Cheapo Groovo

FREE Resistance Band (exercise) + Basic Moves

Got this in the mail Saturday. Sweeeet!

And here are some simple moves using the resistance band

Make Your Own Soda

The dangers of high fructose corn syrup as well as aspartame are well documented. Blue Sky soda is healthier but expensive. So if you still enjoy soda (like I do), what are your options?

Make your own. The equipment is very basic and the key is choosing your extract. While there are many sites to get the goods, I use Leeners. It's a one stop shop for making all sorts of stuff - beer, wine, mead, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, even mustard and hot sauce. 

How to Negotiate Medical Bills

To maintain cash flow, “many doctors will knock 5 or 10 percent off if you pay up front. Uninsured patients can get even bigger discounts (50 percent or more). This is because medical practitioners are used to getting less than full price from insurance companies.

Find out what doctors and dentists typically bill for services and how much insurers pay. Negotiate the bill before your procedure. Offer to pay up front in exchange for a discount

Here Comes The Bike Tax

One idea that seems to be growing in support is a bicycle excise tax that would be charged at the point of sale of new bikes and/or bike parts.

Back in December, the bike movement's biggest champion on Capitol Hill, Rep. Earl Blumenauer told a crowd assembled for the Cities for Cycling launch:

"... he added that "investments from the bicycling community" to help pay for better road quality and more bike infrastructure might be a smart move. "In fairness," Blumenauer said, "we'd be better off if we had a tiny fee" on some cycling equipment, such as a bike tire tax."

A bike tax is already in use in several other countries and cities. Colorado has one. So does the U.K.

If we tax something, we get less of it. In this case, we get less exercise (healthy people) more pollution, more oil imports, and more black markets.

Freebies from the Health Food Store

You see a lot of "mommy saver" blogs advocating "super couponing techniques". Often that leads to their children eating sugary cereals or sodium laced TV dinners. What a shame. :<((

Building relationships with health conscious people pays off in the short run and the long run. Not only do we get $10 off for each $100 we spend, but look at what we received free of charge yesterday afternoon!!!!!

Healthy_freebies

Free Skin Care Sample + High Value Coupon

It is far better to get freebies and coupons sent to you via USPS than to waste hours and hours clipping/organizing coupons. Not to mention the gas and time to go shopping. My extreme couponers and SAHMs have no idea what an opportunity cost is!

Freebie sites I use everyday:
http://www.freestufftimes.com
http://dealnews.com/rss/213-
http://www.fatwallet.com/rssfeedburn.php?c=22&deals=50
http://absurdlycool.com/

Save on Health Care - Refuse Routine Tests

The Annals of Internal Medicine published a list of 37 scenarios where testing is overused. Unfortunately, I can't find the list for free. Here is the abastract.

If your doctor cannot tell you what they are, get another doctor!

Supporting Our Local Health Food Store and Saving Money!

Nothing worse than watching that Freebies4Mom video where she opens the fridge door and has 20 TV dinners that were purchased using coupons!

Kudos to Healthy Horizons for being an indepedent health food store that hires local college-age  workers and gives that 10% discount!

Smell My Soap

Melt and pour base, creamsicle cybilla fragrance, crushed walnut shells. Never any soap film.

Foraging For Food

The other day I was watching the news and they had a Chicago chef, along with an expert forager, picking up food along side a Wisconsin road. So I got to thinking about expanding my free food post with a few web sites below. Happy hunting!

• Mushroom Guide (PDF)
• Apple Picking
• Comprehensive Guide (not a freebie)