21 Lifestyle Hacks That Will Help Save You Money and Still Enjoy Life

Avg. Price: $2-$3 per pound of lemons
Benefits: Hydration, better digestion 

Don’t be one of the suckers who spend needlessly on detox waters that cost an average of $2-$5 per bottle. Hydrate your body while detoxing it by guzzling down a large thirst-quenching glass of homemade lemon water. 

Start The Day With Lemon Water ©Olena Yakobchuk/Shutterstock.com

Slice a whole lemon and soak a few pieces in lukewarm water for about half an hour. Drinking lemon-infused water has numerous benefits for one’s health. Not only does it help with digestion and hydration, but it also contains 100% less artificial sugar than a can of Coke.

Avg. Price: Free
Benefits: Cardiovascular exercise 

Going for a walk every day is an excellent way to improve your cardiovascular health, but few people find the time to fit one in. Squeeze that little extra bit of cardio into your day by substituting your drive to the grocery store for a walk instead. 

Walk To The Grocery Store ©encierro/Shutterstock.com

When the weather isn’t ideal for outdoor activities, it’s understandable why people would drive to the store. However, there is no reason not to walk on a sunny day. Most people live within a mile of the nearest grocery store, and you’ll only be able to buy what you could carry home. You won’t just be exercising, you’ll be saving money while you do it.

Avg. Price: $1*
Benefits: Keeps you from burning out before noon

Millions of Americans will tell you nothing beats a fresh cup of hot coffee in the morning. But, if you ask them, most coffee drinkers will admit to experiencing a caffeine crash before the morning is through. This is preventable by making one simple change to their lifestyle. 

Swap To Green Tea For Your First Cup Of Coffee ©Africa Studio/shutterstock.com

Pushing back the day’s first cup of coffee by starting the day with a green tea will prevent those dreadful mid-morning crashes from occurring. Green tea is an excellent source of antioxidants and contains less total caffeine than a cup of Joe. It’s time to swap that Tall dark roast at Starbucks for a less expensive (and healthier) venti green tea.

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Benefits: Improves circulation and alertness

Few things are more wonderful than a long, steaming hot shower on a cold day—the type of shower you never want to leave. Besides giving you warmth from top to bottom, inside and out, these ‘steamers’ don’t provide any benefit. The high temperatures are actually more detrimental than they are beneficial.

Take Cold Showers ©Arno Park/Shutterstock.com

Cold showers, however, are a fantastic way to bring your alert level up in a hurry and speed up your metabolism. If you’ve just had a killer workout, a cold shower will also help you recover quickly.

Avg. Price: $3-$5*
Benefits: Helps stabilize blood sugar

Those attempting to live healthy lifestyles must remember that physical fitness alone won’t prevent someone from injury or sickness later in life. Eating right is equally as important. You can exercise all you want, but if your desire for a healthy lifestyle isn’t reflected in your eating habits, it might catch up on you one day.

Include Protein At Each Meal ©Yulia Furman/Shutterstock.com

Carbs are fantastic, but protein is what you need to help stabilize your blood pressure. Do your part to help prevent future you from developing late-onset diabetes and eat more chicken, fish, and lean meat like deer or, for the folks down under, kangaroo. Eggs, dairy, and nuts are excellent sources of protein for vegetarians. 

Avg. Price: $3*
Benefits: High in fiber and zinc

Here we have two lifestyle hacks in one. Add a healthy smoothie to your daily diet. Smoothies are quick to make and can be made with all manner of fruits and vegetables. One of the best ingredients you can include is spinach. 

Add Spinach To Your Smoothies @moorlandseater/Pinterest

It doesn’t make smoothies look all that appealing, but Popeye wouldn’t have eaten all that spinach if it wasn’t good for him. Throw a small bunch of spinach into the blender along with the fruit you’ve added for your liquid breakfast. By doing so, you’ll inject it with fiber, zinc, calcium, vitamins A and C, and B vitamins.

Avg. Price: $15-$20*
Benefits: Saves time, healthier snack options 

Whether you are working from home or just hanging out on a day off, there will be moments in between meal times when you get ‘snacky.’ When that time comes, you are all that stands between yourself and the snack shelf, which wouldn’t be a problem if it was stocked with healthy alternatives. 

Keep Prepared Fruit & Veg In The Fridge @K_ingax/Pinterest

Too many people avoid eating fruit because it’s too much of a hassle to cut up when hunger strikes. Instead of leaving fruit uncut in the fruit drawer, cut it up and leave it in bowls in the fridge. When the munchies hit, your healthy snack will be waiting in the form of melon, apple slices, and mango, not chips and cookies.

