Healthy & Wealthy: How I'm Doing It!

I'll be the first to admit -- eating healthy and living a healthy life is so easy, it's hard. Yes, I said it correctly.... it is so easy, it's hard. Everyone knows what a vegetable is. We live in a country where we know (at least) what exercise looks like. Unless you are living in a food desert or have a disability (and trust me, I feel for those that do and I am not talking to them with this message,) eating and living healthfully is simple. The issue is -- like a bad boyfriend -- we can all go on and on about what we deserve, but at the end of the day, we don't "break up" and make it happen.

Trust me, I get it. We’re HUMAN! One of the issues I've been having (truth time -- just because I write a blog doesn't mean my journey is blotch-free) is maintaining a healthy lfiestyle (to the best of my ability) on a BUDGET. In my years of learning how to cook, I tend to get carried away in the grocery store -- imagining the possibilities and literally getting the same high as another girl would get in MAC or ALDO. With a little bit of help and some great tools I've learned along the way, let me tell you something -- if you are an able and mature person realizing they need to make a change to live the life you want -- you CAN do it, regardless of your money situation -- and here's how.

1) BREAK IT DOWN -- See What You're Spending

In order for me to stop going on shopping sprees at Whole Foods (in the name of organic spices that I would only use once a year -- looks at you, bottle of turmeric) -- I decided to cut back a bit, and the only way I knew that would happen is if I was honest with myself on what I was eating. You see, I was already logging my food daily in MyFitnessPal and blogging (as you know) but when it came to how much it was costing me financially to cook and eat, I couldn't tell you. So, I started a record. Now I had no excuse. Starting with my next paycheck, I entered the $$ amount I was expecting to be paid in an Excel spreadsheet. Then underneath it, I made a list of expenses I knew I'd be paying with it (like rent, utilities, how much I put on my subway card) and made Excel subtract it from my pay. I labeled this new amount "What's Left." This number is very important for you to know, as it lets you realize the amount of $$ you're working with after bills are paid. You don't want to go grocery-wild on payday and realize a week later that rent is due and you only have $10 above that in your account. Pink peppercorns from Australia won't help you then.

Last paycheck's grocery list -- recognize these recipes??

Right under the "What's Left" amount -- I put a row called "Groceries" and left it blank. On another tab in the file, I made a list of 3 dishes I wanted to cook this payperiod. I picked a dish I had been thinking of for a while, and I scoped Pinterest and other blogs for ideas of the other two. Next to each dish, I made a list of ingredients needed. This is different from your average grocery list because you still should include the ingredients you already have -- to get the big picture. Next to the list of ingredients, I estimated how much each would cost, and what grocery store I planned to get them from to get the best price. (For instance, I wouldn't buy spicy Italian chicken sausage from Safeway, or plain white bread from a specialty store like Trader Joe's.) I made sure to mark the ingredients I already had with a cost of $0.00. At the bottom of the list, I made Excel total up the ingredients. I went back to the original page and used this total for the “Groceries” line. Now I could see how much money I had left in my paycheck after bills and food – and I was still excited to shop. See, I still had the grocery excitement – but this time it was planned, not impulsive (and expensive.) It also gave me a sense of purpose in each store – cutting back significantly on unneeded items -- and even worse, buying and using things I didn't remember I already had. Even better, I saw that when I made it a point to use what was already in my pantry, making those three dishes would only cost me $30 – which was about $100 less than what I was spending on groceries (told you it was bad -- $20 here and there adds up when you don’t plan! We’ve all done the “I only need one thing” thing.)

Bottom line -- It's simple -- you can't change what you can't see.

Stay tuned for a blank version of the Excel sheet I used – I’ll call it the TableHaven Paycheck Planner =)

2) GET LOW -- See What You Can Get for Cheap or even Free

After I calculated my groceries, I decided to take my paycheck plan a step further – cutting back on things I didn’t need but I was still paying for. See below for some of my top culprits:

·        Spotify – If you’re not familiar with the amazingness that is Spotify Premium, it costs $8 a month and allows you to download full albums on your phone or computer that you can play at any time – including new albums/songs that drop that same day. While I hold nothing against Spotify, the main time I would listen to it was at the gym or on the subway to work. To put it in perspective, that’s $96 a year I was spending (or 24 skinny vanilla lattes I wasn’t getting) when apps like Pandora and Songza don’t cost a damn thing. You need phone signal for those, so instead, I now use my subway time to read books that have been sitting on my coffee table for months unread. On the gym machines, I find a playlist on Songza to explore new music, compared to when I would only use Spotify to listen to the artists I already liked. Just to note, Spotify also offers a “basic” setting for free that I still use, but I try not to let the ads get on my nerves. With these apps together, I save money but still have my music. If I’m dying to listen to a certain album, there are many albums for free on YouTube (surprise – just search “full album” after the artist.)

