REAL VALUE Smart Budget Savings

Generally consumers can expect to pay 50 percent more for organic groceries than their conventionally produced counterparts and as much as 100 percent more for meats and dairy. The key to making organic groceries affordable is being informed.

Organic farms typically produce more labor intensive products and on a much smaller scale than large agribusiness. Government subsidization is currently not offered for organic producers.

Not all organic products are equal. For some items the cost is simply not justified. Certain crops like cruciferous vegetables; cabbage, broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower and brussels sprouts, are not prone to fungus or pests and therefore not heavily sprayed (if at all). Onions and garlic have natural pest repellent so buying organic is discretionary.

Organic food on a tight budget

What Savvy Organic Consumers Know

Thick skinned fruits such as mango, bananas, pineapple, papaya and kiwi are much safer than thin skinned soft fruits. Citrus fruits should be purchased organic if the skin (zest) is to be used.

All produce should be thoroughly washed and air dried before storing. Even organic produce has surface dirt. Drying is important to prevent any mold growth. Use produce as quickly as possible to get the maximum nutritional benefits.

Organic Musts: The Dirty Dozen

These are the twelve most contaminated foods and should be purchased organic whenever possible.

1. Meat/Poultry: It takes one acre of sprayed grain to produce each pound of consumable beef!
2. Eggs/Dairy: Chickens are routinely treated with arsenic and dairy contains RBST
3. Strawberries: Soft skin fruits retain the most pesticides
4. Apples/Green Beans: Both heavily sprayed at every stage of growth
5. Tomatoes: Fall into the soft fruit category
6. Potatoes: Highly genetically modified and act as sponges for pesticides
7. Spinach/leafy greens: Heavily sprayed pourous leaves soak up chemicals
8. Coffee: Known to contain traces of heavy metals
9. Peaches/Nectarines: Soft fruit, testing positive for 16 + different chemicals
10. Grapes: Domestic are heavily sprayed, imported are irradiated
11. Celery: High water content makes it very efficient for retaining pesticides
12. Bell Peppers: Rank among the worst to retain pesticides, herbicides and fungicides

To read the rest of this Jill Anderson article please click here.

When you have too many credit cards, closing some of them is a good way to simplify your financial life. Before you make that phone call, first make sure closing these credit cards won’t hurt your credit score.

Once you’re sure closing the credit card is the right move to make, follow these steps to make sure the card is closed in your favor.

Contact Customer Service

Call the customer service number on the back of your credit card. Let the customer service representative know you’d like to close your credit card account. Don’t be surprised if the representative tries to talk you into keeping your account open. If you’re sure you want to close the account, don’t allow yourself to be convinced otherwise. Note the date and time you made this request.

Follow-Up With a Letter

Follow up in writing to have a record that you requested your credit card to be closed. In the letter include your name, address, and credit credit card number (or at least the last four digits of the card number). State that you made a request by phone to have your account closed on such-and-such date and you want your credit record to reflect the account was closed at your request.

Update Your Records

Keep a copy of the letter for yourself. Send it certified mail so you have proof the letter was mail and received should that fact ever come into question.