Coupons

Super couponing is a huge trend now probably due to the recession and so much job loss. Interestingly coupons started in the US with Coca Cola in the late 1890's which consequently made the company well known throughout the US. Buying made in the USA with food couponing is a challenge to find products. But I have found great success with using local coupons for local stores in non-food, of course it's not crazy couponing discounts but I have definitely scored on stuff.

For example in Littleton CO the historic main street business district has an amazing ladies sample only tour annually(LOST) to drum up business. Women can purchase and support local business by spending $12.50 for a pack of coupons, bracelet and map. Which on the appointed day you go and collect goodies that the local businesses are giving out. It's a fun swag bag event that brings me joy every time I participate. The coupons give you free stuff after the event even or you can walk into savory spice store and get dutch chocolate with your purchase. I like paying from local stores if the product is not made locally.

With facebook I love to like small business that give opportunities to win goodies easily, there are better odds. I have scored organic local eggs, milk, and granola from Mile high organics that delivered it to my door for free. Two weeks ago from one of the local stores I frequent I won the book Wise at Heart which was written by two people in my community. Last week, I won a Daily Tea shirt for Peanut at Nest which is a local clothing boutique.

The key to getting local coupons and deals is getting out there in the community. Honestly you can score alot freebies of quality because there are less numbers of people doing it. Because of local events like Guinness Book of world record cloth diapering change. We scored coupons for local stores and discounts at Whole Foods. Keep a look out for local events and you can score deals!

Vitamix

Our blenders have always died a miserable death on us. We have been saving up for a vitamix for a while and we finally bought one. I previously owned a blendtec and we returned it asap due to the fact that its first couple of uses smelled like electrical burning. Vitamix is amazing and its made in the USA like BlendTec. I love it we are already made smoothies and sorbets. Very easy to clean. I recommend getting one.

The Challenge

So, I've been having a horribly hard time finding USA made clothing. The brands that used to claim made in USA have altered due to survival and alot of the USA made is low quality. I have not slacked in my goal but I've gone to local consignment stores and boutique for things. As well as ideas. Buying locally made from business that I meet the owners and can ask all sorts of questions about their business practices makes me feel that my purchasing power is sustaining jobs in the USA.

I'm not horrible with a sewing machine. I actually like to use it when I have a quick project and Peanut is not climbing on me. Inspired by taking back American consumer power and buying made in America challenge. Well today I need to go to the store and buy some supplies to send to Japan made from the USA.

JBF

The week before last week we went to the consignment sale for Just Between Friends Denver for Peanut. They had amazing sales from toys,clothes, shoes, books etc. The national live stock area made my want to get goats later. Seriously if you have little ones you need to go there and shop around they are so well organized and I love there selection of stuff. We also found these awesome bibs that are oversized and do what bibs were meant to do in keeping the kid clean they were from Hip Violet.

Failed Paper Mache eggs and felt eggs

Water balloons killed my project they are near to impossible to blow-up with air. I barely managed to blow-up five and some look more like lemons then eggs in shape. But with those 5 small ones I'm still going to do it later today, if they are cool I will show pictures. If not you can use your imagination.

I also attempted to make felt eggs they are horrible looking like Frankenstein made some Easter eggs in the likeness of himself. I'm not feeling the Mary Shelly meets Tim Burton's themed easter this year. I wish I had time to hollow out eggs, then dye them and stuff them. Like the old school way before plastic came along, but at last I don't have time for it before I need them on Friday.

Easter is here

Invites to an easter egg hunt with out buying chinese made plastic eggs is hard to find but I found a couple of alternatives felt eggs, wooden eggs or my favorite the paper mache from Not Martha. I will have to make them but I will post how it goes if I create them today.

Buying shoes-an impossible

So we were looking for sketcher like loafers that my husband loves made in the USA. We thought that New Balance was the answer. Totally wrong they are made in Vietnam and china like every other brand. They jumped the boat on USA made and turned to China too. It was sad to see that we were not able to find sneaker loafers made in the USA. I thought about as a teenager there were mom and pop stores that had great brands of shoes for discount, so we could still buy local. It was not a possibility! The shoe industry has totally gone over seas.

