4 Tips That Will Save You Money & Help You Live a Healthier Life

Jul 16th, 2007 by David Murphy-Colonna | Scroll down for comments

The main goal at CashBulge is obviously to teach people how to make money by means other then a 9 to 5 job.

Whether it be online or offline we want you to be able to make money and actually enjoy doing it through opportunities such as Blogging, starting your own consumer website, starting your own business, participating in various survey and affiliate programs etc.

Many of these activities also deal with our own personal development, becoming a stronger individual and exploiting each of our own talents, in order for us to make money. A great article to check out is Is Your ‘Right Now’ Completely As It Should Be? by Alicia Sparks. So in staying with theme of money and personal development, I would like to show you 4 simple ways a sensible person can put some money back in their pockets while pursuing their goals each month and even become healthier while doing it.

1. Spend less money on food, bring it from home.

Throughout the course of the work day most of us take a break for lunch or some kind of meal. I personally take 45 minutes out of each day to sit down and have a sandwich and sit outside (when the weather is good). Recently I started brining my own brown bagged lunch to work. Yes I said it, I bring my own lunch in a brown paper bag. But this little effort of bringing my own lunch has saved me over 200-300 dollars in the last 2 months.

For Example: I work in New York City, so the price for a sandwich and a drink at a local deli is about 9.50 per day which would come out to 47.50 a week. Instead of paying 9.50 for a greasy chicken cutlet sandwich(My favorite), I buy rolls and cold cuts(for the week totaling to about 12 dollars) and cases of bottled water(24 bottles for 6.00) a month. This would mean I spend about $54.00 a month on lunch rather then $190.00, by just bringing my own lunch.

By doing this I not only make it more financially efficient to bring my own lunch, I also eat healthier by bringing water instead of buying a soda and by also bringing a healthy snack of fruit rather then buying potato chips with a sandwich. Although this idea may sound juvenile, the numbers prove that this is cheaper by almost $150.00 a month.

2. Get some exercise and walk, no need to drive everywhere you go.

Nowadays this is the easiest way to save money. With the price of gas so high, it is much more cost efficient for you to walk throughout your day instead of driving. I know this pertains more people living in the city, but it is more beneficial anywhere to walk if you can without have to make your life that much more difficult.

Not only is walking healthy for you and FREE, it also gives you time to think and unwind from that 9 to 5 CashBulge wants you to be able to get rid of. Instead of taking a cab, train or driving somewhere take a few extra minutes to walk the short distances it may even give you some time to think of a new business venture or a new article for your blog

3. Buy things in bulk when you can.

Regardless of walking, I do have to take 2 trains to work everyday. But instead of paying a full fair, I buy a monthly pass which saves me a whole lot of money, and gives me unlimited rides, so I can even use it on the weekends. Also, if you are going to start following tip #1, and start bringing your lunch to work everyday, try going to a bulk distributor(such as Costco or BJ’s) where you can buy water and snacks, such as granola bars(instead of candy bars and chips).

This will save you a lot of money especially when dining in cities where mark up prices are outrageous. Choose your foods wisely as well you don’t want to be buying bulk junk foods.

4. Kick the bad habits.

Finally, two of the worst habits, both financially and health wise are eating junk foods and smoking cigarettes. Junk Food eaters may not realize it but they are spending a whole lot of money each day buying their candy bars. Say you spend a dollar a day on candy, thats 5 dollars a week.

Put that 5 dollars into a 529 College Savings plan each week for your kid, or another high yielding bank account, and you could be potentially looking at saving up thousands of dollars over a fifteen year span. Thats a lot of money saved for just suppressing your junk food habit and not gaining a few pounds.

Smoking cigarettes is the same way. Many people spend between 25-40 dollars a week on cigarettes, thats 100-160 dollars a month you could be saving for other things, or to paying your bills with. Take a look at this Cost of Smoking Calculator, to see how much smoking is costing you monthly. Both of these habits are very unhealthy and if you work towards correcting them they can make your wallet much more fatter.

I know these are just a few tips that may sound stupid, but once you do the math and give them a try you will really see the results both in your healthier lifestyle and fatter wallet.

Do you have any financially healthy tips you would like to share with the CashBulge community? Leave a comment, we are always looking for new ways to develop personally as well as financially. So remember to keep making that money, and stay healthy too

David Murphy-Colonna posted this article under Saving Money on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 9:07 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment or trackback from your own site. View Technorati Linkbacks.