10 Healthy Changes for You and Your Pocketbook
You may be paying for a few things that aren’t benefiting your health or your budget. Even small changes can add up to big savings when you take a closer look at your spending habits. The purpose of this article is to inspire you to make a few healthy changes for you and your wallet.
1. Choose Water
Ordering a soft drink or glass of tea will cost to $2.00 – $4.00 at an average restaurant. The cost for the restaurant per glass of tea or soft drink is often a few pennies. This high mark-up is a huge profit for the restaurant, but an easy way for you to spend more with little to no benefit.
Any food service establishment must have a source of clean drinking water. This is often filtered tap water, which is both safe to drink and free at most Texas eateries. Depending on how often you eat out or buy bottled drinks, making this healthy change could make either a small or significant impact on your monthly budget.
2. Buy Fewer Household Cleaners
There are isles and isles of products available for cleaning your home. While the effective marketing of these companies make it seem like you need a specialized cleaner for different surfaces and rooms, you don’t. Many cleaners contain chemicals that can be harmful to breathe or touch, which doesn’t make them an ideal solution to clean your home.
Cleaning experts swear by a few cleaners that are easily accessible and inexpensive. Liquid dish soap, baking soda, distilled white vinegar, and a natural oil like tea tree oil, can be used in different combinations to clean most surfaces in your home. There are also natural multipurpose cleaners that will help you reduce the number of bottles under your sink and simplify your cleaning routine.
3. Cook at Home
Eating out at a nice restaurant can be 3 to 5 times the cost of buying the same ingredients at a grocery store and cooking them at home yourself. Restaurants also tend to add more salt, sugar, and preservatives to food. Large portions when eating out can encourage overeating or send wasted food to the trash.
A more healthy plan for your body and budget could be to plan prepare meals at home for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Actively planning your meals for the week can be a real budget saver and a healthy change.
4. Make Your Own Coffee
This is an obvious budgeting tip. Coffee at home doesn’t cost anywhere near $3.00 to $4.00 per cup, like you find in the coffee shops. You can also skip the extra sugar, cream, and flavored syrups that are pumped into the coffee shop versions of your favorite morning drink.
5. Spend Time Outdoors
Choosing entertainment that involves being active outdoors has a number of advantages. Besides the benefits of the fresh air and sunlight, playing a game, taking a hike, or riding a bike doesn’t cost much at all.
A healthy and active lifestyle can also impact your future budget as well. Maintaining your health can save your trips to the doctor’s office. People who spend more time outdoors have better mental health, are more physically active, and report feeling more happy after a day out side.
6. Grow an Herb Garden
Another way to support a healthy diet is to grow a garden yourself. Even if you don’t have a green thumb, Herbs are some of the easiest plants to care for. Save at the grocery store by using the fresh herbs you grow for yourself at home.
7. Organize
Organizing your home can take some stress off of your shoulders. Being more organized could also mean spending less on replacing lost items, or giving you back some valuable time.
8. Exercise at Home
Moving your body is vitally important to your health, but you don’t have to pay for a gym membership, classes, or a trainer to make healthy changes. It’s surprising how much these costs can add up over a year. If you aren’t using your membership, cut it out of your budget immediately.
You can easily work the muscles and systems in your body for free at home. Give yourself a set amount of time each day to work out, meditate, stretch, walk, jog, or dance. If you need motivation to get started enlist a friend to keep you accountable or find one of the numerous free resources online for pointers.
9. Focus on Self-care
Taking time to focus on your own well being can be a part of your daily routine. Being proactive in taking care of your body may help you save on future medical costs or emergencies.
We aren’t talking about expensive massages or days at the spa. Learn more about “Free Ways to Practice Self Care During the Day” in this linked article.
10. Journal or Drawing
You brain also needs a challenging workout every now and then. Studies have shown that drawing can improve your memory. Writing in a journal is another step toward healthy changes for mental fortitude. Writing down your thoughts can be a way to increase your emotional intelligence as well as your vocabulary.
To make an impact on your pocketbook with these healthy changes, trade the occasional expense for entertainment for a night of creative thinking. With just a pencil and a sheet of paper required drawing or writing may be the inexpensive mental break you need.
We hope these ideas for healthy changes, sparked some inspiration for steps toward better health for you and your pocket book. At TexasLending.com our goal is to be your go-to mortgage experts, but we also enjoy providing information about home ownership and financial health in our blog.
When you are ready to buy your first home, your next home, or refinance your current mortgage, think TexasLending.com. It’s easy to get started and your pre-approval is free.
