First! My laundry detergent........Purex.........MADE IN U.S.A.!! Stain treatment stuff........Zout.......MADE IN U.S.A. Bounce dryer sheets..........made in Canada. Oh well, two out of three ain't bad and I love the Purex and Zout and I'm confident I can find a dryer sheet I like as well as Bounce or maybe their dryer bar is made in the U.S. We shall see.

I'm tired of "distributed by". It's on a lot of things with no mention of where the product is made. Today our oldest bought a tin of Altoids and, once again, I forgot to look at it to see where they are made until AFTER we bought it. Ugh. All it said was it was distributed by a company in Chicago.

In a search of the Internet to try to find out exactly what it means when something says "distributed by" I stumbled upon another blogger who went to great lengths (phone call, email) to find out where Target made their foodstuffs that only listed on them "distributed by" and he was told that Target cannot list where products are made on a lot of things because they don't know. OH FABULOUS.

Further searching led me to this very interesting article however this particular article doesn't talk about the whole problem I find with "distributed by". It's a good article though.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35821593/ns/business-us_business/t/made-america-rules-are-complex-confusing/#.Tt6Kn8NFuso

Axe toiletry products...you know, shampoo, body wash, etc. Our boys love them. Made in the U.S.A. YAY! Peaches in the little plastic containers by Dole...peaches are from GREECE! Dole can't find some American peaches to buy? I know Greece is in serious trouble but still, I would prefer to buy American peaches and I am going to try to do so next time. Reason I buy the Dole ones is because they are in juice, not syrup. Hoping I can find another, American brand, in juice.

I'm looking at EVERYTHING in this house to see where it is made. A surprise today was Method cleaning products. They are sold at Target and other places too I believe. I think I saw them at Home Depot or Lowe's. I have the bathroom cleaner and an all-purpose cleaner and both made in the U.S. Makes me wonder if you can just assume that if you find one or a few products made by a company that say they are made in the U.S. that it means everything they make is. I wonder. It'd be nice to know that Method can be a go-to product for me but I'm not going to assume that at this point until I check a few more of their products.

That reminds me. I never checked my laundry detergent.

GRAPES FROM BRAZIL! Didn't even think about checking fresh produce! But I guess I have to. Green seedless grapes from the store the other day and was eating some this morning and saw on the side "Product of Brazil". Oh dear. Try, try again. Not that I have anything against Brazil and maybe all the green grapes at my local grocery store imported. I don't know. Thing is, I have a responsibility to check.

My mother just called me and said they bought a Catnip Chia pet for our cat for Christmas and I just cringed because I just knew they were made in China and Wikipedia just confirmed that. I didn't say anything because it's a done deal but I guess at some point I should share with them my quest to buy more American products and maybe they will try to do the same.

More socks for the hubby (he likes socks), ordered on the Internet before all this started and wouldn't have mattered because they are a certain brand of athletic sock that he really likes so I would have bought them regardless. Guess where these were made? South Africa! I found that very interesting. I don't know the situation of manufacturing in South Africa. Is it like China where the workers are extremely underpaid? I suspect it might be. And even more interesting is we have family in South Africa. Not in the sock manufacturing business though. I should ask them what they know about manufacturing jobs there although South Africa is HUGE. These could have been made in part of South Africa that is no where near them.

Hellman's mayonnaise, made in America. But where do they make all those plastic containers that foodstuffs and toiletries are in? How many jobs would it create if all the American manufacturers bought their supplies from American manufacturers?

This isn't going well. I just ran in to CVS to get shaving cream for my husband and grabbed 4 of the kind I usually buy. It's a CVS version of Aveeno shaving cream. Never looked at it until right now. MADE IN CANADA. Ugh. How much do you want to bet me that when I go back in to CVS and look at the Aveeno brand that will be made in the US. If it is it'll be the last time I buy the CVS brand. Not worth the meager savings.

And I do have to admit my husband isn't in on this plan and don't know if I can get him to commit to it. He doesn't do much shopping though. He doesn't know I'm doing it. He did buy some socks yesterday at Dick's Sporting Goods. Field and Stream. Sounds like a nice American brand right? WRONG. Made in China. Chinese socks.

Like I said, this isn't going well. But, sort of like when you diet, if you have a bad day you can't give up. You just have to try again tomorrow.

Only the Beginning

Lately, on the news, they are touting buying local and now, buying American. I mean, I know it's nothing new. We're supposed to buy American. Everyone knows that (I think). But just lately there is a bit of a push on the idea. Buying American, even a little bit, can help create jobs and job creation seems to be the topic o' the day.

So I thought I'd make it my New Year's resolution but then I thought, why wait? It actually makes no sense to wait so today, for the first time, I made a very concerted effort to buy American. Now, that's not to say everything I bought was made in America. Not by a long shot. I think that very well might be impossible. And, if I'm being honest, if there was something I REALLY WANTED (like the Jennifer Lopez red dress at Kohl's that ended up looking WAY better on the hanger) I would buy it, China or not. But if I was able to make an American choice, I made it and I am confident that I came home with a much larger percentage of American made goods than I would have if I wasn't paying attention.

The first store I went to was store called Big Lots which calls itself a "closeout" store. This was literally a store FULL of items from China. CHOCK FULL. The only purchase I made there were two Gibson greeting cards which are made in the U.S.A.

Then I went to my favorite, favorite store....Target. To be honest, it was almost as bad as Big Lots. Well, that's not really being fair but all of the Target brands I looked at be it a dog bed or a water bottle were made in China. Even Target brand toilet paper isn't made in the U.S. It's made in Canada. I bought Bounty, a brand made by Proctor and Gamble who runs a very large plant and employs thousands of people pretty close to where I live, in Mehoopany, PA. To be honest, I've been trying to buy Proctor and Gamble products whenever I can for some time now but I'm going to try harder.

I even looked at foodstuffs and most of them say on they "Distributed by:" and then the name of the company. All of them listed U.S. companies but I'm wondering exactly what they mean by "Distributed By" and does that mean they made it at or near the U.S. address listed on the box? I wonder if there is a way to find out?

Sterlite is made in the United States and this was something I was very excited to discover. Mostly because I had just looked at probably 30 products in a row that were made in China. I bought a Sterlite ornament organizing box. It made me feel good and I imagined in my head a plant somewhere full of American workers making me my ornament box. It was a nice feeling.

You really have to think about this as you're shopping because it's amazing how easily you forget. I looked at every single label of everything I bought or considered buying but a few times I forgot. I got in to the swing of shopping and started grabbing what I needed without looking on the package for where it was made. But I remembered and went back and checked the items I missed and it turned out the ones I forgot to check WERE made in the U.S. I bought stick on letters for our mailbox at Lowes and there wasn't a lot of choice. Even so, when I was in the store I forgot to look to see where they were made until I got out to the car. Ended up the ones I bought were made in America. Nice.

So, that's it for day one and I guess what I took away from this day is that it's not easy to buy American but when you do, it feels good. Until my next shopping trip........