·        Cable – When I first moved into my apartment, it was the first time I was purchasing cable & wifi (at home, my parents paid, and in college it came standard.) So, kind of stupidly (based on my situation,) I took whatever package the local cable company was offering me. I had no idea how much it should cost and didn’t do my research. Before I knew it, I was paying about $105 a month for cable & wifi that included a monthly rental fee for equipment I could’ve bought myself. The part that made this idiotic is that I watched TV like once a week, and of course, I had the signature package so I could watch channels like Bravo or E! should I want to. After about 2 months of this nonsense ($210 for about 8 hours of Real Housewives and that's it; yes, that's $26 an episode if you think about it) I decided to call the cable company and cancel my cable. I knew through other people’s Facebook statuses that most of what I wanted to watch was available online (see section on Netflix & Hulu below) for a fraction of the price of cable, and I could downgrade my unnecessary “super fast” wifi to the “basic” connectivity since I didn’t work from home a lot or have many devices in my home that would make the connection slow when used together (I lived alone.) When that phone call was over, I cut my cable & wifi expense from $105 a month to a wi-fi/Netflix bill of about $40. Yes, two and a half months for the previous price of one.

·        Netflix & Hulu – Sorry, Frank & Claire & Remy & Zoe (if you don’t watch House of Cards, you’re missing out, by the way.) When I decided I wanted to cut my cable, I researched the cost of Netflix. I was stunned to see that for only $7.99/month, I could watch so many shows and movies – not only on my computer, but on my phone (the Netflix app is free!) Before I knew it, I was watching old TV episodes while cranking out my treadmill sessions to pass the time. It was so great! Austin & I started to watch House of Cards (a Netflix original) and were hooked. This truly beat the $50+ I was paying before for cable alone. I realized with time that Netflix was great for older seasons of shows, but Hulu (an alternative also costing $7.99) had more current seasons, even posting episodes of shows a day after they premiered on TV. This interested me mostly (don’t judge) when I caught up on all the old seasons of Law & Order. So – I signed up – after all, what’s another $7.99 a month in the grand scheme of things, right? Well, when evaluating my expenses with my paycheck planner, I realized it was dumb to pay for both at once. Austin & I finished House of Cards and I canceled Netflix to focus on what Hulu offered that Netflix didn’t. Now that H.o.C. Season 2 is out, we’re back on Netflix. Call it micromanagement or whatever you want, but $7.99 can add up, especially when outside of House of Cards and other network-specific programs, Hulu seemed to cover all Netflix’s bases. Another thing I found was Google Chromecast (thanks Dad!). For a one-time cost of $39.99, you can hook it up to your TV and play Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Pandora, Songza (you name it) on your bigscreen. Cable is not needed (in fact, my TV doesn’t even have a cable cord right now.) It’s great for parties and watching in groups.  The list of compatible apps it can play is growing, and it also makes a great gift.

·        Working Out – A few posts back, I mentioned that I was a big fan of WELLO.com – an online way to get personal training (via webcam, it’s awesome!) I also had a gym membership that I was paying about $40 a month for. Then, I moved into an apartment in Arlington that had a fitness center upstairs for its residents. Well, goodbye gym membership. I could’ve kept my WELLO membership ($14 for an hour class) but decided to scrap it. After all, I didn’t need it. Don’t get me wrong -- there are many benefits to having personal training, especially if you are newer to fitness and need someone there to educate you and correct you if you’re unknowingly doing a move with bad form, but I’ve been in the game for a while. I think “hmm, let me tone my arms” and immediately know a few moves I can do with my apartment-provided (ahem, free) dumbbells. I can thank WELLO and their great staff of trainers for that. At this time, my wallet doesn’t need to keep thanking them. I'll probably do a couple classes in the future, just to mix it up, but I don't need to have a monthly membership anymore if I'm not using it. In the name of saving money, I’ve found a few online resources that are amazing too. Blogilates is a youtube video-based series that helps you do everything from Top Hits Cardio to Pilates to tone certain body parts. I like it because it's fun, hip, and there's always an ab element -- which is something I tend to overlook in the fitness center. The trainer, Cassey, even puts together monthly workout plans with links to the videos you should do that day, as well as nutrition plans (all free) on her website. Gymcube, a British company/website that costs $10 a month, gives you access to what I like to call “the Netflix of workouts.” Seriously, you enter your fitness level, the time you have, and the type of workout you want to do, and it gives you a pre-recorded video with a Gymcube trainer (who has a British accent!) You can literally do these workouts in your living room. Their "Salsacise" is my current favorite. I was also surprised to find that some of the workout DVD’s I’ve bought in the past are now on Youtube – try searching for “Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred.” Or, if the weather is nice, lace up your tennie’s and get moving. Explore your neighborhood with your hunney (see below) or walk to a farther-than-usual Starbucks on a Saturday morning to read the paper and drink a $2 coffee. Then walk back. At the end of the day, you can be happy, healthy, and wealthy. Amen to that.

