One of the best healthy spending habits is to buy quality goods. Life isn’t always about saving the most amount of money possible. It’s about spending money that improves the quality of your life. Saving money is much more manageable that way.
I personally love saving money. I love saving money so much that I meticulously follow a budget without fail and hunt for coupons and deals. However, there’s a time for saving money and then there’s a time for spending money.
Americans have a savings crisis with record low 2.4% savings rate as of November 2022. Although Americans need a lot of help in saving money, this is for the overly frugal people! Frugality disease is real and hoarding cash is not the answer. Life isn’t about saving the most amount of money possible.
You can’t take money with you to the grave. I learned this the hard way in 2023 when I found out I have bad digestion issues that were plaguing me. The health problems I exhibit on a day to day basis is unparalleled. it’s something I never experienced before.
Nowadays, I spend money on quality goods that improve the quality of my life. Spending money is worth it as long as you get more value than what you pay for. Healthy spending habits are important because that’s how you win in the end.
Not by hoarding cash but in maximizing the quality of your life.
Healthy Spending Habits: 9 Examples
Below are 9 healthy spending habits to elevate your life even further. Money is a tool to level your life up. It should be used as such.
1) Buying Quality Goods
Some goods are worth more than what you pay for. I personally pay $1/month for 50 gb of iCloud storage from Apple. That’s worth it to me. That’s a quality product that’s worth more than the price that I pay. When my phone unexpectedly broke in December 2022, my data was recoverable.
I transferred the prior data to my new phone, which was much needed. Healthy spending habits means spending money on quality products that give you more value than what you pay. Money is a useful tool to level up your life.
There’s many products out there that are worth more than the price you pay for them. Phones are worth much more than what we pay and so are computers. Some are extravagant but most are worth the money. I personally bought a brand new MacBook Pro during Black Friday 2022.
For just $899. That was an insane deal that I couldn’t pass up. Quality purchases are worth more than the money you pay. The cheapest option is not the best option.
2) Healthy Spending Habits: Using Coupons
Even though quality purchases are well worth the money, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to get the same product at a lower price. Coupons are the best way to do so. I personally know how to spend $20k for the same products someone else buys for $25k over the year.
It’s about using coupons, finding deals, and knowing how to get the same product for a cheaper price. Deals ARE out there and they’re even more out there if you look and wait patiently for them. Even companies you never thought would offer a discount offers discounts occasionally.
Healthy spending habits means using coupons to buy quality products just at a cheaper price. You can’t get any product for free but you can get it at a lower price. Using coupons follows the 3 reasons to save money principle.
There’s a certain level of delight when you see a “buy 2 get one free” coupon when you were going to buy 3 anyway.
3) Delaying Gratification for Discount Deals
I could have bought my MacBook Pro for $1,400 throughout 2022. However, I specifically waited for Black Friday, delaying my gratification to wait for a really good deal. After waiting, I bought for $1,000, all-in. That was a STEAL. I bought the brand new MacBook at a lower price than when I bought in 2013.
A better product at a lower price than before, how amazing is that? Healthy spending habits means delaying gratification and waiting patiently for the really good deals to pop up. The really good deals will pop up, as long as you keep an eye out for them.
Discounted price doesn’t mean lower quality, always. There’s no rule set in stone for making quality purchases. At a certain level of wealth, it’s not worth your time to wait for a discounted deal and you spend the money anyway.
For the vast majority, waiting for things to go on sale is a great tactic. There are some real bargains out there.
4) Spending Money on Health
It wouldn’t be one of the healthy spending habits if you don’t spend money to be healthy. It doesn’t make sense to buy fast food just to save $5 if it costs $5,000 in medical bills down the road. Or saving a couple of thousand dollars in doctors and dentist visits.
Health is the most important part of your life. Someone with $100k net worth but good health is worth more than someone with $1M net worth but with bad health. Visit the Doctors when you have to. There’s no point in delaying your Doctor visits because prevention is better than the cure.
I hoarded all my cash in hopes of saving money and investing as much as I can. Let me tell you, I regret it. I wish I focused more on quality purchases and figuring out how to improve my life instead of looking for the cheapest option available.
That’s not a healthy way to live. After almost a decade of analyzing my spending habits, I can 100% attest that it’s not healthy.
5) Buying Goods for Long Term Impact
If the new MacBook Pro I bought in Black Friday allows me to write one more blog post per week throughout the year, it paid for itself. The processing speed is much faster with my new MacBook than my old MacBook. The long term impact of the buying decision is well worth the cost.
