Taking the time and effort to keep your body physically fit is a major determinant of a long and fulfilling life. Being healthy improves mood, helps the brain function optimally, decreases weight and provides more energy to live your life fully.
Did you know that it can also help put money in your bank account? If you are looking to save money and also want to live a healthy life, here are some cost saving reasons to begin now.
Reduce eating out
We all know that if you want to be healthy, eating at home is the first place to start. Restaurants add unhealthy ingredients like excessive amounts of oil, high fructose corn syrup, sweeteners, cream and salt to their food. You never know what you are eating when you are dining out. That is why eating at home, with ingredients fresh from your kitchen, is necessary to stay healthy.
A byproduct of eating at at home is that you can save a significant amount of money. The average household spends more than $3000 per year eating out, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Let’s look into the costs of eating out for a working professional.
- On your way to work, you grab a specialty coffee that costs $5. You eat lunch out 5 days a week at a conservative $10 per meal. A coffee and lunch alone adds up to $75 per week, $300 per month and $3900 per year! And that is just your daytime eating.
- Say you go out for dinner once a week – this is conservative for a young professional. For a single person, you are looking at a $25 which most likely doesn’t include a glass of wine. Dinner alone every week adds up to $1300.
- Combining costs of dinner and daytime meals, you are spending $5200 year eating out for a single person. Imagine how much it costs a family?
Eating takeout or going out for dinner can cost 2 to 5 times the cost of eating at home and also increases calories 2 to 3 times. Eating at home not only will reduce the cost of eating, it will also help you and your family stay healthy and spend quality time together around the dinner table.
Lower health costs
Exercising and eating a healthy diet can lift your energy and mood, improve sleep and extend your lifespan. Exercising alone has shown to decrease risk in chronic health conditions and diseases. These include cancer, heart disease, stroke and diabetes. By focusing on your health you can reduce pharmacy costs, doctors visits and hospital stays. Medical insurance coverage costs more for people with unhealthy lifestyles.
Being a healthy weight and living a healthy lifestyle can also reduce the cost of life insurance and increase your coverage. By lowering your weight, you could reduce your life insurance cost by 25% per year.
Eliminate eating unhealthy snacks and packaged foods
Being healthy means knowing what is really going inside of your body. You must have heard the saying “You are what you eat?”. Well hopefully, that doesn’t mean you are a bag of potatoes or a frozen pizza. Knowing the ingredients by making fresh, homemade meals everyday is an essential ritual for a healthy life.
Being healthy, doesn’t leave room for unhealthy snacks and pre-packaged foods. Pre-packaged foods contain unhealthy ingredients as well as preservatives that are not aligned with a healthy diet. They also cost a lot more than making your own foods fresh.
Stop expensive vices
Everyone has them. A delicious vice that we crave. It might be a sugar filled coffee topped with whipped cream in the morning or a refreshing fizzy drink during your 2pm slump. These vices add up!
TIP: Making your own healthy coffee at home removes any temptation and can help you save $1300 per year.
Once you commit to being healthy, you will have more energy and the craving for that fizzy drink will be gone.
If you are a smoker and are making the awesome choice to quit, you will not only extend your lifespan and improve your quality of life, you will also save immensely. If you are smoking a pack a day, with an average cost of a pack at $6.16, by quitting, you will save $2250 per year. Also, you will save greatly on life and medical insurance coverage.
Spend more time doing free outdoor activities
Now that going out to eat isn’t much of an option for a social outing, healthy people participate in alternative ways to to have fun. When you start working towards good health, you will have more energy and will want to start moving your body and getting yourself into nature.
Instead of going out for an expensive meal or taking your family to movie, which could cost you up to $50 not including the cost of popcorn and snacks, you can take your family to a local beach or park. If you are a young professional, going for a hike or a bike ride are always a fun activities to do to connect with friends.
Being in nature will help bring your friends and family together, and improve your mental and physical health. Plus, it’s free!
Reduce travel costs
If you live close to your work, consider walking or biking. This everyday routine, will help get you in tip top shape and also, save costs for public transport and gasoline. Perhaps, your children’s school is close enough to walk. This will give you and your children exercise, and also provide some one on one quality time.
Living a life that is health conscious is not only self gratifying, it also can meet your savings goals.
