Top 5 Green Grocery Tips

That are Also Easy on Your Wallet too!

1. BYOB- Bring Your Own Bags: There are all kinds of reusable bags you can bring to the grocery store. Produce netting bags are a great way to tote your fruits and veggies without using plastic. Insulted bags keep frozen foods cold and hot foods hot all the way home. Canvas bags in all weights and sizes to bring your haul home no matter what amount you bring back with you! Even reusing plastic bags you accumulate can give them a longer life. A lot of retailers grant a green bag discount incentive saving you money for your efforts.

2. Buy from the Bulk Bin: This one is huge! The bulk bin is often cheaper and you are using far less packaging. You can reuse the plastic bags you get when you carry your bulk items in by saving the bags and bringing them back for the next trip.

3. Watch Out for Individual Convenience: Individually wrapped and packaged items often cost more and all of that extra packaging is usually landfill bound! By either buying out of the bulk bin or at Costco and portioning everything out in reusable containers you are saving yourself major bucks while keeping extra packaging out of the landfills.

4. Waste Not: Make sure you are prepared for shopping trips so you don't buy anything you don't need or that you will not use right away and will spoil. Plan out your weekly meals and map out a shopping list outfitting your needs wit out extras that could wind-up being wasted. American households toss about 14 percent of the food they purchase. Food waste accounts for 1.3 billion tons annually and even more astonishing this figure is about 1/3 of global food production amount. You personally may have more than enough to eat at home- but how sad is it to waste that much food when there are people battling against hunger all over the world.

5. Get a SodaStream: Cut back on wasted bottles and cans, redemption fees, and what is essentially overpriced sugar water. The SodaStream costs around $100 to get started and about $6 for flavor refills that makes around 33 cans of soda. (Each "can price" at home for the syrup costs under $0.25!!) There is tank recycling programs available as conveniently places like Staples where you can pick up CO2 after recycling at under $20. Putting all this in mind, you can have a wonderful soda with less guilt & packaging for ~$0.75. Plus what little packaging is used is BPA free and recyclable.

KC's Tip: My favorite use for the SodaStream is getting filtered water extra bubbly then adding fresh lime juice- giving me an added boost of Vitamin C! Tastes great and I am saving a ton of money usually spent on bottles of fancy mineral water! 

Well, Shop Away Friends! XOXO, KC

This just in-
Tasting Table is doing more than just making sure you’re well fed, they’re also joining the fight to make sure everyone is well fed. They recently partnered with Whole Foods Market®’s charitable initiative, Whole Planet Foundation®’s 2012 Prosperity Campaign. Whole Planet Foundation®’s mission is poverty alleviation in developing communities worldwide where Whole Foods Market sources products. Whole Planet Foundation® provides financial support to micro-lenders in 50 countries, who in turn offer loan programs and training to women looking to create and develop their own sustainable businesses.

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