Has anyone noticed that people are focusing on their health a lot more now than they did a year ago? I've always been a gym geek, but now my friends are focusing on home-cooked meals (since you can control the salt, sugar, and fat you take in), working out, and not drinking as much.

I don't know how much of it's the economy, and how much of it's just us growing up and realizing that the midsection fluff does not go away so easily now! :o

I wish the Target here would sell those kinds of items cheaper!! They are the most expensive, then wal-mart, then kroger. But having said that, it also depends on the item--Wal-Mart sells dog food, women's products, paper products, and toiletries cheaper than Kroger almost always. The Krogers here are currently on this massive kick to compete head to head with walmart and have built Kroger Marketplaces aka Super Krogers all over the place. Plus Kroger will double coupons that are 50 cents or less and walmart does not double coupons (but they do take coupons).

So having said that I do the following to cut costs:
Coupons, coupons, coupons!! Whether they come in the mail, email, discount cards (as long as they are free) or the sunday paper (the only paper we get) I am a believer in coupons. When I shop at Kroger, I often can get savings on the kroger plus card and a coupon on the same item which saves even more.

For the most part we have gone to Kroger & Walmart branded items instead of name brand things like Campbell's, Kraft, etc.

This is a drastic measure for some, but in an effort to both save money and be healthier we no longer buy soft drinks at my house. We drink water (we have a water filter on our kitchen tap and the fridge dispenser so we dont buy bottled), milk, coffee, and kroger or walmart brand sugar free kool-aid, with an occasional buying of orange or cranapple juice.

Instead or ordering pizza or going out to eat once a week, we have cut back and do that once a month. Between pizza orderings we make our own pizzas or buy frozen.

I have cut back on my Sephora, Ulta, & The Body Shop bills (sadly) and have gone to cheaper brands available at walmart, kroger, and drugstores: Olay, Herbal Essences, RoC, Neutrogena, St. Ives, Queen Helene, etc. I didnt realize how expensive my cleanser was until I started cutting back--former cleanser was $32, my new cleanser is $7. I will never give up my Bare Minerals however :)

We also are growing whatever produce we can on our own which cuts costs from buying fresh produce, canned & frozen veggies & fruit, jams, & jellies, herbs, and sunflower seeds. We do canning, freezing, and make our own jams and jellies.

I try to fill up my car at the cheapest places possible which here is usually Kroger with the kroger plus card. In the past two months I've earned two free fill ups!

We are renovating the entire interior of my home and are doing all the work ourselves instead of paying someone to do it. It is slower going, but we have saved so much money by doing it ourselves.

We try our best to pay credit cards off at the end of every month and not carry a balance as well as trying to pay cash when we can instead of charging everything to the credit cards.

Yeah...we are doing that too. We stopped buying liquor. I stopped drinking liquor and drink wine less frequently and try to keep it to one glass when I do drink it. Ordering water with lemon at restaurants instead of a soft drink or alcoholic beverage has also helped cut costs and has helped control weight. it is AMAZING to me how much salt, sugar, fat, and preservatives you can cut out of your food by cooking at home and with fresh ingredients.

I cant believe I forgot this! In the winter we turned our thermostat down to 68 and just layered clothes and blankets. However, My husband, daughter, and I dont do well with heat, and the boys usually could care less but everyone seemed to enjoy it at that level this year. For the summer on most days we have it set on 70, but on really hot days we move it up to 72. Two degrees doesnt seem like much but the electric/gas bill says otherwise. We got rid of our land phone line because everyone in the family now has a cell phone and didnt see the need for it anymore. We also got rid of digital cable and just have regular cable--I really am missing my history international, national geographic, and science channels :( We try hard to turn off tv's and lights too when we leave a room.

I'm fortunate that I have a free gym membership because I volunteer at the place I work out (Boys and Girls Club/community center), but I HAVE noticed that I'm much more conscious of what I'm buying, and I'm definitely making more stuff on my own. Such as: Pancakes. Rather than buying Bisquick, I make from scratch. Rather than buying pizza dough, I make from scratch (took some fiddling with, but I found this great recipe: http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2009/...omemade-pizza/ ). The stuff we're making has less additives in it, and is generally fresher/lower in salt, and I can control the portions. If nothing else, the recession has made me a much better cook!

At least with my friends, it has a lot more to do with keeping busier schedules and seeing how older business associates have aged. I've talked about it with a couple of friends, and we realized that as we've started to work longer (harder) hours, we needed to be in better physical condition. If you're writing a report or drafting a document at 10 pm, you don't want to be lagging. Being in better physical condition helps to deal with those longer, more intellectually-challenging days, at least in my case. Even though I go to the gym at 5:30 am, and sometimes don't get home until 11 pm or later, I still have more energy from 3 pm onwards since I've started the early morning gym trips.

