Ways to Stay Healthy on a Budget
Hey everybody! I’m back on my health kick and excited to share a few things with you. I wanted to write this post to address being/staying healthy on a budget because one, I know I have fellow millennial followers who might be on a tighter budget like me, and two, I haven’t come across a lot of articles or blog posts like this. It’s easy to find “how to eat healthy on a budget” and “how to get fit on a budget”, but no one really talks about the other aspects of staying healthy. This is bigger than food and workouts! So in this post, I’ll share some tips for staying healthy across the board (food, fitness, overall health, and self-care). So let’s jump right into it.
Overall Health
Sanitize frequently. I feel like this seems like a no brainer. We wash our hands before eating and after using the bathroom, we bathe regularly, but we don’t think about sanitizing everything else that we use frequently that comes in contact with germs as well. According to Reader’s Digest, some of the everyday items that are dirtier than your toilet seat include your smart phone or tablet, your computer, and your purse or work bag. Think about it, we use our phones for everything. We put our purses and bags on all kinds of surfaces throughout the day that are saturated with germs, and then we take those same purses and bags into our homes. Investing in some Clorox wipes to use on a daily basis to wipe your phone and at least the bottom of your bag keeps your living space a little less contaminated.
Close your toilet seat before flushing! When you flush a toilet, the swirling water that removes your waste from the bowl also mixes with small particles of that waste, shooting aerosolized feces into the air (source). So any and everything within 6 feet of your toilet, like your toothbrush and face wash just to name a couple, is susceptible to being covered in that “aerosolized feces”. Gross, right? Put the toilet seat down first, and then flush. If you’re in a public bathroom where the toilets don’t have seat covers, I like to make flushing the last thing I do so that I can flush and run. Literally. One foot on the handle to flush and the other outside the door of the stall so that as soon as I flush, I can run because even though your toothbrush isn’t in that public bathroom stall, you are! Who wants that stuff all over their clothes?
Save on vitamins and medications. I wrote about vitamins and supplements a little while ago so I won’t be going into too much detail here, but if you missed that post definitely check it out.
1: check with your local pharmacy to learn more about programs that they may offer to help you save on your prescriptions. Many pharmacies offer programs that give you cheaper meds for a small annual cost. For an enrollment fee of $10, for example, CVS allows you to fill a 90-day prescription for one of more than 400 generic medications for $10 each. At Wal-Mart, you can buy a month’s worth of generic meds for $4 each (or a 90-day supply for $10) with no up-front fee.
I take vitamins from two places, and with both I have a subscription that allows me to save a little extra money. So, 2: look for vitamin/supplement subscriptions. Amazon offers a “Subscribe and Save” option where you pay a little less for each bottle of whatever when you sign up for them to automatically bill you and send you the supplement after a certain period of time. You get to choose the frequency (monthly, bi-monthly, etc.) and you can choose to end or pause your subscription at any time. I personally use this for my daily vitamin and save a whopping $15 per bottle, as opposed to paying more for individual bottles at a place like GNC. I also get vitamins from Care/Of, a personalized vitamin subscription service. They tell you exactly how much each vitamin in your personalized pack will cost you per month, and you can add and subtract as you please.
Mental Health
Seek help if you need it. One affordable therapy option is an online therapy service called Talkspace. You take an assessment so that Talkspace can match you with a therapist who will identify your needs in more detail. You then choose a payment plan that suits your budget (they start at $32/week!), settle on a therapist, and begin your therapy. Sometimes cultural barriers hinder people from seeking help because they think if he/she and the therapist don’t come from the same culture or have the same ideals and values that they won’t be comfortable. So if you’re a black person or a person of color and you would prefer the in-person sessions with someone who you feel you can identify with culturally, another great resource is therapyforblackgirls.com, a website with a directory of therapists of color, organized by state.
DISCLAIMER: As a mental health advocate and someone in the mental health field, I will always encourage people to seek help if they need it. However, at the end of the day, you’re the only person that knows what’s right for you!
Keep a journal to help you manage stress/track your progress. They’re cheap and you can find them practically anywhere! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: writing things down is the easiest way to conceptualize your progress. Have you ever found one of your old journals or diaries from childhood and realized just how much you’ve matured and changed over the years? Yeah, you should have those kinds of moments on your wellness journey too. When you spend everyday with yourself, it’s hard to see the little changes. So consider writing things down to release and to track. You’d be surprised at how a simple daily or weekly journal entry for months can be used later down the road to help you see how much you’ve grown.
Food
I live for apps! They can save you a bunch of money. My favorites are the Shoppers, Cartwheel (Target), and Ibotta apps. Both the Shoppers and Cartwheel apps have coupons and savings for items specific to those stores respectively. Ibotta is an app that allows you to save on groceries in general, regardless of where you shop. Find rebates in the app that match what you plan to purchase/have already purchased and scan your receipt to redeem your rewards (they usually show up in my account within 24 hours). I find something on my grocery list on the rebates list each and every time, so there’s never a time where I go to the grocery store and can’t get any money back in Ibotta. If you’re interested in trying it, you can use my code for a $10 bonus if you redeem a rebate within the first 30 days (referral code: neuwsdv).
Use the circulars! It seems old fashioned, but you can actually save a decent amount of money if you meal plan around the deals in the circular at your local grocery store.
Buy frozen. We waste a lot of fresh produce if we don’t eat it within a few days of buying it or before it goes bad; according to the Huffington Post, Americans throw away $165 billion worth of food annually. Obviously you don’t want to buy frozen everything, but frozen fruits and veggies can help to bulk up your meals without bulking up your grocery bill, and it can save you in the long run because the food will stay fresh longer.
Stop wasting food and repurpose your leftovers! I’ll detail this tip in another post, but turning your leftovers into another dish is a great way to save money.
Pack your lunch. Eating out regularly can cost you as much as an additional $10 per meal, so buy your food yourself if you’re looking to save. Here are the foods that will allow you to get the best bang for your buck at the grocery store:
Eggs: inexpensive and high quality source of protein and fat
Oats, rice, beans: cheap and versatile complex carbs
Peanut butter: inexpensive fat source
Frozen fruits and veggies
Buy (some things) generic. I tend to generally stay away from generic brands, but there are some things that I almost always buy generic like eggs, re-sealable bags, and plastic storage containers because often times, the grocery store pays the brand name to repackage their product. So you might be getting the exact same product, just in a different package AND for less money!
Fitness
Use online fitness resources. I’ve listed a slew of them on My On-The-Go Fitness post and some in When You Can’t Afford A Trainer as well.
Invest in some home equipment like dumbbells, resistance bands, and loop bands. Five Below, Ross, TJMaxx, and Marshalls always have cheap equipment. I still like to have a gym membership because the gym environment pushes me to work harder, but if you’re really on a tight budget you’ll probably come out better paying a little money upfront for some home equipment than you would paying a monthly fee at your local gym.
What do you to do stay healthy without breaking the bank? I’d love to hear your thoughts! If you found this useful, be sure to like, comment, and share, and thanks for journeying with me.