Keeping Healthy

Striving to have a healthy family is something I work hard at.  It has been a long road, however, slowly but surely we are making strides in that direction.

We rarely fry foods any more.  I use coconut oil in many of my recipes.  I am using less and less processed foods.  Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera...

When Kei first started having emotional / hormonal issues, I was desperate.  We switched to using soap nuts instead of chemical laced laundry detergent.  We started her on supplements to help balance things out.  We switched to natural soaps.  Anything we could think of we tried.  I am not sure which helped the most, but something in the combo helped because she is much more stable and is no longer on antidepressant medication.  

BUT, organic, natural products are expensive.  You are on a tight budget.   Natural organic products are even more expensive in Japan.  How do you balance that?

A couple years ago I discovered iHerb.  At iHerb I can get organic products at a reasonable price. AND... this is H.U.G.E for me... if I order more than $40 at one time, shipping is free - even shipping to Japan!!  Anyone who has mailed a package internationally know that shipping is crazy expensive. 

So what bring me to blogging about this?

I haven't been doing any online shopping for a few weeks, but today I noticed that our soap nut supply is nearing the end.  So off to iHerb I went.  I looked through old orders and discovered that the last time I ordered soap nuts was May 2015.  So 32oz of soap nuts lasted us 8 months.  At the current price that breaks down to 449 yen ($3.80) per month for natural laundry detergent.  And that is for ALL the laundry we do, and there is a LOT at our house.

December was a hard month on the coconut oil supply because in addition to extra cooking, I also made lotion, sugar scrub, & lip balm for gifts.  Add coconut oil to the cart and I'm well over the magic number to get free shipping + I have earned an extra 10% discount.  YAY!

Healthy doesn't have to be prohibitively expensive.  It takes a little extra effort, but I am finding that it can also be fun.  BTW if you do decide to check out iHerb please use my code, MNS758, to receive a $5 discount on your first order. 

Let's all strive to be a little more healthy this year!