local food

Best Money Tips: Ways to Support Your Local Food System

Amy Lu — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 19:00:15 +0000

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some great articles on things we can do to support a local food system, quick tips to save money this summer, and where to find $400 in a jiffy.

Live Like a Local: How to Tap Into the Local Scene While Traveling

Nora Dunn — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 10:00:34 +0000

Many travelers are on a quest of sorts to discover a destination by getting “off the beaten path.” Although I think the concept is a misnomer, I also believe travel experiences vary dramatically depending on how we do our research and who we spend our time with on the road.

Your next vacation doesn't need to be a duplicate experience of what's listed in a guidebook. Here are some ways to tap into the local scene while traveling and deepen your cultural experience. (See also: 6 Ways My Family Scores Free Travel With Credit Cards)

Living Like a Local: Finding Accommodations

Staying in hotels hardly incites a “local” experience. In order to feel like a local while you travel, it's best to live like a local. This usually means living in a local's home, or along side locals in a volunteer facility.

Volunteer/Work-Trade

Volunteering in trade for your accommodations can take many different forms. I've milked goats, painted murals, designed marketing plans, run hostels, cooked meals, taught conversational English, and more — all in trade for my accommodations (and sometimes meals too). Accommodations for these “jobs” ranged from staying in the home of a local who needed some extra help to staying in fully equipped multi-volunteer facilities. From rustic to luxury, these gigs run the gambit.

Here are a couple of resources to help you choose the right volunteer gig:

Staying With Locals for Free

Hospitality exchange sites connect travelers with local hosts who are willing to open up their homes to guests. The informal term for this is "couch surfing," coined by the namesake CouchSurfing website. And it's about more than staying on somebody's couch; with forums and chapter meetings around the world, it can be a great way to meet locals who are also enthusiastic about travel and eager to exchange ideas and cultural values.

But couch surfing is only one such site for finding opportunities to stay with locals for free. You'll find a whole list of local accommodation options here.

Staying in Local Accommodations

Similar to booking a hotel, you can use online services to book a local's apartment or house (or a spare room, tent space, and other incantations of accommodations). If you are sharing common space with the owner, there is usually ample opportunity to tap into their local knowledge as a bonus. For more information on rental services, check out Got Space? Make Money and Meet Travelers With Short-Term Rentals.

Or you can get a slice of local life by house-sitting or pet-sitting for a local, which entails varying degrees of responsibility in trade for free (or almost free) accommodations (check out 10 Tips for Landing the Perfect House-Sitting Gig). Would you like to house-sit, but also have somebody to take care of your home while you're away? Then a home exchange is a perfect route to free accommodation and peace of mind that your place is in good hands.

Meeting With Locals

How do you meet locals while you're traveling? With possible cultural or linguistic differences presenting challenges, you need to find people with whom you have common ground. Here are a few ways.

Special Interest Groups

Do you have a hobby or pastime? Look for local online forums and member groups at your destination to see if you can attend a meeting or event while you're there. Your shared interest immediately creates common ground to get to know people quickly and easily.

Between Rotary clubs and rock-climbing crags (and everything in between), I've met quite a cross-section of locals in many places I've visited — and made friends I still keep in touch with.

HerMail

If you have a question or two that you'd like to get the local female take on (about anything from local customs to a good place to eat), female travelers can check out HerMail, which connects locals with travelers coming to the area. (Sorry — this is a girls-only club!) Although it starts with a question, you might end up meeting up or getting an informal tour or even a place to stay.

The Pub

I took an informal poll in writing this article, asking other travelers how they meet locals on the road. And the place to be is the pub! You'll find a broad mixture of people at any watering hole around the world (noting that it's good to be cognizant of the area and how safe it is), and a few pints of beer do wonders for developing camaraderie.

Being Guided by a Local

People are generally tired of sifting through guidebooks and being herded on whitewash tours when they travel. They want a “local” experience for minimal time, money, and research invested; and who better to provide this experience than a bona fide local?

SnappyGo

Use SnappyGo to get locally developed custom itineraries. You'll be connected with a local advisor, and for an average of $30-75 (depending on the length of your trip and depth of advice you want), you'll receive customized points of interest, hotel suggestions, restaurant suggestions, and insider tips — all tailored to your specific travel profile, and with relevant links and contact information provided.

HipHost

For custom themed tours, check out HipHost. Browse locally developed custom tour itineraries with themes ranging from "Beer & Chocolate" to "Running" to "Architecture" to "Girl's Night Out." Or you can post for a custom tour request and be matched with a local guide who is capable of meeting your custom requirements. The cost of the tours varies depending on the activities involved, but the guide's time is usually worth $20/hour (plus an administrative fee for HipHost).

Shiroube

Shiroube is more open-ended; connect with an advisor who matches your destination and travel interests, then correspond and strike a deal. Services provided can vary from getting answers to basic questions (which is often provided for free) to receiving a fully guided (paid) tour by a local.

