A Clean Green New Year

A few weeks ago, Our Daily Green was invited to participate in a panel survey about favorite green cleaning products. Circle of Moms chose our answer in their year-end column. I was so excited to have my answer chosen that I contacted the company. As a result, they have offered to sponsor a giveaway on Our Daily Green. (details of the giveaway at the bottom of the post). 

You're all wondering what this miracle product is, I'm sure. One of my favorite cleaning products is the powdered cleanser, Bar Keepers Friend. The origin of this cleaner is quite interesting. In 1882, an Indianapolis chemist noticed how clean his pot was after cooking rhubarb and did several tests and experiments to determine that oxalic acid is the plant based ingredient responsible for the shiny pot. Oxalic acid is also found in spinach, chives, and parsley. Since that discovery, the American company, Bar Keepers Friend has been manufactured in Indianapolis for the past 127 years.

What I have always liked about this gentle cleaning product (as a loyal customer for many years) is the ease of rinsing it away without residue, the ability to clean my smooth cooktop without scratching, and the lack of fumes. So many cleansers contain harsh chemicals that I prefer not to clean with.

Bar Keepers Friend is endorsed by several major cookware and kitchen companies, but one of the most interesting endorsements we discovered was US Markerboard's, which as you can tell by the photos, restored our stained dry erase board.

a little powder on a damp rag

a little elbow grease

Some of their products

BKF keeps our cooktop shiny and Copper Glo works wonders on our tea kettle

Bar Keepers Friend has generously offered a basket of their products to one of Our Daily Green's readers. To enter the giveaway:

1. "Like" Bar Keepers Friend on Facebook
2. "Like" Our Daily Green on Facebook
3.  Leave a comment on this post. Please add your email or some other way to contact you in the event you win. THAT means leave a comment below this actual post, not on Facebook, because we use a random number generator to choose the winner from the number of comments. Then we verify that you've liked the pages on Facebook. But if your comment is not here, you do not have an entry.

This giveaway offer will end on midnight January 13th, Eastern Standard Time. Must have a US mailing address to win.  

*In accordance with FTC disclosure laws, we received a package of the products to test for our review*

Do you have a green product you want us to feature in a future post?

Year End Accounting of Green

For those of you who followed Our Daily Green the past few years, you may recall that we pledge half our advertising earnings to charitable organizations. It's our way of underwriting our blog as well as supporting organizations that are making a difference in this world. It's also our way of thanking our readers for indulging our advertisements.

This past year, Our Daily Green cut back on some of our side ads, but accepted more sponsored posts. The difference is that the advertiser pays us to link to their site within a blog post, versus a permanent ad on the main blog page.

Our posts earned about $50 in sponsorship and we also received approximately $500 in free merchandise. We gave away approximately $400 in like merchandise, leaving us with a surplus of $150, which translates to $75 in donations. We've chosen one organization, Community Greenhouse Partners in Cleveland, Ohio and would like nominations for two more.

Community Greenhouse Partners mission includes:

Improving the quality of life of those around us by growing vegetables year round and selling them at low cost to urban families, employing local residents and teaching sustainability and earth science to young people. Community Greenhouse Partners is a sustainable urban farm that applies ecological design principles and engages community participation to grow wholesome food year-round that is provided at low-cost to the neighborhood, improving personal health while generating training, mentoring and employment opportunities.

(Guest Post) Coupons and Organic Food: Eating Healthy on a Budget

Guest Post: This post was written by James Lander of Couponing. This website offers deals as well as tips for becoming a savvy couponer.


In recent years, buying and eating organic food has become a major priority for a growing number of American consumers. As more and more people consider where the food they put into their bodies actually comes from – and as access to local, organic, and sustainably-produced goods increases– the demand for these products has exploded across the country. The drawback to this fervor? Organic foods can often come with much higher price tags than their factory-produced counterparts. Many people feel excluded from the organic movement simply because the prices for organic fruits, vegetables, and other goods often seem so much higher than their existing grocery budget can allow.

However, there is relief for organic shoppers looking for a deal. As decades of savvy shoppers have done before them, organic consumers can take to the world of couponing where deep discounts and pricing deals can be found if one is willing to search for them. These days, couponers find most of their deals online rather than in the newspaper; many keep a list of sites to check regularly, and some even have deals and updates sent directly to their email each day.

Organic groceries are a growing niche of the online couponing community; retailers and food producers alike now regularly provide discounts, coupons, and special offers to website visitors and email subscribers. There are also entire third-party websites dedicated to compiling these deals and presenting them to consumers who visit their site. These third party sites are an excellent resource for couponers willing to do their research. On a blog like Frugal Dad, for example, you can access dozens of grocery and food coupon codes to use when shopping for organic products. Visitors can view a wide variety of retailers to see who is offering the deepest discounts on the organic products they want most. This method takes time, but dedicated deal-seekers can compare and contrast discounts and make educated decisions about how to spend their money.

Alternately, if you’ve got a favorite brand, many companies will offer special, usually limited-time deals on their websites or to customers who have signed up to receive email offers and updates. Coupon shoppers can apply these exclusive offers to get serious discounts on their favorite products, especially if they can be combined with discount codes from some of their other coupon sites. Again, sorting through the many emails and offers that inevitably come through your inbox can be a time-consuming job that many customers choose to skip. Some may find it simply too tedious to sort through the various offers and find the best deal; others may find the daily influx of deals too tempting and end up spending more than they would have otherwise – which defeats the whole purpose of couponing.

Remember: do not let the coupons completely dictate your shopping experience. If you have a “buy two, get one free” coupon for a food that no one in your home will eat, you’ve essentially paid double to let something sit in your cabinet and be thrown out uneaten. Although coupons can offer significant savings to savvy customers, their attractive discounts can also cause passive shoppers to waste money on items they don’t really want or need. Compile all of your coupons and discount information (offer expiration dates, etc.) into one place where you can look at it all objectively, determine the best value, and make your purchases.

If you are committed to feeding your family organic food whenever possible, you can absolutely work it into your existing budget by committing to couponing and discount shopping. Successful couponers are diligent about their work and realistic about their needs, and for that their payoff can be huge: feeding their families healthy, organic food without breaking the bank.