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<< Previous   of   Next >> Darren Breen / The Herald  (click to enlarge) A reusable grocery bag from Trader Joe's   ADVERTISEMENT   Related Stories • Save a buck: Free museum day 9/9/08 • Save a buck: Free concert at Alderwood Mall 9/1/08 • Save a buck: Web sites help find best prices 8/31/08 • Save a buck: Web site helps compute total on car rentals 8/30/08 • Save a Buck: Planning to drive? Try these ideas to save fuel 8/29/08 • Save a buck: Get free coffee recipes 8/28/08 • Save a buck: Make your own candied ginger 8/27/08 • Save a buck: Get rid of old refrigerator 8/26/08 • Save a buck: Free movies 8/25/08 • Save A Buck: Snohomish Picnic in the Park 8/23/08 • Save a buck: Old Time Fiddlers 8/21/08 • Learn some secrets of secondhand shopping from an expert 8/21/08 • Save a buck: Free car washes 8/20/08 • Save a buck: Reuse old jeans 8/19/08 • Save a buck: Free health fair 8/19/08   CONTACT THE HERALD Melanie Munk, Features Editor munk@heraldnet.com   Published: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 Save A Buck / Grocery tote instead of gift bag It's a wrap: Spend a buck and save a buck and feel good about being green all at once. Wrapping paper or a gift bag, tissue, ribbon and all the gift accoutrements can add $5 or $10 to the cost of a gift. It may even cost more than the present itself. Why not substitute a reusable grocery tote? Everyone can use one more of those handy bags since they're so easy to grab for toting everything and often get left wherever you went with it. Many of them cost a mere 99 cents, a whole buck cheaper than a medium-size gift bag. And don't even think about reusing that lightweight gift bag; the paper bottom and flimsy handles would break down sobbing in the grocery aisle under the weight of a frozen pizza. The tough totes not festive enough you say? Check out Trader Joe's 99-cent Hawaiian-shirt print or spring for the $1.99 South Seas design. A gift wine bottle might float around in one of the bigger bags, but there are some neat reusable wine carriers clipped to the grocery store shelves in the wine aisle that hold four or six bottles but collapse to hold just one. They're 99 cents also. Herald staff

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