Look, it’s me! Hi! Let’s see what post I can squeeze out before the end of nap time…

Earth’s Best baby food is on sale through tomorrow at Amazon. All of the sale details for up to 30% off are spelled out at the site. I know my price-per-jar very well, and this works out to be about comprable to the best price I’ve seen on the shelves when also combined with a $1/10 jars coupon. The savings then comes in the form of your time, since you don’t have to go to the store!

My friends at BeCentsAble share a coupon for $20 off a visit to the vet for your pet. If this is something you’ve been putting off for awhile, what a great financial incentive to do it.

Baby Cheapskate details the ultra-modern and totally affordable line of baby furniture 2nds at Overstock. Fantastic price, practically free shipping, and more…

Right now you can pick up the modern Netto Cub Crib and Changing Station for just $199.95 and $149.95 respectively. Unbeatable. Except when you take $10 off orders of $250 or more by clicking this link (exp 2/28).

Both the crib and changing station are made from sustainably harvested wood. Both are non toxic and non VOC emitting. Both are also “slight seconds,” meaning that “there are very small imperfections to the finish.” You should also know that they’re non-returnable. Overstock says that the safety features of the crib are “in no way compromised.”

If you don’t have an IKEA near you, this is by far the best deal you’re going to find for an unfussy and eco-conscious nursery!

There have been lots of free food deals lately, including the coupon for a free Kashi frozen entre. Grab one while you can!

No matter how busy my life has been, I’ve always had the time to post before. This past week, not so much, and this week doesn’t look much more promising. I love blogging, so this is definitely not the end, but until we finally emerge from cold and flu season, posting might continue to be irregular.

As usual, this isn’t sad news, it means that I’m so busy *doing* that I don’t always have time to chronicle it, and there haven’t been any deals so fantastic that they’ve garnered their own posts, or I would have posted them. I did manage to get a BeCentsAble post up this week.

Quick links…

• A new set of printable coupons for organic and natural items! I’m printing the Organic Valley on every computer I can find, we go through a lot of dairy products around here and even moreso when we switch to whole milk with the little boys in TWO WEEKS!
• Pretty soon there will be Terracycle drop offs in Home Depot and other big box stores. All of my saved up Luna Bar wrappers will finally have a place to go
• Crafting a Green World has some quick sewing patterns (cloth napkins and more) to help you ditch the disposables.

We have been so sick around here, I’m actually worried you might get norovirus just by reading this post. Hah! Except I’m not sure if I’m kidding. It’s been a long couple of weeks and I’m sorry my posting has been a little light. I’m not going to be able to make up for it today, I still have a fever and glands like rocks in my throat (I don’t think it’s strep, but at this point you could tell me it was the Plague and I’d believe you.) I will, however, toss out a few links for your sage reading pleasure.

Absolutely love the tutorial for turning paper bags into recipe cards at Crafting a Green World. Just the idea of cutting 8.5×11 sheets for reuse is brilliant.

I was just about to get rid of our gymini when Parenthacks suggests attaching the bars to the top of a Pack n Play! I’m going to see if t works with what we’ve got and then the rest is going to our babysitter (her brother’s wife is due in April and we know our bouncy seat and other stuff will get generous reuse at Grandma’s house).

Skip to my Lou breaks down the process of using a fabric scrap to make a simple applique monogram. I’ve saved all of our plain onesies just for this purpose, I think they’ll make sweet baby gifts in the future.

Kiddio shares a project I was just think my kid is finally old enough for — the indoor treasure hunt. I think I would put simple, block letter words for his clues that he would sound out, since he’s a prereader.

That’s all I got. Please send us some healthy vibes and hopefully I’ll be back in the game soon!

Dear Earth’s Best:

What’s up with the repeated sales on your infant formula in the period immediately FOLLOWING the time I was buying a case a week? I’m trying not to take this personally.

Smootches,

M

Ecobunga points out a printable coupon for Imagine Foods, which I also noticed were on sale at my Whole Foods this week. Not a bad deal for some comfort food to get us through these last few weeks of winter!

And lastly, Rite Aid seems to have taken over the mantle of weekly $5/$20 coupons. If you have one near you, enjoy!

If this is your first time at sage after hearing about BeCentsAble on Good Morning America, welcome!

sage is the frugal shade of green parenting — it’s easy to go green if you want to spend a lot of money, but sage will show you how to live within your values and your budget.

