Five Quick Ways To Save Money By Being Healthy

Money is a common reason I hear when people tell me why they’re not healthy.  They don’t have money for a gym membership and they don’t have money for healthy food.  This is especially common these days, when everyone seems to be saving money and trying not to spend too much.  Well, I’m going to let you in on a little secret; being healthy doesn’t cost a lot of money.  In fact, I would argue that it’s the exact opposite, being healthy can save you money and not just by lowering your healthcare costs.  Here are five ways in which you can start saving money by being more healthy:

Raise / Lower The Thermostat - Your body spends more calories when the temperature isn’t exactly perfect.  It spends those calories to cool you down when it’s warm or to heat you up when it’s cold.  So rather than spending money on energy for your heater or air conditioning, why not allow your body to spend those calories for you?  You lose a bit of weight and your energy bill goes down.  All you need to do is set your thermostat to two or three degrees cooler than usual in the winter or two to three degrees warmer than usual in the summer.  Better yet, don’t use heating or AC at all unless the weather is extreme.  Believe me, 60 degrees will NOT kill you. 

Eat At Home - Restaurant food is bad for you and bad for your wallet.  You are paying too much money for too much food.  Eating at home will allow you to control what you eat, the quantity you eat and the ingrediants that go into your food.  It’s also much cheaper than eating out so you can afford better quality meals while still paying less overall.  I can buy enough veggies at the farmers market to make a really great salad that will last for two days.  That same amount of money at a restaurant will get me a single plate of lettuce covered in croutons, cheese and ranch sauce.

Eat Less - While we’re on the topic of eating, how about eating less?  Most Americans and Europeans eat too much.  We spend a good amount of time and money on snacks and meals that our stomachs didn’t need and our wallets couldn’t afford.  I know, 75 cents doesn’t seem like much, but it all adds up.  A candy bar here and a latte there will slowly amount to a huge amount of calories and a significant amount of money.  Try to control your spending and your eating by minimizing the unnecessary snacks and meals.  By the way, buying in bulk does not help when it comes to snacks.  Several studies have shown that people who buy snacks in bulk end up eating a lot more of them.  So you save no money and you eat too much.  Sounds like a losing deal to me.

Drink Water - That soda?  75 cents worth of empty calories and chemicals your body does not appreciate.  That latte?  It has more calories than a cheeseburger and costs about the same too.  That bottle of water?  No better than most tap water and yet you paid for it.  There is a perfect drink out there from both a money and health perspective and that drink is called tap water.  Sure, some of you live in areas where tap water might be bad, but the overwhelming majority of us are simply throwing our money away when we drink anything else.

Walk - Gas is expensive, as are repairs to the car.  Start walking or biking instead.  I try to walk everywhere these days.  To the store, to the park, to the post office.  It feels great and my car says thank you every time I pass by it.  My wallet is pretty appreciative of this as well since gas here in California is around $2.30 per gallon.  Every mile I walk is about 15 cents that stay in my wallet and 50 calories that leave my body.  How can you beat that deal?

Bonus Tips!

Cancel Your Cable Service - There is nothing more mind numbing and butt expanding in our culture than TV.  Do yourself a favor and cut the cable.  The extra time and money you’ll have can be better spent on almost anything.

Grow Your Own Food - Got a backyard?  Balconey?  Window?  Any of these can be used for a little food garden.  You’ll eat better, do some physical work and save money at the market.  As a bonus, studies have shown that houses with plants in them are conducive to lower stress levels.

Active Hobbies - Interestingly enough, most active hobbies are actually cheap.  Playing soccer with friends costs almost nothing, going hiking is usually free and tossing a frizbee around is relatively inexpensive.  Compare that to going to the movies and you’ll quickly see how being active and having fun can be quite cheap.

Help A Friend Move - This is just one example of the types of activities we usually pay other people to do for us.  Why?  Do it yourself, enjoy the labor and save your money.  Paying someone else to lift things for you and then arguing that you have no money for a gym membership is a bit odd, don’t you think?

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Got any tips of your own?  Feel free to add them to the comments.

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Recipe - Sausage Salad

Today’s post is one of my favorite quick meals to prepare.  It’s fast, tasty and very nutritious.

Needed Ingredients

• 1 tomato
• 1 cucumber
• 1/4 onion
• 1 cup of fresh spinach leaves
• 1 cup of mushrooms
• 1/4 avocado
• 1 red pepper
• 2 sausages
• a bit of olive oil

Note, the ingredients matter.  If you want good flavor, you’re going to invest in fresh, organic produce and non crappy sausages.  I usually buy venison or rabbit sausages at the farmers market but you can find decent stuff at the supermarket too.  Just don’t go with some crappy factory produced sausage filled with god knows what.  Even with the extra cost of good ingredients, this is still cheaper than eating dinner in a restaurant by the way.

Preparation

Chop up all the vegetables except the onions and mushroom into very little pieces.  By little I mean no bigger than 1/4 or 1/3 of an inch (or 1cm for you metric folks).  Pour them into a bowl.  Now chop up the onions and mushrooms into similarly small pieces and pour into another bowl.  When you’re done crying from chopping the onion (which usually takes me about 10 minutes), chop up the sausage into small piece and toss into a frying pan with a bit of olive oil.  Start cooking it and, about 4 to 5 minutes it’s done, toss in the chopped onion and mushrooms.  Continue cooking for a few minutes, making sure to stir everything well.  When the sausage is cooked, pour everything out into your other vegetable bowl, mix well and serve.

Notes

• You do NOT need dressing for this.  Believe me, the sausage, onions and other vegetables have enough flavor without you drowning them in ranch sauce.
• You do NOT need a side of french fries, mashed potatoes, rice or any other silly calorie laden dish with this meal.  It’s perfect just on its own.
• Glass of wine is fine, I’m told by my local butcher than reds go well with this meat, but really, there’s nothing better to drink than water!
• You may want to adjust the quantity of meat to vegetables to suit your own tastes.  This ratio works well for me since it’s one of the few meat dishes that I eat.  However, 10 sausages to 1 tomato is probably not a good ratio.

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Anyone have their own favorite quick and healthy recipes?

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