If you’re like most parents, you think raising a healthy family cost a lot of money. While it’s true that some of the latest health crazes come with a steep price tag—like any of those shared by Gwyneth Paltrow’s pseudoscience lifestyle website GOOP — they don’t represent the majority of healthy habits. Living your healthiest life doesn’t have to cost your family its savings. In fact, the following simple, time-tested tips can help you grow them.
Eating well
While many people believe eating healthfully on a budget is impossible, changing the way your family eats is the most effective way to improve your savings and your health simultaneously. However, it does take effort to find the perfect balance between nutritious food and a hefty bill at the till. Not only will you have to spend more time thinking about how you shop, you’ll have to spend more time in the kitchen making meals from scratch.
Many parents choose fast food purely because of the time they save, so you’ll need to weigh the pros and cons of removing these quick-fixes (yet ultimately unhealthy meals) out of your family’s life.
Parents can lower the costs of their grocery bill by employing the following strategies the next time they go shopping:
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Invest In An Instant Pot: This multi-faceted kitchen device will allow you to make twice the food in half the time. There are loads of healthy and delicious instant pot recipes on the web, so variety won’t ever be a problem.
- Make a weekly meal plan: This helps you plan meals effectively to cut down on food waste.
- Shop with a list: Sticking with a list reduces your chance of putting unnecessary treats in your cart.
- Buying in season: Fresh fruit and veg can be expensive if you shop at the wrong times, so check with a guide before you go through the produce section.
- Embracing frozen: In the past, parents thought frozen food wasn’t as nutritionally dense as fresh food. While not all frozen foods are the same, flash-frozen fruit and veg retain most of their nutritional value for a fraction of the cost of fresh produce.
Moving more
Next to diet, exercise is the next best thing you can do for your health. If your family lives in a pedestrian-friendly area, try cutting out how much you drive or rely on public transit. Not only will this limit how much you pay at the pumps, but it will also help your family burn more calories.
Walk or bike to work and encourage your kids to do the same on their way to school. Make it a family hobby and take the kids hiking on the weekends. You’ll be out in the fresh air and away from stores and other expensive temptations.
Being prepared for your mental health
With all this focus on your family’s physical health, it’s easy to overlook your mental well-being, but it’s an important aspect of your overall welfare. Bad finances can be a source of stress on your household, especially when you’re living paycheck to paycheck. Anxiety over how you’ll pay the bills or cover an unexpected repair may increase your chances of developing depression and other mental health issues.
These conditions affect your mental health negatively because they fail to provide the financial security you want for your family. Being organized can help minimize the impact they have on your mental well-being. Though you may not personally have the funds to cover an unexpected expense, knowing where you can turn to will help alleviate your anxiety when you face a crisis. In addition, you may wish to consider adding a supplement like CBD into your life to help you manage any feelings of stress and anxiety. While it takes a while for CBD to kick in, this article points out that there are a few things that you can do to help it absorb faster so it can get to work where you need it. Of course, you may not wish to use CBD, so it’s important that you find a solution that works for you when it comes to managing your mental health.
