get 4 of their 1lb packages and the box is a convenient way to store the 4 bags in the pantry.  A single 1lb package doesn’t last long at our house.  We eat a lot of pasta. 

Another thing I have looked into is a membership with Cosco.  Last I knew it is $50 a year but I think that now that we have a deep freeze a membership would be more practical for us than it would have been before and would be of a better value to us.  I would be able to get certain meats in bulk and some frozen meals.  Also I would be able to buy other groceries in bulk.  When I take time to cook I can cook extra and freeze it for those days when I don’t have the time, patience, or groceries to cook.  Last I knew if I go in and sign up for a membership with a friend of mine who is a member they get a $10 discount on her purchase at that time and so do I.  That might have changed by now.  It has been a while since I looked into it. 

We are hoping that both the hubby and I are able to go hunting this year.  If each of us is able to get a deer that would be a good amount of meat to be able to get through most or even all of winter with it.  Two hunting licenses, two or three tags, and two boxes of slugs isn’t a huge amount to pay.  It is cheaper than buying two or three ten pound tubes of hamburger, two or three good size roasts, and several pounds of stew meat throughout the winter.  Especially since we would do all of the processing ourselves with the people whose property we would be hunting on.

Lastly I found an online shopping club, similar to an online Sam’s Club, with a wellness company.   They have over 350 different products to choose from.  They are an American based company that manufactures all of their products in the USA.  They are a direct sales company so you order your products and it ships directly to you.  They have a wide range of products ranging from nutrition, medicine cabinet, health, and bath and body, to laundry supplies, and household clears.    Their products are natural and safer for you and your home.  In fact their household cleaners don’t need safety caps.  Their cleaners and laundry supplies are ultra-concentrated so you get more product per bottle.  For instance one big bottle of laundry soap will wash 96 loads and costs $18.  To get that many loads of laundry done with Tide detergent it would take three bottles.  That is more expensive and that puts three plastic bottles in the landfill.  Also the bottle of ultra-concentrated laundry detergent is about the same size as one bottle of tide.  You can save green by becoming ecoconscious and get to use natural products that are safer for you and your home.  The part of earning green in this process is that you get a commission for everybody that you refer to the company and you get a small commission for every time one of the people that you referred places an order.  The more referrals you have the more residual income you will have from people ordering.