When Frugality Kills
By Ryan Healy | September 2, 2008
In most cases, it pays to be frugal.
For instance, when you are shopping for clothing, furniture, or even a house, frugality can help you save hundreds and thousands of dollars — without sacrificing quality.
In other cases, frugality can, quite literally, kill you.
Fact: The most frugal citizens in our country are killing themselves slowly without even knowing it.
And they’re doing it with the food they buy and eat.
Thousands of thrifty people consider it a virtue to spend as little as possible on groceries. The less they spend on food, the prouder they are. Their grocery receipts are like award ribbons they show off to their frugal friends.
“See how little I spent!”
The problem: The cheapest foods are often the unhealthiest. Which is why “frugal zealots” often consume large amounts of refined sugar, refined flour, canned foods, and carbonated beverages.
Basically, foods that rob you of your natural health and vitality.
Some will argue that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. But this is a myth. The quality of the calorie matters.
This is why it’s so important to avoid refined foods as much as possible and get the majority of your calories from whole organic foods.
The more whole fruits and vegetables you eat, the better.
Contrary to popular thinking, it doesn’t cost THAT much more to eat healthy (if it costs any more at all). That’s because the fiber content in healthy foods is much higher. This gives you a feeling of satiation so you don’t overeat (unlike processed foods, which are very easy to overeat).
And the additional expense to eat healthy will save you tens of thousands of dollars in future medical bills should you be diagnosed with a diet-induced degenerative disease.
Here’s how Jeff Yeager puts it in his book The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches:
Compared with most people of the world, Americans (even at the lowest economic levels) have wealth that permits the luxury of eating higher on the food pyramid — and in essence higher on the food chain — than their health can afford. We compensate with our superior (and expensive) health care system and our endless (and expensive) fad diets and exercise plans. Yet again we find ourselves marching down the Money Steps, flight after flight:
Earn money; Spend it on expensive, unhealthy food; Earn more money to spend on repairing poor health, because of expensive food; Repeat.
And, for the record, Yeager believes it is actually cheaper to eat healthy, not even accounting for future spending on health care.
As the saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” And in the case of your health, it might be more accurate to say, “An ounce of prevention is worth a thousand pounds of cure.”
In my book (and Yeager’s), it is far more frugal to eat healthy (no matter the cost)… than to (potentially) save a few bucks and eat unhealthy.
Because once you’ve lost your health, no amount of money in the world will bring it back. (Although you will certainly spend a small fortune trying.)
So the next time you’re tempted to skip the fresh in-season fruit and reach for the Little Debbie snack cakes instead, think twice. Your long-term physical and financial health depend on it.
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Topics: Frugal Living |
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Bravo, Ryan! I too find it irritating when people treat how little they spent on food as a ribbon.
Like you said it’s just refined sugar, flour and corn oil.
Worse, the only reason that stuff is cheap is because the government spends millions of taxpayers dollars subsidizing it. Fruits and vegetable farmers only receive about 5% of money put towards agriculture.
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Thanks, John! I had this post rolling around my head for a while.
Your email encouraged me to write it. Then, when I came across Jeff Yeager’s stuff, I had even more ammunition.
Glad you liked the post.
September 8th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
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September 9th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I really appreciate this post. Eating whole foods and organic foods is a priority for my husband and I. We put our family’s health far above our frugality.
That being said, I have managed to learn all sorts of things about eating as healthfully as possible while still sticking to a strict grocery budget. Namely, we eat in season produce only, and freeze the excess. We cook everything entirely from scratch. The only canned products you’ll find in our house are organic tomato sauce and/or tomato paste. We avoid all processed food like the plague.
Like everything in life, where there’s a will, there’s a way. I’ve determined that I will only feed my family a certain way, and I’ve determined that I will do it on as frugal a budget as possible. I think we do pretty well. We just bumped our monthly food budget from $300 to $360 due to the rising prices. That is for a family of six. It’s a labor of love for sure, but it is so worthwhile.
September 9th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Kate, $300 a month? It sure must be nice living in America. My family of three eats completely local, organic (delivered). We average about $250 a WEEK.
September 11th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
After reading Kate’s comment, I scanned through my bank account to see how much we spend on groceries.
Looks like we spend about $900 to $1,000 a month for a family of five.
So, Kate, you’re doing awesome! I’m impressed.
Ryan
September 16th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
I’m in the camp that thinks it’s cheaper to eat healthy food. For me, the process involved investing some time in getting good and faster at planning meals and making them from scratch. It can definitely be done, but like many things that are worth having, there is a learning curve. You’d be surprised how far some whole foods can go if you get creative, think outside the box, and look at preparing a wider variety of foods.
Thanks again for the post!
Sincerely,
Amanda
September 17th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Amanda,
Thanks for your comment! I agree. You have to get creative and put some practice into it. But eating healthy without spending a fortune can be done.
Ryan
September 17th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
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September 23rd, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I agree with all your points. But I also think that with a certain mindset (reflected in Kate’s comment), some planning, access to fertile land, and good old fashioned work, it’s possible to eat an exceptionally healthy diet for *much less* than the processed foods cost. We currently spend less than $100 per month to feed two adults. We’ve been eating primarily out of our garden, and the eggs from our laying hens. I bake all our bread, and we buy a little pastured meat and dairy from local producers. I barter my breads for a few items as well. We eat very tasty foods for very little money. We’re not overweight, and we haven’t gotten colds nearly as frequently as we used to do before we grew and produced much of our own food.
I posted a summary on our voluntary challenge to spend just $50 per month on groceries, here:
http://livingthefrugallife.blogspot.com/2008/09/50-monthly-grocery-challenge-how-it.html
October 18th, 2008 at 2:13 am
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