Like BeCentsAble, our mission is to help families save time and money. At sage, we round up coupons and other discounts on organic grocery products, share new resources for recycling household items and creating homemade, nontoxic cleaners for pennies on the dollar, and innovative craft projects you can do with your kids that use household items.

Who am I? A mom to 4 adorable boys (a preschooler and one year old identical triplets), a passionate environmentalist, and a dedicated bargain shopper. I don’t want to pay full price for the things I have to buy, and I want to recycle, upcycle, and create as much as I can. I visit the couponing, discount, grocery store savings, green lifestyle, and parenting advice blogs so you don’t have to, bringing to sage the best the internet has to offer for natural parenting!

Subscribe to sage for weekly sage finds updates of coupons, discounts and specials from across the web, and sage reads, a round up of timely, inspiring links for parenting green on the cheap. I also tweet deals as I find them, along with the goings-on in our house with four boys under four.

parenting

The scrap paper family tree tutorial at Crafting a Green World caught my attention. If your pre-to-grade-schooler can cut a circle (or other shapes) or operate a large punch, this is a really fun family project. I’m imagining it with extra artwork or other kid-friendly papers, too.

I was also inspired by the Learn to Print My Name stamp featured on Tiny Decor now that my oldest wants to print his name on everything! Like me, he has a not-so-typical name and spelling, so the fact that so many products are so customizable for kids these days is really cool. I haven’t ordered a stamp, but I did find and download a “trace font” so that I can print out any word he’s interested in writing. He has a lot of trouble with the “R” in the middle of his name and this is really helping.

resources

Tiny Choices shares a resource for recycling old jeans — they’ll be turned into building insulation! Send one pair or hold a drive, they’ll put them to good use. Fantastic!

Amanda from Kiddio writes at her new blog, house+made, about the advantages of shopping at Costco. Now that we’re a family of 6 people who eat (at least some) table food, we’re really reaping the benefits.

Re-nest introduces the beta of LendAround, a service that tracks sharing items between friends or neighbors or whoever. We have a tight-knit group of families on our block, this looks like a really fun way to save money on books and DVDs, and maybe kid stuff we’re not currently using. (The beta is for DVDs only, but the final release will cover more items. Excellent!)

No matter how pretty the flickr photostream is, I haven’t been able to get into the clothesline habit. I have to admit, the tips at Eco Childs Play addressing some of the common downfalls, it helps.

And if you’re feeling the last minute strain, tons of printable Valentines!

Here’s a repost from BeCentsAble today:

Who doesn’t love the microwavable rice in a bag that’s ready in minutes? The convenience factor is great, but the expense to your family and the environment — up to $3 for a bag of rice, the excess packaging and the concerns around microwaving plastic — got me wondering if there was a better way. I spent a little time hunting around the web for instructions of how to do it myself, and I did so with great success!

How to make your own microwavable rice:

1. Following the standard directions for your type of rice (I used white organic basmati), multiply out the recipe so that you are using 2 cups of uncooked rice.
2. Cook the rice according to your directions.
3. While preparing the rice, cover a large, edged cookie sheet or roasting pan with tin foil.
4. When the rice is finished cooking, spread it on the pan in a thin layer and allow to cool.
5. Place it in the freezer.

That’s it! I left it in the freezer overnight and then broke it into chunks to fit the containers I had. It made four portions that I then microwaved for 3 minutes each to use, and the rice was perfect. I’ve baked it in a casserole and used it as a side with no texture or taste problems.

I used about $0.60 worth of uncooked rice to make $4.00 worth of microwavable rice. Enjoy!

Looks like I covered all of this week’s sage finds highlights on Monday! Instead, I’ve got my swap bounty to share, finally, after bringing a camera cord home from the office…

Last Sunday I hit a Swap-n-Bitch at a local bar (the same bar that’s hosting a “Make a Monster” event for kids tomorrow that we can’t wait to attend) which was about 80% women’s clothes and 20% men’s, household, and three enormous trash bags of fabric one woman happened to bring. Yes, I got a cute blue shirt and a green sweater I can wear to work, but oh, the fabric!

Not sure what my favorite is… the green flannel alligators? The white quilted swiss dots? The light blue with milk and cookies print? It’s a real nice pile for fun kid-directed projects like the treasure pouches and doll dresses we’ve been creating lately. All that I got rid of four Envirosax of my own clutter!

