Smart Finance and Money Saving Tips
Do you groan when it’s time to get new glasses? I know I do. How about the real cost of contact lenses—not just the cost per box, but the cleaning solution and lens storage cases?
Looking after your eyes is an expensive business. Every year you can easily spend hundreds of dollars on vision care. Good news! A FSA or HSA medical savings account can help you save on these recurring expenses.
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Getting Fit—It’s one of the major new year’s resolutions most American’s have added on their list of things they’d like to achieve in 2012. But getting into shape doesn’t come cheap. Unless you already have a nifty home-gym installed in a spare room, you’ll most likely need to get a gym membership. But after all of the fees are accrued, you can end up spending a wide sum of cash just to get that slim waste. But luckily there are a few ways you may be able to cut back on gym membership prices to get the body you want. To learn how, read the few tips below.
Learn to be A Negotiator. One of the easiest ways to get a gym rep to give you a membership price within your budget is to simply ask for it. Don’t say—”I only want to pay $20 a month,” rather tell them that another gym offered you a gym membership for a much lower price. They may call your bluff altogether in which case you’ll want to shop around for a more affordable gym anyway; but they may give you your asking price or keep the original price but compensate you in some other way—for example, you may pay a reduced enrollment fee or get to add on another member (like a friend or family member) at a really cheap rate. But since technically the year is new, hopefully you’ll find a gym that is already offering a phenomenal New Year’s Special—some have been seen as low as $10 a month.
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I know it is easier said than done, but as hard as it must be, if you quit smoking you will not only be saving your lungs and overall health, you will also save yourself a ton of money. Cigarette smoking is definitely one of the top money wasters, right along with buying lottery tickets and buying premium gasoline. Unlike other money wasters, however, this bad habit can have serious health consequences as well.
As a smoker, you pay up to 50% more for life insurance. Medical insurance and other types of insurance also often cost more for smokers. If you also factor in the actual cost of cigarettes, if you can muster up the courage to quit, you are looking at saving at least $3000 every year, depending on how many cigarettes you smoke per day. If you smoke a pack or more everyday, you spend closer to $4000 a year! Over the course of ten years you would have spent about $40000 on smoking alone! Just imagine what you could have accomplished with all that money had you chosen to use it for other purposes.
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After speaking with a friend of mine who is studying holistic nutrition, she made me aware of the dangers involved in using some of the everyday products we take for granted. For example, there are harmful chemicals found in many brand name deodorants that I had never thought twice about purchasing in the past. Apparently these chemicals are absorbed by the body and can cause problems including cancer.
I decided to be more particular about what I bought from that point on. I was able to find a deodorant comprised of 70% organic ingredients. It cost about $5 more than the regular deodorants I had purchased in the past. Unfortunately, it didn’t really work very well. I still didn’t want to go back to buying the harmful products so I decided to try out Norwex’s Crystal Deodorant. For those of you who don’t know about Norwex, it’s a company with the mission of providing cleaning and hygiene products that don’t contain harmful chemicals.
The Crystal Deodorant cost me $12.99 and since I consider myself to be fairly frugal, it seemed like an awful lot of money to be forking over for deodorant. As it turns out, the deodorant seems to work really well, thankfully, and if it lasts at least a year then I will have more than made up for the money I would have spent on regular deodorant. In fact, I think it might even last longer than that.
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Recently my husband and I have been watching The Dr. Oz Show on T.V. The show is great for those interested in learning tips on developing healthy habits, but watching the show can also save you money, especially for those who have to pay to visit a doctor. Poor health leads to hefty medical expenses that can often be avoided by following Dr. Oz’s advice on getting exercise, eating properly, and being able to recognize symptoms of a heart attack, stroke, and other major diseases.
Dr. Oz, a heart surgeon, and the host of the show, offers great tips on what home remedies are safe and effective. These remedies are often much cheaper than buying medications at the pharmacy. Many of the remedies can be found on the doctoroz.com website.
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Here are some easy ways to burn calories with minimal effort and with little or no cost.
1. Eat hot peppers to speed up your metabolism. Studies show that spicy foods can increase your metabolism temporarily, increasing the rate at which you burn calories.
2. Take the stairs rather than using elevators. Climbing the stairs 4 minutes each day can lead to a 4 lb. (1.8kg) weight loss in a year.
3. Drink ice water. Drinking cold water helps you to burn calories because your body has to work harder to warm the water and absorb it. Also, keeping yourself hydrated throughout the day is important. If you get dehydrated your metabolism will slow down in an attempt to find moisture within your body.
4. Stand instead of sit when appropriate. Standing burns more calories than sitting. If you are waiting for an appointment, or at an airport, get into the habit of standing for a while rather than just sitting during your wait.
5. Chew sugarless gum. Burn calories and freshen your breath at the same time.
6. When you go to work, purposely park your car as far away from the entrance as possible, so you can get some fresh air and exercise on your way in and out the door.
7. Get into the habit of frequently moving your legs and feet to burn extra calories. Squeezing a rubber ball periodically throughout the day also helps.
8. Get rid of your remote control. If you are watching TV, every time you want to change the channel, make yourself get up and change it.
9. Keep your home’s temperature cool. Your body will burn more calories keeping your body warm.
Want to save on dentist bills by keeping your teeth healthy? Use an electric toothbrush! If you hate going to the dentist as much as I do, you will consider it. I recently started to use one and I can really feel the difference. After I brush, my teeth feel extremely clean. It took me a while to be convinced. After a recent visit to the dentist and a “small procedure”, I was willing to try anything! My husband has been using one for over a year now and he bought me one but I stubbornly continued to use the old-fashioned kind, until now!
Electric toothbrushes cost from $20 to $30 and the replaceable tops can add up. I recommend buying the toothbrush tops bulk at Costco or at another wholesale store because they are a lot cheaper than if you buy them in small quantities at drug stores. All in all, I consider electric toothbrushes to be a small investment in promoting good health that can save you tons of money in the long run.
Although there is some controversy over whether or not electric toothbrushes really do work better than manual ones, a review of 21 studies over the past 37 years found less dental plaque and gum disease in people who used electric toothbrushes.
I use Oral-B Vitality
