Frugal Living Story: How I Saved $15,000 Per Year By Living Healthy

I’m not the only one who believes that health and wealth are tied. My friend Wendy and I recently got to chatting about her weight loss and healthy living transformation that’s not only changed her life, but her finances as well, I had to ask her to share her story!

Hey, y’all! I’m Wendy and I blog over at Daily Dose of Del Signore . I am beyond excited to be here today! I met Shannyn last week in Chicago and she asked me to share how my 80 pound weight loss has saved me quite a bit of money. (In case you’re wondering if Shannyn is as sweet and beautiful as she is on her blog….The answer is one hundred percent yes!)

In two and a half years, I have lost a little over 80 pounds by eating healthy and working out. It has completely changed my life! Not only do I look healthier, I feel amazing!

When I lost weight, my whole life was completely flipped upside down. My energy levels changed, my relationships changed, my personality changed. You never imagine the ways losing a significant amount of weight and living a healthy lifestyle influences every tiny piece of your life.

During tax time, I am given a chance to compare things from year to year. Maybe it’s the nerd in me, but I enjoy it. The past two years, I haven’t had to itemize my medical bills on my taxes because there haven’t really been any. It made me think about how much money we’ve saved overall since I started taking care of my body. Honestly, it is amazing….

I did a comparison of my 2010 (pre-weight loss) and 2013 (most current) budgets. My 80 pound weight loss has drastically reduced some of my most expensive categories.

In 2010 we spent $26,166.00 on insurance, medical bills, and food. In 2013, we shaved $15,042.00 by spending only $11,124.00. How does that happen?

Expense 2010 2013 Insurance Premiums $4420.00 $3120.00 Copays $400.00 $140.00 Out of Pocket $4200.00 $0.00 Medicine $1546.00 $324.00 Groceries $10,400.00 $6,500.00 Eating Out $5,200.00 $1,040.00

When I lost weight, I shopped around for better, cheaper insurance. I have the exact same coverage and am actually paying a lot less for it. Being obese and suffering from all of the health issues that stem from it was driving my premiums sky high.

Since I am taking care of myself and my family, we are not visiting the doctors as often. Eating clean has really helped with that. Caleb and I catch everything! Now that we are supplying our bodies with quality, nutrient dense foods we are able to fight off sickness much better.

I had surgery to remove my gallbladder and repair a hernia in 2010. My diet and health choices led to gallbladder failure. I had to pay for an ultrasound of my gallbladder, a nuclear scanning test, and then surgery to remove it and repair the hernia. This amount does not include time out of work for all of the medical visits and post-op recovery. I also had an MRI of my back done due to my chronic back problems.

Prior to finding ALDI, we spent so much on groceries. Then most of the time, we’d let the food go bad by eating out so much. Pure laziness on my part, y’all. I’d buy “fat free” everything that really wasn’t great for my family. It was more expensive and then I cooked a separate meal for husband and son. Most of it wasn’t terribly healthy either….

We ate out so much in 2010. I was lazy and miserable. Plain and simple. I didn’t care about the thousands of extra calories I was eating just from eating out. Not one bit….

What is not shown on the table?

I am not only an emotional eater, I also spend money as therapy. When I was overweight, miserable, and hurting, I spent money just to feel better. We’d do extra things with our son on the weekends to compensate for my feelings of failing as a wife and mother. Somewhere in my mind, I was convinced that I could simply make up for all of my shortcomings by spending money on the ones I love.

There’s no way to calculate what I’ve gained since I took control of my life, health, and happiness. I don’t feel the constant need to self-soothe with money. I’m not paying for health problems anymore because I am fortunate enough to not have any now.

Not only is my whole family healthier and happier, we can save a lot more money. We can put that towards doing something fabulous for our family instead of wasting it on being miserable.