Monday 23rd May 2022
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We’re all trying to live longer, healthier lives – but people often worry about how much it costs to take care of their bodies. It’s a fair point, given how often we’re told we need wasteful gym memberships, expensive nutritional supplements and even subscription food delivery services just to stay healthy. The truth, thankfully, is a lot simpler.
Look – we’re not your dad. We’re not going to lecture you on all the reasons you ought to stop flooding your lungs with deadly tobacco smoke all day. Those reasons are right there on the packs for you, often in graphic detail – and one of the main ones to read closely is the price!
It costs more to be a smoker practically every year, since it’s one of the few taxes every government feels good about raising. Taking the figures as of March 2022, it costs a shocking £2,000 a year to finance a 10-a-day smoking habit in the UK. That’s enough in itself to fund a proper dream holiday!
While it’s definitely possible to make healthy choices at a restaurant, there really aren’t too many of us who’d consider nibbling carrot sticks at an overpriced salad bar a proper treat when eating out. It’s certainly true that a fair few restaurants offer less indulgent choices – or at least let you know on the menu what kind of damage you’ll do to your diet by eating them – but having a meal out really does tend to tempt us toward less virtuous food options.
When you look at it from a financial angle, restaurant food gets even worse. Even healthy foods can be surprisingly expensive when you’re paying someone else to prepare them for you. Whatever you pick from the menu, you’re probably looking at anywhere between £15 and £100 a head – especially if there’s alcohol involved. All told, cooking a healthy, inexpensive meal at home is better for both your wallet and your waistline. You’ll almost certainly take on fewer calories, and you won’t end up choking on an overstuffed bill (including tip).
There are some definite health benefits – both physical and mental – to spending time relaxing with friends and family. After a tough work week, a weekend “decompression session” with your mates can be exactly what you need to blow off some stress and prepare to dive back in on Monday. The trouble is, most of us tend to think of socialising as being the same as drinking. Again, we’re not here to tell you to stick solely to joyless diet soft drinks when you’re out with friends, but it’s absolutely true that pumping too much alcohol into your body does short and long-term damage to your health and wealth.
A pint in a typical British pub will run you about £4.07 at the time this guide was written. We’re just talking about averages here, obviously. You could easily find your round costing over £6 a head, depending on where and what you’re drinking. Knocking a few back with your mates 4 times in a month can stack up to around £100 – a number that drops way down the moment you move over to non-alcoholic options.
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If there’s one place where making healthier choices can really save you regular money, it’s in the supermarket aisles. When you fill your basket with pre-packaged and heavily processed foods, you’re paying for a lot of stuff that won’t ever end up on your plate – and even more that you’ll wish hadn’t. Expensive packaging, colourings and additives may make the produce look more appealing, but they do nothing for your health and can leave your wallet looking distinctly malnourished. Switching to healthier whole foods, on the other hand, will leave you with a better quality diet, a brighter long-term health outlook and more cash in your pocket.
Yes, absolutely – making healthier food and fitness choices is about taking care of yourself in preparation for a longer, fuller life. Beyond that, though, there’s the ever-nagging question of how good we look to other people – and we’re not just talking about whether we dare cram our sausage roll-sculpted physiques into a set of Speedos this summer.
When you go looking for important financial deals on things like life insurance, for instance, you’re asking a company to make judgements about what kind of risk you are. After all, an insurer is basically making a bet on how long you’re likely to stick around handing over premiums before they have to pay out on your policy. The worse your health choices look to them, the more they’re going to make you pay for your life cover. On the other hand, if you go in as a non-smoker with clean health and great fitness habits, you’ll almost certainly be looking at a much better deal.
The same thing goes for private medical cover. You’re going to look like a much safer bet to a medical insurer if your body’s a well maintained, high-performance machine than if it’s a clapped-out old banger. Those health choices matter, and the better they are the lower the cost of your medical insurance. Even if you don’t have private cover, keeping yourself as healthy as possible throughout your whole life will still save you money on prescription fees and trips to your GP.
Keep checking back here for more money tips and updates. We’re experts at saving you cash and we’re always here to help. That’s the reason why you’re better off with RIFT.
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