Blue Sky Guide 2010 is Here!

It's that time of year again in Minnesota: the leaves are changing colors, everyone is dreaming of squash soup, and there's a new Blue Sky Guide on the shelves! Blue Sky Guide is a unique product: made by local people for local people who want to support local businesses and people. Next time you are in the store wondering about that brightly colored book that proclaims "Community Coupons," take a look inside. We hope you'll agree that this is the number one local resource for living a healthy lifestyle on your budget.

The 2010 edition Blue Sky Guide (good through October 2010) has many exciting new additions, as well as tons of the fabulous standards. As a co-op shopper, I always get excited to use my Wedge coupon to receive $5 off my total purchase of $40 or more. In addition to the storewide discount, there is an entire coupon section ("Grocery Manufacturer") for products found at the Wedge. This section has over $90 in discounts and pays for the book 4 times over! (We aren't lying when we say the book pays for itself.) The Grocery Manufacturer coupons are good at any store nationally, so on the off chance that you aren't shopping at the Wedge, you can still use these coupons.

This year UrbAnimal (across the street from the Wedge) graces the pages of Blue Sky Guide: you can save $10 on your purchase of $40 or more. Bikram's Yoga College of India (down the street from the Wedge) is another new Uptown coupon and offers a free yoga class as well as a discount on a class package. Eating in Uptown is easy with coupons from French Meadow, Galactic Pizza, Barbette, Lucia's to Go, Namaste Café, Common Roots Café, Ecopolitan...and the list goes on!

I recommend that when you first get your new Blue Sky Guide, you sit down with it and get to know it a little. After all, it is like a good friend that just wants you to save money while exploring the local community. Check out the resource section in the front of the book: it covers everything from home energy use to greening your transit, clothing and food. Flip on through to the maps (the Uptown specific ones are on pages 52 and 54 of this year's edition) and see how many businesses in your neighborhood are Blue Sky Guide businesses. Be sure to look through all the coupons and tear out specific ones you know you will use and stash them away in your coupon quiver (page 146). And then (here comes the best part): start using it!