Habit

You gotta love that if we stick with as pattern of behavior for so long we will have an automatic reponse to it as natural flowing as ever. My shopping has become that I look at label for made in the USA as a habit now. If it's not I put it back and find the same product in that section. Though sad as that it is yeast is not that way there are only two companies that make it here in the US and only for bakeries. The two countries that make yeast for most stores here are Germany and Mexico.

Anti-consumerism

I have noticed since starting this challenge. I have not bought as much stuff and I've been turning more to developing my skills of art, sewing, cooking and having fun with my family. Also I've been studying languages more. It is truly liberating not feeling like I have to go shopping as much and when I do it is more purposeful. I have piles of stuff so it's been getting me to go through it and get rid of things I'm not using.

I went to the store to get wrapping gift bows, none were made in the USA. So I was inspired by re-nest.com and made my own. The picture is what they look like. I took pages from magazines that were laying around and created many of them as I watched Tron.

Here is what I did:

Take 10 pages long ways cut in 1 inch strips.

Make the individual strips into figure 8's and tape them down, repeat the process with about 4 strips of paper, the more strips you use the bigger the bow will be.

Put together the figure 8's on top of one another. In a criss-cross pattern. Staple or glue them together.

Cut one of the strips into a 1 inch length. Roll it and tape it on the top of your bow and you are done.It's ready to be attached to a gift.

Do you love the Juice?

I a huge fan of OJ. Orange juice was extremely hard to find a good tasting one like Simply Orange juice quality but when we went to whole foods we found the divinely made Uncle Matt's organic Florida and California made Orange juice. It uses a variety of oranges and is great tasting.

Also Simply Apple was our favorite Apple Juice until we went on our challenge then we found Big B's Apple Juice made in CO that is like fresh juiced apples that is made with organic tart and sweet apples. It also is divinely inspired to the taste.

toothbrushes

So we were at Target a few weeks ago and looking for a toothbrush for Mr. Incredible. I never knew that the global world trade would be in the toothbrush aisle but it was. Germany, Switzerland, India, to name a few and of course China. The God send brand we found there that was the only one made in the USA was Preserve. Love the packaging on how clear it was. The toothbrushes are made of recyclable yogurt containers and the packaging is made for you to mail back the toothbrush when you are done to be recycled it is awesome. They even have some recycle bins at whole foods to collect yogurt containers and they have a whole line of products for the kitchen to. I'm getting a new cutting board from them this week.

Going to the Mall

Yes, we went to See's candy when my husband came home. I have to admit I'm a chocolate snob I like fine European chocolate brands, like Green and Black, Lindt to name a few. It has been a challenge to make the switch from my great tasting Euro brands to others but I do like Ghardelli, See's, Boulder company and Godiva is made here too.



Went into some stores like the Children's Place and Build A Bear where all of there stuff is made in Veitnam and China. I didn't expect anything less but it saddened me to think that if we bought this stuff we can't ensure that those labors were treated well and that they were not sweat shops or child labor. Of course we didn't buy anything.

Cloth Diaper challenges

Many may wonder why I changed to cloth.. well the fact is that there are no blowouts- won me over, saving the environment and money was an added bonus. I thought buying made in the USA with cloth diapers was going to be easy I mean Thirsties is one of the top brands and are made here in CO . I use AIOs not pre-folds. Being in CO there are many cloth diaper stores my favorite one is Eco-politan they are very non-bias towards a particular brand and they have an excellent selection compared to Sweet Beginning and The Green Monkey. Almost all their products have an alternative made in the USA brand excluding potty training toilets (that is for another post).

So in the past I have tried Rumparooz, and Bumgenius. Rumparooz is a local company -I'm not a fan of their customer service and their "made with love from China." BumGenius, I absolutely love... they are cheaper in price then rumparooz (have a better design) but are regrettably made in china which saddens me.