Avg. Price: Free
Benefits: Cardiovascular and mobility

The thought of walking up even one flight of stairs is enough to make some people look for apartments with multiple elevators in case one of them happens to break. However, that dreaded walk up the stairwell might be the first step toward a drastic lifestyle change. 

Take The Stairs ©connel/Shutterstock.com

Instead of fearing stairs, embrace them. Instead of complaining about not having the time to go to the gym, forget the elevator and take the stairs. And not just at home. Wherever you are, look for the emergency stairs (every building has them) and use them to fit in a quick 5-minute workout instead of standing idly by waiting for an elevator to arrive at your destination.

Avg. Price: Savings of $10-$15/meal
Benefits: You’ll eat healthier and spend less

Cook your own meals. Instead of vegging out on the couch eating a burger from a take-out joint, get a pound of ground beef and make burgers tonight, spaghetti and meatballs tomorrow, and sloppy joes the day after that. The combined cost of making all 3 meals will be about as much as one takeaway order. You’ll also know what’s in the food you’ve made. 

Eat At Home More Often ©UfaBizPhoto/Shutterstock.com

Grabbing a quick bite to eat or picking up some fast food on the way home is the more convenient way to prepare dinner, but it’s not the healthiest nor cost-efficient. And no, more meals at home doesn’t mean ordering from Uber Eats more often!

Avg. Price: $2-$5*
Benefits: Easily digestible

Hearing the word “fermented” is enough to make some people’s stomach churn. But not all fermented food is as gag reflex-inducing as a century-old fermented duck egg. In fact, some fermented foods are downright delectable, like cheese, pickles, and kimchi, for instance.

Eat Or Drink Something Fermented ©Tatjana Baibakova/Shutterstock.com

Fermented foods are an excellent source of lactic acid bacteria that help restore order to our digestive systems. Pickle lovers out there, be warned. Not all pickles meet the criteria. Only Lacto-fermented cucumbers should be eaten for health purposes. The others should just be enjoyed as the pickles they are.

Avg. Price: Priceless
Benefits: Improves mood, reduces stress

The effects of not getting enough sleep aren’t always felt right away, but they do eventually catch up with everybody. Sure, sleeping just four or five hours every night will give you a few more hours of ‘awake time’ to try to be productive, but the reality is that people are grumpier and generally get less done without sleep.

Sleep Seven Hours ©George Rudy/Shutterstock.com

Believe it or not, an extra hour or two of sleep will help you accomplish more during the day. The National Sleep Foundation claims seven to nine hours of nightly slumber is the ideal amount of sleep your body needs to function at its highest potential.

Avg. Price: $10-$15*
Benefits: Increases serotonin production

Have you ever noticed how much happier everyone seems on a sunny day? Well, that’s not just happenstance. The sun emits Vitamin D, which helps increase the production of the happiness hormone (serotonin). However, even with Vitamin D literally falling from the sky, 70% of Americans aren’t getting enough. 

Take Vitamin D Supplements ©PeopleImages.com - Yuri A/Shutterstock.com

If you don’t have time to go for a walk during the day, you can still get all the Vitamin D you need via Vitamin D tablets. One tablet a day is all that’s required to help strengthen your bones and leave you feeling more lively than before.

Avg. Price: Free
Benefits: You develop a greater appreciation for the world around you

Most people see running as an exercise designed to help one’s physical fitness. While this is true, it’s not 100% correct. Running is an excellent way to mentally unwind after a long day. You might not think so at first, but once that first runner’s high kicks in, you might change your mind.

Start Running ©sutadimages/Shutterstock.com

To help prepare yourself mentally for a run, try not to think of the distance you’ll be crossing but the destination you’re running towards. Order a new pair of Nike runners, and get those endorphins going ASAP.

Avg. Price: Free
Benefits: Reduces overeating

The feeling one gets after overeating is unpleasant, to say the least. To avoid this feeling, and the overall situation of being full to the point of popping, try adding portion control to your to-do list. 

Use Smaller Plates For Portion Control ©Daniela Baumann/Shutterstock.com

Cooking the perfect amount of food is impossible, but portioning it out into smaller servings is not. Use a smaller plate if you have trouble putting less food on your plate than the dish’s maximum allowance. Nothing is stopping you from getting more food if you’re still hungry.