Using Whole Foods' Coupon

I used Whole Foods' coupon today because we were out of milk for the babies. I was pleasantly surprised (again) at how low a lot of their prices were. For example, Yo Baby multi-pack yogurt was on sale for $2.99 (normally $3.49). At Safeway it was $4.59! Here's how I used my coupon:

Organic Apple Juice, 64oz., $3.99
2 cans organic kidney beans, 99 cents each
2 cans organic black beans, 99 cents each
Annie's Bunny Grahams $3.19
2 gallons organic whole milk, $6.29 each
multipack Yo Baby yogurt, $2.99
Strawberries, 1lb., $2.50

I had a $0.50 coupon for the Yo Baby yogurt that I printed here (email required). After my $5 off coupon, my total was only $23.71. For 10 items, that's a lot. But I would have had to buy the organic milk anyway, so I might as well get a discount for it when I can!

I just saw over at Money Saving Mom that you can get four boxes of free soup after rebate at Whole Foods! Find the rebate form here. (Thanks to Amanda!) Don't forget: the Whole Foods coupon expires October 22nd.

Affordable Organic?

Did anyone else watch Oprah the other day on the difference between caged animals and cage-free or free-range? I have read some books on the subject, but seeing it was a whole different story. I started wondering how much extra I would really have to pay if I bought organic produce, milk, and eggs. (I already buy organic milk for the babies at $5.99 a gallon. Yikes!)

I do my grocery shopping mostly at Safeway and love that they have (most) items online. It helps me to plan out my shopping list more precisely. I started to lay out the items I buy most often and noticed that the price for organic wasn't that much more, in most cases.

On a whim, I thought I'd check out Whole Foods' website to see if they had any specials (even though I don't usually shop there). Lo and behold, I saw a coupon! That's right! Whole Foods has coupons good for $5 off your purchase of $25 or more. Get yours here. Now if that's not a good incentive to buy some healthy stuff, I don't know what is!

I was already planning on going to Trader Joe's, which is nearby, so I thought I'd stop in and do a little price comparison of Whole Foods. I was happy to see that while Trader Joe's was definitely the least expensive option as far as organic produce goes, there wasn't a big price difference between them and Whole Foods. And with a $5 coupon to boot...

It gets better from here...Whole Foods has always had a flyer near the door with recipes and their weekly specials. The one available now is sixteen pages of ways to make more affordable meals, including recipes by Martha Stewart herself! And there are over $40 worth of coupons inside.

I've been making the old excuse that organic food is too expensive for awhile now...and I've just had that excuse taken away from me. Fine by me!