·        Date Nights/Eating Out – A-ha! The big Kahuna. DATE NIGHT. Easily the best way to drive yourself into a hole spending money in the name of fun, companionship, and romance. I say that because some things you can do in the name of "fun" (like going out to eat, going to the movies, a monuments cruise on the Potomac River) are things most people wouldn't do by themselves -- so you get excited when you have a partner to do them with. I know I'm guilty of this. Well, get a hold on it and have a talk with your partner before you regret the sad face on your bank account. Excluding the “guy always pays” chivalrous attitude that in my opinion is just not realistic when you both are young and trying to “make it happen” financially in your own lives – you’ll need to get over the fact that there will each be times you’ll have to foot the bill. That doesn’t mean he’s not a gentleman. In my opinion, a man that will be able to provide for me when we’re married and is taking steps to make sure he is financially able to do so is a gentleman. What would you rather have – a flashy boyfriend or a financially-secure husband? I thought so. Personally, the system Austin & I have going is “if it’s your idea, you pay.” Therefore, if I really want to see a certain movie this upcoming Saturday, Austin knows that I will cover it, and who knows – besides paying to get to Arlington, he may chip in for some popcorn too. That way, it’s fair. I’m not going to throw out some plans that I’m secretly expecting him to pay for – that’s not fair in any way. It’s 2014 – we both have responsibilities and part of love (again, in my opinion) is respect. (To clarify -- I'm not saying having your boyfriend pay for dates is disrespectful. I'm saying that scheming & planning expensive ideas without considering him & his situation is disrespectful. You're not in a place to love anything or anyone if you are inconsiderate. That's a basic truth.) Again, when I get married, I’ll reevaluate. We alternate every weekend where and what we’re doing, and if we’re strapped for cash, we communicate it and look for other options! As much fun as I have eating out with him, I’ve found that going to the grocery store together (planned in my Excel file of course) buying ingredients, and having a pasta dinner with candlelight can be just as fancy! Also, Free in DC and Meetup.com are great resources to find low-cost and even free activities in your area that can be used to meet new people based on your interests (cooking classes, weekend hikes, restaurant tastings, Young 20’s going out groups.) A lot of these things can be used for dates – just bring your partner along!!

So there you have it. Some of my personal “battles” so to speak on wellness and finance. We all stumble, but even more importantly, we can all rise. I hope this has helped!

3) PLAN AHEAD -- What You Don't Know CAN hurt you!

Anyone that’s ever read the back of a high school basketball t-shirt knows the age-old saying “fail to prepare, and prepare to fail.” Well, this also applies to our finances. I’m not going to get too stocks/bonds/401(K) on you in this post, but I couldn’t end this post without mentioning that whatever you do now needs to be continued. Financial management is just like eating healthy, working out, or losing weight – you have to be consistent to be successful. I actually copied and pasted my planner each time I'm about to get paid to keep the system going. This way, I could track my savings and watch it build. I could also see how my contributions to the church as well as to my credit card balance (yup, I’m not holier than though) accumulate over time. I look forward to providing you guys with this planner that you can download and use for yourselves soon – look out for a new “resources” tab above, right next to the “about me” – it’ll be here before you know it. Hopefully you’ve learned from my experience that you can even have a finance degree and not have it all together. No one is exempt! You have to get it together consciously – its not going to happen by itself, even if you have the knowledge. Remember – financial stress isn’t linked to income. Just because you make more doesn’t mean your money mismanagement issues will go “poof” – in fact, you’ll just have more money to mismanage! That’s why it’s important to stop and build habits now. I’ve been organizing myself for the past three paychecks, and I'm already putting money aside for a Jamaica family reunion that’s six months away. I’m less stressed, and I’m not looking back. It's time to move forward.

Let's be healthy and wealthy together.

xoxo n