Then, Monday night the local Holistic Moms Network chapter hosted a kid’s clothes swap. I brought two Envirosax of the 6-9m clothes we just put away and came home with 22 items from 12m - 5T.

My favorite here is the 18-24m Mini Boden navy & white striped shirt w submarine applique, I think. Or maybe the french blue and white Hanna Andersson pants? Either way, I got lucky. On both accounts, and for free. I think if I could go to a swap every 2-3 weeks, I would be beyond happy and my house would be so clutter-free!

My camera cord has gone missing, so my swap bounties are going to have to wait to be shared until it turns up. Considering that the last person who had it in this house was my MIL, and she’s notorious for misplacing things, it really could be anywhere. Sigh.

But on to the reads, after two big highlights!

Firstly, there has been a stay in enforcement in some areas of the CPSIA, so that is a great victory. Even better is that Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) is filing legislation to amend CPSIA permanently. More info about his bill and calling your Senator (really, I promise, it won’t hurt!) is at Etsy.

And second, I love it when people do my job for me. Another round up of all coupons organic is posted, this time at Affluent Pauper. Turn on your printer and head over there! I’ll still be here when you’re done.

parenting

We’re starting to use the creative discipline button jar discussed at kiddio, but my problem is setting the appropriate reward. My nearly 4 year old is not quite time-aware enough to get very excited about working towards something really big in the future. Meanwhile, we go on so many adventures around town as it is, trying to keep him busy and not feel frustrated with so many babies around, that a lot of lower-level rewards (a trip to the museum, a special meal) are the kinds of things we do daily. He doesn’t want or need new toys. So what’s a good reward for kids at this age? Have any ideas for me?

The brilliant Parenthacker have another one: Google line drawings in an image search to create your own coloring books at home. Too much fun!

crafting

Little House in the Suburbs has a free printable Handmade Gift Calendar. It’s fantastic in it’s simplicity and would work equally as well for planning some kid projects ahead of holidays or birthdays so you know that your in-laws will be well stocked with Valentines or handprint turkeys or whatever. Even if they lost your only USB cable

Meanwhile, I have a pretty cubby system of old formula cans going in my home craft/office. (We need a name for this space, I don’t have a good one.) I’m definitely going to use this calendar to help me keep a catalog of what’s going on in that space, since each can is ostensibly a project’s raw materials, as well as those that don’t fit in a metal can, like Craft:’s fantastic kids smock from a dress shirt I have brewing right now, or the vintage sheets earmarked for a small quilt. Meanwhile, re-nest’s drawers-into-modular storage has me thinking about the last stretch of open space in that room (which has cinder block walls) and what I can finally do with it.

Makes me think, I suppose I have a repository of my projects in process already, and her name is sage.

resources

Say it isn’t so, Disney! It looks like they are folding Wondertime. I just started getting a free subscription a few months ago. If I’d known, I would have paid!

Eco Child’s Play covers the Save Money while Buying Organic angle while managing to bring up a few things I hadn’t thought of. I already shop frequently on Tuesdays so I can get a Rotisserie chicken when it is on sale for $5.99 (and then use it for 2 meals and make preseasoned chicken broth to last us a week or more), but I never thought about what days they might mark down other sorts of products. I love food for thought.

There has been a dearth of discounts, my friends. I tweeted at least one that was one day only, but besides that I’ve been waiting for that one thing that makes me feel like taking up a little more space in cyberspace by posting. It still hasn’t come, but I hate being a lousy blogger, so here I am…

Attention Target Shoppers shares that certain Method products are 3 for $8.00 this week. Print yourself a few of the Mambo Sprouts $0.50 off coupons and snag 3 for $6.50 instead. Not too shabby!

Plum Organics has a printable coupon up for $1 off kids meals. I’ve found their items are often on sale at my Whole Foods, so combined with a coupon it heads into “maybe we’ll give it a try” territory.

Last week, the blog $5 dinners reminded me that a great source for hard-to-find coupons (especially organics) is eBay. Now that I’m done buying formula, I’m thinking about how many gallons of whole milk we’re going to be going through each week, and how snatching up some Organic Valley coupons would probably be a good choice for me. And tomorrow? I’ll have the fruits of the two swaps I’ve participated in, one yesterday with adult goods and one happening tonight that is kids clothes only, both held at local businesses in our neighborhood. SO excited, even just with the bounty from yesterday. (Small preview, someone brought 3 trash bags full of fabric…!)