Plus, I think that a reasonable person starts tallying up the calories in those late night take-out meals, or even at business lunches out, and realizes that they should try to cut calories (and costs) as much as possible.

[QUOTE=Jen;1816416
- Generic or store brand over name brand. Wal-Mart sells Equate brand ibuprofen for like 2 bucks. Advil is 6 bucks. It's the same damn stuff in the bottle! Sometimes I find the store brand or generic is actually better than the name brand stuff.[/QUOTE]

So true! Walmart's Equate brand makes a very good triple antibiotic first aid ointment and is so much cheaper than Neosporin. We only buy Equate ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and multivitamins. YOu just cant beat the price difference!

I've noticed a difference in that and better sleep from working out. I've been able to cut back on ambien usage for sleep since I started early morning workouts and my migraines/treximet usage is also less frequent. That in turn saves me money because I'm not refilling as often.

I forgot to mention this in my earlier post: My mom plays the "grocery game".

It's basically a service online - they tell you where to get what coupons and what stores in your area you can go to for redeeming. My mom has come out of CVS with BAGS and BAGS of stuff - deodorants, shampoos, body wash, RAZORS, air fresheners - just tons of stuff, and only paid like $0.30. (yes, that's 30-CENTS)

I believe it's a paid service, but it's saved her a ton of money. She always said she wishes they had that when we were growing up, because I have 3 siblings so our family would go through stuff so quickly. She takes advantage of those and stockpiles everything and when we visit home we 'raid' the stockpile and bring stuff home :D

The Grocery Game

I haven't been doing anything different, I've kind of always been doing these activities as I have grand plans that require quite a bit of funding. I've managed to have some bills taken directly from my paycheck so I have a very accurate idea of what money I have. I received grant and scholarship money last year and paid all my rent up front which at least assures I won't ever worry about being homeless. I had a lease though, and in some places paying up front can bring up strange legal issues, not so much in my case.

I still wouldn't use just cash for big purchases as credit cards provide buyer protection. Just transfer the money immediately and it is the same situation. Also for traveling I can't think of many ways you can pay for a rental car or plane tickets in cash.

I guess I also just like proof of payment for certain situations as well, sure you can get a receipt for cash. I was burned once and was reported to collections as I made a payment and an employee stole the cash, which was a huge hassle to fix.

Equate brand Claritin is only $4 for a 30-day supply. Can't beat that.

Here are some things that I do to save money:

1. Shop for groceries at the store with the best sale that week
2. We live on the border of North and South Carolina, so we drive across to S.Carolina for cheaper gas and other items that may be cheaper
3. Hang out more at home
4. Avoid going to places uptown that we have to pay for parking
5. Top shelf liquor at home rather that watered down drinks out :D
6. Shop at Aldi, Fred's, Family Dollar etc. for household items/supplies
7. Stopped going to get my toes done
8. Do my hair at home unless I want a cut or highlights
9. Buy less groceries (we still try to get healthy smaller meals)
10. Utilize things we already have home instead of buying new stuff...You would be surprised what the seamstress can do to an old outfit in good condition !!!

Great thread!
 

You beat me to it! But I have a "compromise" for sensitive types like me.

I tried the water filter for a while in '03 or '04 after I decided traveling to a special co-op in Atlanta for filtered water from a machine that include radiation, etc. was getting too expensive, ie price & gasoline. The filtered water did not agree with my skin and broke me out terribly, even when I poured it into the Brita pitcher 3 times before drinking.

Fast forward, and the cost of the filtered machines have gone down, and the machines are in more places, ie Publix, Kroger, meaning less gas. This water is delicious and will satisfy. The cost is usually $0.30 - $0.35 per gallon instead of paying much more for bottled water. (I've bought gallons of Publix/Kroger water, then re-used the bottles.)

PS I recommend Glacier machines over others. I don't know why there's a difference, but there clearly is.

I don't know how old you are, but I didn't start experiencing this until the winter of my 27th year; most of my male friends didn't start dealing with resilient midsection fluff until they were about 31/32.

Yeah, like I said I'm not sure if it's a function of getting older or the economy. It's easier to beg off of the late-night food trucks because of trying to eat better than admitting it's because you don't have the money to throw around the way you used to. Most of my business associates are in pretty great shape (I just got lapped by my boss a few days ago); I think that's pretty typical of architects as a whole.

I ran a few miles around 9 yesterday morning, and I was able to stay up until 3 this morning, while being out. I'm feeling pretty good today too, so maybe I'm not dragging like I thought I was.