Chinook Books

As promised in my last post I am going to delve into the wonderful world of Chinook Books.

Chinook books are coupon books by EcoMetro with coupons for local, green-oriented businesses. They have books for Seattle/Puget Sound area WA, Portland OR, Silicon Valley/Santa Cruz CA, East Bay CA, Denver/Boulder CO, and Twin Cities MN. There are hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of dollars of savings in these books, and they usually cost about $20 a piece. I keep my eyes peeled for the times when they are on sale for $15 or try and buy them as part of a fund raiser. Chinook Books are pretty great fund raising tools, I think you can buy them for $10 a piece and then make a $10 profit when you resell them to the community for your fundraiser.

As I am located in the Seattle area I am most familiar with the Seattle/Puget Sound book and I will be talking exclusively about this book. If you live in one of these other areas I strongly suggest you check out your local Chinook Book either at your local grocery store (where I live you can find these books at the health food store and some local green-oriented businesses) or online at http://www.ecometro.com/
If you look at their website you will also find online coupons, events, reviews of businesses and various articles on local events and environmental subjects.

The Chinook book itself has coupons for things such as groceries (these coupons can mostly be used at any store that carries the item, although some are store-specific such as a free five pound bag of organic carrots from Town and Country grocery stores); local restaurants; "play" including discounts for theater, music, museums and sports-related activities such as kayaking; "home" which has coupons for home improvement and there are also garden related coupons.

I have two Chinook books in my car currently and if I can remember I either bring the book into the store with me or go through it before I go in to see if there is a coupon for anything I might be buying. I also take advantage of the coupon sleeve that is provided in the book and I carry coupons for items I know I will be buying at some point in my wallet. If you are a savvy shopper who watches sales through grocery store circulars you can sometimes get amazing deals on groceries. I am a member of PCC, which is a local health food store co-op turned local chain and they send their members monthly circulars along with 10% off coupons to be used once a month. I have saved up to 40% on my grocery bill at PCC through using Chinook book coupons/Mambo Sprout (http://www.mambosprouts.com)and online coupons/watching circular ad prices/and using my 10% off membership discount. Yes, you can buy groceries at the health food store and do it at a reasonable price!
Don't discount places such as Safeway, Fred Meyer's or QFC, either... many of them have a fair sprinkling of 'health food' throughout the store and again, really good bargains can be found if you watch the circulars and always take your coupons in with you.

While I use my Chinook book almost exclusively for grocery shopping it has come in handy for many other items as well. I especially recommend checking out Bartell's Drug Store for items such as Tom's of Maine beauty/health products, Seventh Generation cleaning products and other green health/beauty/cleaning products you use because they often have good sales on these items, you can add in specific Chinook coupons for the items AND you can take $5 off with the Bartell's coupon. Not too bad.

My other favorite thing about the Chinook book is the breakdown of the different neighborhoods in Seattle with information on local businesses... I like to use this feature to see what businesses around me take the Chinook book coupons and to plan out shopping trips in order to do the least amount of driving/gas wasting. I have found some pretty great little shops I'd otherwise never know about thanks to this feature.

I often trade coupons with my friends, too. I always feel bad for those amazing coupons in my book just languishing there, wanting to be used and doing coupon swaps means the coupons are out there, doing what they were made to do. :) I have been able to get quite a few duplicate coupons for items I regularly buy that I'd otherwise have to shell out another $20 to get, just by doing coupon trades. If you work in an office or go to school you can put out an email looking for coupon swaps and if you're lucky you'll get some really great coupons in trade for ones that you would never have used in the first place.

Stay tuned for more random ramblings. Please let me know if there is any subject in particular you'd like to hear about in regards to living healthy on a budget in Seattle!