How To Feel Better & Save Money-Part 1

I am the mother of four-well, if you count two adult aged 19 year olds as still needing a mother. Hello! Anyone who has one of these, not yet adults, but all knowing souls recognizes that they probably take more mothering than a new born infant. On with the description…under one roof, we have me and my significant other, the two 19 year olds, both males I might add, a 12 year old, another male! and finally the princess, my 10 year old daughter. Our life can be hectic…As much as I try to be organized, schedules never match, things don’t always go smoothly, and there is always changing plans!

I believe my household is the stereo-typical family, similar to nearly any other household across the United States or the Western world for that matter. We live paycheck to paycheck, sometimes with a little extra, sometimes by robbing from Peter to pay Paul. We are not frivolous, but we do have all the keeping up with the Joneses extras and necessities of life: cable, cell phones, computers, gadgets, family outings, mortgage, and of course car payments. At the end of each month, I often wonder how we make it. Somehow, someway we get by and never seem to really do without.

Which brings me to the reason for this writing, about a year ago, in a casual conversation with a co-worker; the subject of always being sick and tired came up. What? sick and tired, we have all had those words roll off our tongue, but my co-workers point was that she was sick and tired of hearing her friends and family laments and them never changing their lifestyle.

For some reason, this gripe really hit home to me. I wondered if she was secretly slanting the conversation to send a message to me. Was she sick and tired of my griping that I was feeling nauseous every day after lunch? Was she sick and tired of my griping about another bill? Was she sick and tired of hearing that I only had $20 to get me to my next paycheck a week away?

Well, red faced and obviously looking guilty, it was really an epiphany moment for me. I thought about what I spent and what I ate at lunch every day. I looked up fast food restaurant articles. SCARY, the reason you feel tired after eating fast food is because your body is in full gear trying to process the food (breaking down the grease used 100’s of times)! Not only is fast food unhealthy and FATTENING, it’s expensive.

I made one change. I inconvenienced myself once, and have reaped many, many benefits. Now, I never feel nauseous after lunch. I lost my belly fat. I have more energy. A few simple changes that I made drastically changed my health, my bank account and overall my outlook on life.

Next, I took the same theory, and applied it to my home life and voila…healthier kids, more time and even more money saved.

In order to simplify, I have broken down my HOW-TO’s into 2 parts-Work and Home

PART 1-
AT WORK: Stop eating fast food at work. Now this seems really simple, eat lunch at work, but in my circle of friends and co-workers, so many of us just find it way too convenient to run to the nearest fast food restaurant and grab a $5-$10 lunch. If you will just take one day to go buy groceries, and bring them back to the office, you will reap many rewards. Save money, time, gasoline and best of all you will feel better and might even lose a few extra pounds!!! I bet after lunch break you don’t feel that need to move to a South American country and take an afternoon siesta!

Get Started! One day bring a sack lunch to work. Use your lunch break this day to go to the grocery store. The sack lunch is so you won’t be hungry and tempted to go get fast food! Now eat your sack lunch in the car, and go to the grocery store! Buy what you like to eat for lunch. (What other time, do you get to buy groceries only for yourself? Enjoy, buy what you like…not what the family likes!)

Helpful hints:
Buy fruit-grapes, apples, oranges, treat yourself to small quantities of the less bought expensive fruits-cherries, blackberries, strawberries.
Cheese-cubes, slices, soft triangles
Crackers, pita chips, pretzels
Deli meat
Deli salads-potato salad, macaroni salad
Canned soups, pastas
Instant noodles-try some different kinds-a lot of the new Thai flavors are great!
Frozen dinners, even the $1-$3 offerings, are quite tasty, filling and healthy!

Make an effort to buy healthy foods. Buy enough food to last a week or two. Mark your food with your name and place in the fridge at work. Keep your non-spoiling food in your desk, which will help avoid hitting the vending machine in the afternoons. If you have no fridge, I would petition the boss for a small $100 fridge.

This is a very simple plan. One-step to eating healthier, feeling better and saving money. Please comment any other suggestsions and stay tuned for PART 2! The biggie doing this at HOME1