As a personal trainer, my clients voice many questions concerning the high cost of eating a healthy, organic diet. Below are four great tips that will help debunk this myth: Don’t buy food in the package. As often as possible buy your foods, specifically your fruits and veggies, in their most natural state. When you’re at the organic produce section, buy that individual onion, pepper, cucumber, etc. or buy those fresh bundles of spinach, kales, beets, herbs, etc. Often we tend to buy our groceries in packages because the packages not only look pretty and we know the item is already washed, cut and prepared to serve. Although you may think this is saving you time, it’s costing you a lot more money. To put this theory to the test, I decided to buy all my groceries in packages for one week and all my groceries in their natural state for the next week. When I reviewed my receipts, I saved $40 the second week. Although this may not seem like a lot, it adds up over time. If you do the math it is about $2,000 a year (a nice trip on one of those hot gay cruise ships)!

Look high and low. One of the biggest mistakes we make when shopping at the grocery store is buying grocery items that are at eye level. To be honest, we’re lazy and want what is right in front of us instead of doing a little work to look for the healthier item. The grocery store knows this so well that many of the items at eye level are also on sale. This is often a great way for grocery stores to promote their own brands, which generally are not the healthiest. Your grocery store is trying to get you. If it’s on sale and at eye level, it must be the item for you. Wrong! Generally, if the item is on sale and at eye level, the item often contains or is made with simple carbohydrates and poor ingredients such as white bleached flour, sugar and high fructose corn syrup. To ensure you’re getting the best and healthiest options, be sure to take the time to look high or low on the grocery store shelf. You are bound to find much healthier options when you do.

Read more at Washington Blade

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Is saving money one of your resolutions for the New Year? Then perhaps it is time to jump in the card pool by purchasing gift cards at a discount. Gift card exchange web sites such as Card Pool (www.cardpool.com), Plastic Jungle (www.plasticjungle.com), and ABC Gift Cards (www.abcgiftcards.com) sell discounted gift cards from hundreds of retailers. The wide variety includes home improvement (Home Depot, Lowes), drug (CVS, Rite Aid), electronic (Best Buy, Apple), big-box (Wal-Mart, Target), and department stores (JC Penney, Macy’s).

The websites pay up to 92 percent for unwanted or unused gift cards and then re-sell them at discounts ranging from 2 percent to 35 percent. There is no sales tax and shipping is free; electronic gift cards are also available. An abundant selection of cards is now available as they are cashed in after the holidays.

Read more at Washington Blade

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For years, many people — my mom, sister, my husband and even my son — told me to stop wasting so much food. Even if I had set up a budget for my groceries, throwing away half a piece of chicken here or a handful of grapes there never seemed like such a big deal to me. If I was full, or no longer in the mood for that particular food, I had no problem tossing it.

That is, until I experienced a bad case of sticker shock during a recent trip to the supermarket. The cost of bread, eggs, fish — basically everything I was purchasing — had increased. And, according to the USDA, we can expect prices to rise even higher this year.

Read more at LearnVest

LearnVest is the leading personal finance site for women. Our free Money Center will help you create a budget. Our free bootcamps will help you take control of your money, cut your costs or get out of debt. And our premium financial plans–managed by LearnVest Certified Financial Planners–can help you chart a course for the future you want.

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Great news for holiday shoppers who will be hitting Abercrombie & Fitch, Starbucks and Target this holiday season: all three companies get top rankings in the new Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation’s Buyer’s Guide.

The report, also titled “Buying for Workplace Equality 2013,” divides popular businesses and their related products into three categories based on their score on the HRC Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index. With a score of 100, Abercrombie & Fitch and Target rank alongside General Mills and Kellogg’s as being among the businesses and brands to receive the highest workplace equality scores.

Read more at Huffington Post Gay Voices

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