Pangea Pal

Similar to Shiroube, Pangea Pal is a new site designed to connect travelers with locals to strike their own deals for whatever tour-related services are on offer/request.

For information on what it's like to earn extra cash as a local tour guide on your own turf, check out this article about becoming a tour guide in your hometown.

Finding Local (or Locally Recommended) Businesses

The most common way to find local businesses or popular places to go is the Internet. Here are some apps and websites commonly used to get the local scoop. (Note: This is far from an exhaustive list, as crowdsourcing becomes more common every day and new resources are popping up everywhere).

Find by Review

Use Yelp and Google+ Local to find businesses based on locally submitted reviews. Both are available for smartphones as well.

Find What's Happening Right Now

LocalMind is an app to tap into the real-time local scene. If you're headed out (to a restaurant or bar for example), you can find out what's happening in real time from other LocalMind users who are there now.

European Businesses

If you're headed for Europe, use Spotted by Locals to get city guides and local tips.

OK, it's your turn to spill the beans. Have you used any of the above services, or do you know of another way to tap into the local scene while traveling?

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This article is from Nora Dunn of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Healthy Eating: The Sequel

Sarah Baughman — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:11:41 +0000

A while back, I wrote about the conundrum of wanting to eat healthy but finding that most healthy choices cost more than less healthy choices. My post, entitled “Healthy Eating: It’ll Cost You!” was based on a New York Times article and on my personal experiences trying to shop wisely in rural America. I received a range of responses—many people seemed to agree that the American poor face a true dilemma when it comes to eating wisely. Some pointed out that I should just head to Trader Joe’s or a local ethnic market to save money. I don’t blame those people for not realizing that we don’t have Trade Joe’s or a local ethnic market. Sometimes when you’re used to living with those things, you forget they’re not everywhere.

My friends in more metropolitan regions of the state have Trader Joe’s, as well as a nifty place called Plum’s that seems based on the same idea as Trader Joe’s, and a smattering of other small, reasonably priced “healthy-and-organic-on-the-cheap” options around town. Here, in sum, are my grocery options within thirty miles of my small town, whose economy, for what it’s worth, is largely stimulated by tourism and whose local residents are rarely as wealthy as the vacationers who flood the place in summer and winter. I’ve listed the stores in ascending order according to price:

• WAL-MART—you all know this one. Rock-bottom prices and questionable company policies all around. I know people who drive 20 miles to shop here.
• THE REGULAR GROCERY STORE—a regional grocery chain with decent food selection, where you’ll pay more for the same items you get at Wal-Mart.
• THE FAMILY-OWNED GROCERY STORE—a small family-owned grocery with locations in four small towns. Decidedly more expensive than Wal-Mart.
• THE FOOD CO-OP—a well-stocked food co-op with plenty of healthy, but inevitably premium-priced, organic and local options.

Come summer, of course, all of this changes; I live in a beautiful, agriculturally rich area, and the farmer’s markets are unmatched. But from November to May, you’ve got those four choices. I'm sure the choices are similar throughout much of small-town America.

I think it’s really all about short-term versus long-term thinking. Am I willing to pay one-and-a-half times as much, or even over twice as much, for groceries in short-term, if I know that by doing so I can support local businesses in the long-term? For those living close to or below the poverty line, short-term thinking is sometimes the only option, which is why these corporate giants can be so detrimental to our communities. When given the choice to pay $3 or $1.75 for a loaf of bread, there are plenty of people who simply have to pay $1.75.

If you’re somewhere in the middle, check out my…

SHORT-TERM TIPS FOR PEOPLE LIVING WITH LIMITED GROCERY OPTIONS:
• If you have a food co-op in your area, ask them for a coupon book. Most co-ops put one out monthly, and clipping coupons can offer amazing savings on regular grocery items. Most co-ops will also trade volunteer hours for discounts: volunteering just four hours a month at my co-op will earn you 10% off your total purchase every day of that month.
• Call your Chamber of Commerce to see if there are any incentive programs available for shopping at local businesses. In my town, anybody who works for a local business can get a Chamber Discount Card, giving them deals when they shop locally. It’s meant to encourage local businesses to support one another.
• Start small. Choose one or two items you want to buy organically or from a locally owned store each week. Maybe you’ll decide to buy organic milk, or local apples, or maybe you’ll just get a cup of coffee at the local shop instead of Starbuck’s (which we don’t have either, by the way…and I don’t miss it. Our little coffee shop is just what I need!). A friend of mine recently said she started out just buying one item a week, as well as whatever was on sale, at our food co-op. “Then, I just started buying more items there each week, and now that’s pretty much the only place I shop for my family,” she said. “I’ve made it work.” This might not be within economic reach for everyone, but you never know.
• Check your budget and weigh your priorities. Are there places where you could adjust in order to allow you to shop locally for a few items? I rarely buy a $3 latte anymore, and I rent movies rather than going to the theater, and the extra money in my pocket gives me a little extra to cover, say, the difference between shopping at a local grocery versus Wal-Mart.

This article is from Sarah Baughman of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread: