4 Budget Friendly Ways to Improve Your Health

Let’s face it: pretty much everyone wants to save money, make things less expensive and be able to spend a little more on new shoes, that new jacket or to put towards your next holiday. 

And in fact, trying to save money is one of the biggest reasons many people say they aren’t as healthy as they would like to be. 

Well here’s the news: being healthy doesn’t have to be expensive. 

You can optimize your wellbeing, feel your best, and still have your favorite new pair of shoes. 

Here are 4 budget friendly ways to be your healthiest self: 

Work Out at Home

Working out at home is highly underrated. Take a minute and calculate up how much you spend per month on a gym membership, a yoga membership, or going to classes at the boutique spin studio down the street. And then balance that against how many times you actually use your membership and how much you end up paying per visit.  For many people, the numbers are pretty high and they’re left paying $25 or more for every trip to the gym.  And while it may sound nice at the time to be able to have the membership and know it is there for you to use, if you aren’t going to maximize the benefits of it, it’s going to minimize your wallet.  Instead, find some online workout videos, get outside and go for a run or a hike, or get into something like Pilates or calisthenics that just uses your own muscles and bodyweight to generate a great workout!

Skip the Organic Produce

Whether you follow just the list of dirty dozen, or are trying to buy your produce organic all of the time, it can be an added expense with minimal benefit. Or at the very least, may be impractical until you have more disposable income to put towards your food.  If you are washing your produce and eating a variety of fresh food, it’s more important to focus on trying to buy in season food than it is to buy organic.  If you buy food that is local and in season, it has fewer chemicals anyways, because Mother Nature does so much of the work!  Out of season produce is more chemically laden because it is force grown outside of its usual climate or growth period, and this is best achieved with chemicals!

Plan Ahead

It may sound like you see this as the answer to everything, but planning ahead is indeed an important part of staying on a budget. Each week, before you hit the grocery store, come up with a list of meal and snack options for the week.  You don’t have to plan it down to the day, but having a rough idea of what you are going to make ensures that you don’t buy things that you don’t need, and also prevents you from heading back into the grocery store later in the week, where you are tempted to spend more money than you need to.  IN addition, planning ahead will allow you to have leftovers for lunches and this prevents you from having to spend money going out for lunch at work

DIY

There are lots of things you are currently buying, which you might be surprised to learn are easy (and inexpensive) to do yourself. Things such as hummus, protein balls, granola bars, smoothies and juices, and even simply making your tea at home instead of buying it are all ways you can save money.  Have a look through your fridge and pantry and choose one thing each week that you are going to start making yourself instead of buying.  Grab the ingredients when you do your grocery shop and you’ll be well on your way to both saving money and being the new queen of DIY!