Credit Improvement:  Can You Get Out Of Debt By Eating Better?

 

Tell me if this sounds familiar:  You’re approaching the noon hour at work and your co-worker says, “Where do you want to eat today?”.  After 10 minutes of back-n-forth, you finally decide where to go.  Seeking novelty and mouth-entertainment, you end up spending $15-20 on yourself before heading back to the office (When did these restaurants start charging $2.99 for a glass of soda?).  Each day, your waistline gets fatter and your wallet gets slimmer.  But you go anyway because you don’t want to be accused of being unsociable!

 

For you Oprah watchers, you’ve no doubt seen her favorite health guru - Dr. Oz - bring out bowls of body parts to show what bad life style choices do to the body:  The black lungs of a smoker, the over-sized belly-fat omento of an obese person, etc.  One of Dr. Oz’s best-selling books is titled You On A Diet and he details many of the body-destroying effects of poor eating habits.  For solutions, I’ll save you 370 pages of reading by summarizing his main idea:  Make your eating “automatic”.

 

Let’s Do Something Crazy For Dinner Tonight!

 

Dr. Oz’s big eating plan is to take two meals a day and eat the same thing every day.  He suggests making Breakfast and Lunch automatic and then you can go crazy with dinner.  By making healthy choices for these two automatic meals, you’ll lose weight, you’ll have more energy, and you’ll save money.  If you're spending $10-$15 extra every workday for lunch, that's roughly $300 per week you're wasting! 

 

Remember those old sitcoms where the wife always sent her husband to work with this black, metal lunchbox?  That kind of behavior is seen as “weird” these days.  But if you’re looking for a way to save more money, get out of debt, and afford your new house payment, AND get healthy enough so you can enjoy the home for a long, long time, Dr. Oz’s plan is “right on the money”. 

 

You’ve probably been told that in order to afford the home you want, you’re gonna need to “tighten your belt”.  Follow this plan, and you won’t need to “tighten” anything – you can just wear a smaller belt.

 

Assignment:   If you’re one of them go-out-to-eat-everyday people, find a co-worker who will agree to change habits along with you.  You can begin packing your lunches and then you can enjoy a healthy walk to a local park and enjoy your lunches together.  Fresh air, exercise, better nutrition, and savings of about $300 a month.  Imagine if both husband and wife did the same thing – would $600 in savings each month get your finances (and your fannies) in better shape?  Don’t “eat yourself out of house and home”.