Feb 2010
28
Save on Your Food Bill
You can make a dramatic weekly savings simply with your shopping bill. A big cause of weight problems comes from ready meals and pre-packaged goods. Start shopping more on the outer rim of the grocery store – that’s where the healthier foods are located. Snack on fruits and nuts instead of the expensive boxed and individually packaged snacks.
Pack these in your children’s lunch and leave fresh produce out in bowls in your kitchen and dining room. Serve freshly cut fruit after dinner instead of cookies and ice cream. Fruit is primarily made of water and, when eaten after a meal, gives you a full, bloated feeling that diminishes the desire for dessert. It also takes care of the hankering for something sweet—and it even works with children. Few children will pass up a bowl of fresh pineapple chunks set before them.
While fresh produce and meats can be more expensive than what you’re used to buying, if your family gets in the habit of eating them in great quantities, you’ll earn significant savings by shopping for them at warehouse stores, such as BJs, Costco, and Sam’s Club.
Even if you don’t shop at warehouse clubs, you’ll save on grocery bills by buying these foods instead of the regular, prepackaged sugary fare you may be in the habit of purchasing.
Another way to reduce both your waistline and your spending is to cut out, or at least cut down, on out alcohol, eating out, and Starbucks coffee addiction.
Save on Transportation Costs
Some airlines charge heavyweight passengers two seats due to safety restrictions related to obesity. Recently, actor/director Kevin Smith was asked to exit a plane because of seat restrictions due to his weight. Smith had previously purchased two seats to accommodate his weight, but was trying to take an earlier flight and only got one seat. Certainly, having to only buy one plane ticket is much less costly than two, evidence of the immediate cost savings related losing excessive weight.
In addition to airfare, choosing to walk or cycle whenever possible can incorporate daily exercise to help you lose weight and cut down on expensive fuel costs. Speaking of fuel costs, shop at warehouses or grocery stores that offer “fuel perks.” You typically get ten cents off per gallon for every $100 you spend at the store when you buy gas at the participating station(s). This is a significant perk for shoppers in this economy, yielding $1.00 to $4.00 in savings every time you fill up…a savings you earn on money you’re going to spend anyway.
And of course, when you shop, park at the back of the parking lot and take advantage of the long walk to and from stores. You’re always assured of finding a parking spot there.
Save On Fitness & Home Ownership Expenses
Increased exercise around the home, when you make it a regular habit, can also help you save money. For example, doing your own lawn mowing, raking, gutter cleaning, and other landscaping chores can help you burn calories as well as save money, assuming you normally outsource these jobs to landscapers or a neighborhood kid.
Cleaning house also counts as exercise. With all the physical effort it takes to maintain a house, you can work on losing weight and give up your gym membership—another worthwhile savings of both money and the time it takes to go there for a workout.
Save On Power Bills
People who spend more time in front of the television, computer, or indoors tend to use more gas and electricity to heat their home and run appliances. On the other hand, if you spend more time outdoors working in the yard, exercising, playing sports, and generally enjoying life outside the house, you will use less energy, save money on your power bills, and burn more fat.
Even if you’re stuck in the house during the cold winter months, incorporating daily exercise—Pilates in the morning before work and aerobics or run your stairs for 15 minutes when you get home—will allow you to generate more body heat and keep your thermostat comfortably lower on a regular basis.
Save on Long-Term Medical Bills
Finally, and perhaps the most important point, is that weight loss can save you money on long-term medical treatment. Obesity and even mild weight gain have been linked to long-term, expensive diseases such as:
- High blood cholesterol, triglycerides
- Insulin resistance, glucose intolerance
- Congestive heart failure
- Osteoarthritis
- Endometrial, breast, prostate, and colon cancer
- Complications in pregnancy
- Menstrual irregularities, infertility, irregular ovulation
- Bladder control problems, such as stress incontinence
- Depression, eating disorders, distorted body image, and low self- esteem
In addition to the costs for treating these medical conditions, diagnosis can cause your health insurance premiums to increase dramatically—resulting in an expensive double whammy.
On the other hand, many people benefit from financial rewards related to losing weight, quitting cigarettes, and improving nutrition and exercise habits. Many employers offer monetary incentives when you show improvement from one year to the next by lowering your share of the cost for your health insurance.
In recent years, Congress has introduced bills that would also require insurance companies to offer premium discounts for healthy behavior and improvements toward healthy behavior, such as stopping smoking, lowering blood pressure and blood sugar levels (in diabetics), reducing weight or body mass index, dropping LDL (bad) cholesterol and raising HDL (good) cholesterol.
Save Money on Life Insurance
When you apply for a life insurance policy, you are generally required to take a basic medical physical. The results of this physical is a significant influence on the amount of your policy premium, so obviously losing weight and being fit is going to help save you money here.
Easy Weight Loss Tips
The following are some weight loss tips you can incorporate into your daily life without incurring any extra expense:
- Eat only the foods you love. Seriously, this cuts out things like Cheetos and Oreos and store-bought birthday cakes at work. You’ll be amazed how much this one rule cuts out the junk in your diet.
- Eat all day. Little snacks of uber-healthy treats like fruit, nuts, granola, peanut butter, yoghurt, juice. Not all of these are low-fat, but they do help keep you feeling full all day so you don’t overeat at mealtime.
- Small portions at mealtime—easy to do when you’ve been eating healthy snacks all day.
- Drink two liters of water every day. Everyone thinks they drink plenty of water—but track how much you actually drink. If you really do manage to drink this much water everyday, you’ll find it a natural appetite suppressant.
- Enjoy 8 to 10 helpings of fruit and veggies every day. Instead of taking frozen entrees or buying lunch at work, make a vat of homemade vegetable soup each week to take to work—this takes care of a lot of veggie helpings. Supplement it with an apple, orange slices, a sliced tomato, and a handful of olives. For dinner include 2 to 3 vegetable offerings and fruit afterwards. You will get used to the full feeling that water-based fruit and vegetables provide, and the pure volume will help replace more fattening foods you normally tend to eat.
For more information on saving money by losing weight, check out these resources:
- Mayo Clinic, Fitness Training Articles
- Mayo Clinic, Strength Training How-To Video Collection
- Government Resources, Weight Control Information Network
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Kara Stefan is a freelance financial writer and author of Head of Household: Money Management for Single Parents. You can find her at Linkedin or Kara Stefan Communications.
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