I conduct business at a much faster pace and process information much better with the new MacBook Pro. Healthy spending habits means looking at the long term impact and dishing out money accordingly. When my phone broke in December 2022, I could’ve purchased another used iPhone.
However, I purchased another brand new iPhone and spent the $900 because it should last me through the long term. The long term consequences of your actions are what matters. If it improves your life over years and years, then it’s well worth it.
A one time expensive and quality purchase is better than multiple cheap purchases made over the year.
6) Budgeting
Budgeting is when you know you’re using healthy spending habits to your advantage. Budgets are freeing, not restrictive. When you budget your money, you know exactly how much you can spend. Not how much you can’t spend.
Healthy spending habits means you are budgeting your money to good use. I went back to the basics in 2023 and started saving my money to the maximum I could ever possibly save. There’s not a lot of things in life that I need or want.
The bear market of 2022 also scared me silly. That’s when I finally figured out the importance of prudent financial decisions. Even after 7 years of being in the financial independence journey, there’s no reason to break free from the basics.
The basics are the basics for a reason. They work and propel you to further success.
7) Healthy Spending Habits: Price Shopping
Now’s the time to make businesses compete for your attention and business. There’s no point in being a price taker for businesses when their competitor is offering the same product at a better price for you. Healthy spending habits means using businesses to bid against each other.
Things like mortgages, car insurance rates, and technology products are all negotiable. Some businesses even sell products at a loss to you in hopes that they’ll get more business down the road. Costco is a genius business who understands this concept.
They offer products at a great price and lose money on some products. Just so they can get you to spend money on a membership. The membership is where Costco really makes their money because retail operates on razor thin margins.
Make the businesses work for you. You’re the one with the money, they have to submit to your demands.
8) Cancelling Unused Subscriptions
Many people just let Netflix charge them every month when they don’t even use the service! That’s almost $20 per month that goes down the drain! Healthy spending habits means spending money on things that give you value and ruthlessly cutting out things that don’t.
There’s no point in buying cable service if you’re not even going to use it. I personally don’t have cable for my apartment because I get everything I need and want from my computer. Entertainment expenses have gotten very expensive these days.
Companies are moving towards a subscription model because it drives the valuation of their businesses through the roof. Even Microsoft is offering their Microsoft Products on a subscription basis! That’s insane! I no longer have a Microsoft Product anymore installed on my computer.
Companies are trying everything to get you to frivolously spend money. It’s time to fight back. Micro-transactions are on the rise.
9) Making Intentional Purchases
There’s nothing wrong with spending money as long as you were intentional with your purchases. As long as you meant to spend money instead of letting companies influence your spending, everything works out in the end.
Healthy spending habits means intentionally purchasing goods that give value to you. When you go to a grocery store and you buy more food than you wanted or intended just because you went in when you were hungry, then that’s bad.
However, alternatively, if you went in with a plan and stuck with that plan, then that’s a part of the healthy spending habits. There’s nothing wrong with that. There’s no point in letting others influence you to make a decision. Intentionally dishing out money for a quality product is a great decision.
After a certain point, you recognize when you should spend more money for goods and services. They’re well worth it.
Healthy Spending Habits Should be Used All the Time
This article isn’t just read it once and then that’s it. The healthy spending habits should be a habit for a reason. They work in bettering your financial life and standing in the world. The ones who get ahead are the ones who make good purchases throughout their life and avoid bad ones.
In my younger days, everything was about saving money because I didn’t have a lot of money in the first place. Now that I’ve gotten older, it’s all about spending money on goods and services that improves my life. My younger self would balk at spending $2k on a phone and a computer.
However, now that I’ve gotten older and wealthier, those purchases are well worth the money. When I constantly look for ways to spend money on products that provide more value than the price tag, everything was worth it.
Life isn’t about hoarding as much cash as you possibly can. It’s about spending money on quality products that give you value. Healthy spending habits are one of the best habits to deploy because so few people understand how to spend money well.
Too many people fixate on how much money they should save instead of how to spend money wisely. Spending money is a necessity in the world. It’s a good idea to make good purchasing decisions that you won’t regret and have buyers remorse on.
There’s no point in being cheap today to cost more tomorrow.
Healthy Spending Habits: 9 Example Shortlist
- Buying quality goods
- Healthy spending habits: using coupons
- Delaying gratification for discount deals
- Spending money on health
- Buying goods for long term impact
- Budgeting
- Healthy spending habits: price shopping
- Cancelling unused subscriptions
- Making intentional purchases