I bought USA made Happy Heinys and Knicker Nappies. Happy Heinys are my favorite they are not to expensive and come in awesome design and design patterns ( like the skulls). They are good quality and fit wonderfully. Also I bought Knicker Nappies which I love the fabric on the Loopy Do but the pocket is extremely tiny. Its hard to stuff it and I have a smaller hand then most. I love the idea of Rocky Mountain Diapers the size snaps that are on the sides were driving me crazy because their was little space to change it so I did not invest in them.

Piggy Paint Review

Though there are many companies that make nail polish in the USA, which is awesome. Like OPI and Piggy Paint are my favorites because of the quality. OPI...I absolutely love the colors along with the paraben free and toxic free product. Piggy Paint is an eco-friendly, kid-friendly, non-toxic polish. (Don't be confused with piggy polish at ulta not the same stuff at all.) I got the radioactive glow in the dark polish to see if it worked along with some other colors. It is awesome stuff that glows in the dark amazingly well. The nail polish remover is not that great. It works exactly like rubbing alcohol does on nail polish slowly tearing off the polish. Its not worth the cost because rubbing alcohol is way cheaper. For little girls who want to get their nails done there is not better product in the eco-friendly chose then piggy paint.

It's been quite a long time since posting last. We are still loving buying made in the USA goal. One absolute great company I love that has been huge in our pursuit is mile high organics. It's a locally based company in Denver that delivers to your door fruits and veggies. The service and food is wonderful, they tell on online where their food comes from like whole foods. But I don't have to weather the snow storms. Among the rare delights we have received to list a few are: baby artichokes, purple potatoes, shiitake mushrooms, and sunchokes. It is a delightful company that I love to support. If you are in area I would highly recommend it.

Great resources

Just wanted to tell you where I looked at and found some great sites. The Going Green movement has focused on local goods has made it so many businesses are still selling products. The USA laws have defined that made in the USA label has to be more then 50 % of the product made in the USA to be labeled. USA law also has mandated that manufacturers tell where it is made or in some different sectors who produced the product. Here is where I started: http://www.madeinusa.org/, http://www.greenpeople.org/, http://www.milehighorganics.com/, http://www.amazon.com/, http://www.overstock.com/, target and Costco.

madeinusa.org: A non -profit dedicated to made in the USA products. Has a great search engine on many different products, look at the recent later pages because some times the companies have gone out of business or changed to a cheaper manufacturer. I found out through them that Lucky Jeans are made in the USA and New Balance.

greenpeople.org: Not to be confused with green people skin products in the UK, has many great resources on organic products. Type in made in the USA and there is alot of info, of course you are going to have to search it.

milehighorganics: Is a food delivery to your door in Colorado, I love that they tell you the city and state where the food is grown.

amazon.com: Love the biggest online shopping resources that has recently bought out diaper.com so they have great deals for moms as you sign up on their amazon mom. To find made in USA products type it in the search bar more then 200,000 things come up.

overstock.com: Type in made in USA and you will find many products, plus you will recognize that many brands have only a few items that were made in the USA.

Target: Go to the organic section and when looking remember that tropical fruits such as bananas and pineapples are not produced in the USA and look at the labels.

Costco: Is fabulous for USA made products especially here in Colorado.

New Years resolution

My husband and I decided to buy only products made in the USA for our new years resolution and we decided to write about the adventures in doing this because it's going to be hard, when we live in a world where finding products made from other countries is so common place.

Why did we come to this choice? Looking at US economic development and the loss of our industry, which has led to higher unemployment and lower wages in America. I'm truly sickened by the fact that cheap labor in other countries leads to problems such as human trafficking and poor working situations for the laborers and that lots of people in the USA are losing jobs due to foreign investment.

Our founding fathers fought to get freedom for our country. Britain, at one point, made laws against the manufacturing of goods made in her American Colonies and further restricted American trade by allowing Americans to trade only with England. This effectively hurt our economic development. A response to these laws was that Americans increased American manufacturing during the Revolutionary War.

Self-sufficiency, as much as it was possible, used to be a national goal and buying American normal and patriotic. Unfortunately, only a small amount of industry is left in the USA. We want to support the businesses that sell USA made goods to preserve jobs and our economy.