Something I hear people say pretty often is "The things I like to buy never go on sale or have coupons. It seems like everything you can get with coupons is junk food." And while it may be true that it is easier to coupon processed items, there are tons of coupons for healthy, natural, and even organic and gluten free foods. You just have to look a little harder for them.
I regularly use coupons and sales to get great deals on eggs, cereals, organic tomato products, whole wheat pasta, bagged salad, juices, yogurt, milk, frozen veggies, green cleaning products, organic soups, nuts, tuna, oatmeal, Kashi products and so much more. Publix also has BOGO (buy one, get one free) sales on certain produce items and can often have regional or local sales on their organic produce when they have a surplus, which sometimes makes them even cheaper than the non-organic items. Check out some of my weekly sales for specific items I get regularly and their coupon match ups.
Here are my five best suggestions for finding coupons for healthy, organic or natural products:
- Facebook: If there is a certain name brand of product you love buying but hate paying full price for, it can really pay to "like" them on Facebook. A lot of manufacturers offer exclusive coupons to their Facebook friends and many times their promotions will go quickly so it can't hurt to see their posts in your feed.
- Real life example: Justin loves Wholly Guacamole products but they are pretty pricey for only a few servings. I like them on Facebook and this past December they offered a promotion to their fans where if you sent them a Holiday card with a self addressed envelope they would mail you coupons for free products and $1.00 off. All in all, I got 2 free products and two $1 off coupons for the price of a stamp. I paired that with a Publix sale and we got 4 products for the regular price of one.
- Manufacturer's Website: If a product doesn't have a Facebook page, you can always visit the manufacturer's website. (I would suggest this even if you do already like them on Facebook) Lots of websites will have a savings or a coupons page where you can print high value coupons. Sign up for their newsletter if they have one. That way they can send you coupons or let you know about sales and promotions ahead of time so you can take advantage and stock up.
- Real life example: We love Kashi cereal. It costs $4.00 a box. I hate paying $4.00 a box. I get Kashi's newsletter and every few weeks I get sent a link to either print out high value coupons or to visit their website for coupons or free samples. Their samples are great (two full Kashi bars) and they almost always come with coupons.
- RecycleBank.com: Recycle Bank is a website that promotes greener living. It is free to join and you can earn points through completing simple tasks on their website. These points can be redeemed for coupons and other types of rewards. You can sign up here.
- Real life example: I regularly redeem my points for coupons like $2 off any Kashi product, $1/2 Bumble Bee tunas, $1 off any Earthbound produce item and many more.
- Traditional Methods: Don't discount your Sunday paper or printable coupon websites for coupons on great products. Many times you can find high value coupons on healthy or natural products. Many of these products will have coupons with a higher value than those for non natural products to encourage people to buy these higher priced items. If you are someone who buys those natural or organic products on a regular basis, just using these coupons with or without a sale can help you save.
- Real life example: We like to buy free range or organic eggs whenever possible. Eggland's Best puts out coupons in the paper on a regular basis. They are usually .35 off any of their eggs or .50 cents off their organic or cage free eggs. Just using these coupons whenever we need to buy eggs without a sale eventually adds up.
- Follow Websites/Blogs: There are alot of blogs and websites completely dedicated to saving money on natural, organic, unprocessed and/or gluten free foods. Find one you like and read it regularly.
- I personally like MoneySavingMom.com. She posts her healthy recipes for the week (many of which are dairy or gluten free) and highlights ways to make things at home or from scratch. She also has lots of tips for for finding coupons for these types of products. MoneySavingMom often links to GlutenFreelyFrugal.com which is constantly updated with where to find the best deals and sales on healthy and gluten free products.
Hopefully these tips can help you see that is possible to find deals on stuff other than junk food. You may not be able to get them for free or pennies on the dollar (although I do find that you can sometimes), at least you can save money on the things you are already buying : )
