Is it just me or are the weeks just flying by right now. I feel like it was just the weekend and here we are again! Well I’m back again this week with 5 life hacks that have seriously changed my life. Trying to explain who I was in my twenties would take a while but I can definitely say there has been steady growth. From a guy using body spray and 3-1 shampoo, body wash and conditioner and surviving off drive throughs and soda to where I am today has taken a lot of time and a ton of lessons. As I was younger I was always infatuated with convenience, as you could see from above. Whatever got the job done quickest was my easy choice. As I’ve grown and matured and learned to manage my time better, that really hasn’t changed much (haha). Truthfully, quality has become my main focus but convenience is still an extremely close 1b. So I decided to share 5 of the life hacks I’ve discovered that have both improved my life while also not being a dramatic change to my daily living. I’ve found drastic changes are hard to maintain. Making small, scaled improvements over many different areas is how I’ve been able to become much healthier and happier in my daily life and be more productive than ever! As always let me know what you think and if you have any life hacks or suggestions make sure to comment!
Meal Subscription plan- I’ve definitely mentioned this before but at the same time I can’t mention it enough. Honestly I haven’t priced them for family use but I know adding extra portions lowers the cost per meal so I can only imagine it would be an even stronger selling point. The only other negative I can think of is the recipes often have specific ingredients that I know now that as a kid I might not have been as quick to try and accept. So if you have picky children your selections might be limited. However, with numerous different meal kits and all of them having numerous menu types with countless options, I feel safe saying most people should find a deal that works for them. But speaking as a person cooking for one or two most nights these meal kits couldn’t be more perfect. It completely eliminates spoiled groceries and wasted money. You only get the ingredients, in exact amounts, that you need. I am also now eating much more variety than my old habit of chicken or burgers. I am making some of my favorites while also getting the opportunity to try new things. All the ingredients are fresh, locally sourced and the meals are legitimately restaurant quality meals made in home in an hour or less.
Working out at home- This may not be for everyone and nothing against people who go to the gym but making the decision to work at home was like a switch being flipped. During college I had access to the gym for free but I would use it sparingly. I mostly got my exercise through playing various sports throughout each week. After college I joined a couple gyms and went through different levels of commitment for different lengths of time. There’s a bunch of reasons I personally couldn’t get that habit to stick. Most of which is back to me seeking convenience. Getting off work at 5pm and making the commitment of driving 20 minutes to the gym, getting ready, working out, getting showered and changed and driving 20 minutes back home just to start dinner at around 8pm just didn’t work for me. It took a toll on my daily life and especially any free time I had and I would give it up and stop going. Once I tested out a few apps and got some basic equipment I made the commitment to working out at home and I’ve been able to commit to that daily for over a year with no problems. It’s become part of my daily habit and since I don’t have to go out of my way to do it I don’t mind it at all. And yes building a home gym is expensive but I was able to find pieces of equipment one by one and you don’t need much to start. Plus it's fun seeing your gym come together piece by piece.
Budget apps/auto pay- Whether you are living paycheck to paycheck or have a nice savings account, I’ve never found anyone who enjoyed taking the time to pay bills or try and figure out budgets. Well one of the blessings of the technological advancements of phones are their Budget apps. They link to your accounts and your cards and not only track your spending but can organize it based on where it’s going. So you will be able to see what you're spending monthly on gas, food, bills, entertainment and you can easily detect trends and where you can afford to spend more or less. Being organized with my money has made a lot of things so much easier and gives me peace of mind knowing when and where my money is going. Which is also why I turn all my bills on autopay. I know exactly when they are coming out and you get plenty of heads up via email or text about the amount that will be coming out. So this just saves the hassle of going online, on the phone or mailing in monthly payments unnecessarily.
Subscriptions- I have just recently found this but I love it. So like I mentioned above and many times before, I do a meal subscription kit. So at a minimum 5 of my days every week have food figured out. So I don’t have to do much grocery shopping, like at all. The only time I find myself going is when I run out of household products like paper towels, Soap and shampoo, aluminum foil. Stuff like that. The only thing is that they never run out at the same time so I still find myself going to the store once a week to pick up one or two things. Well not anymore! Thanks to Amazon, Dr. Squatch and other monthly subscription services I can get all of that delivered to me on the scheduling of my choosing. So if I only need paper towels once every 3 months I can set it up that way and still get my other products on their own delivery schedule. Again it’s all about convenience and you really can’t beat this. Especially considering the more you subscribe to be delivered the more you save on the websites. So in the end I’m not having to go to the store, I’m saving money, and I get the products I need when I need them.
Cirkul Water bottle- This has changed my life in a way I thought was never possible. As far back as I can remember I’ve hated water. It didn’t make sense to me. Why did it have no taste (or in some cases a bad taste) when there were so many delicious sodas and juices to choose from. Well growing up and learning the benefits of water led to me trying different methods of water consumption but always settling on the sad fact that I despised water with the fiery passion of 1000 suns. I tried flavored water, seltzer water, multiple flavor additives and nothing worked. Thanks to Tik Tok and so genius marketing I saw the Cirkul water bottle all over the app and even though I knew most of the social media product trends are all hacks I was at a point where I was getting serious about my health and I knew I needed to drink water and would give anything a try. To my extreme surprise I loved it from the first sip. Fast forward to a year later and I’m subscribed to a monthly delivery of 20 flavors and am drinking 10x the water I’ve ever drank. I’ve quit soda completely and barely drink anything but water now. Which you could never convince 20 year old me was possible. They have a ton of great flavors and it’s priced extremely well.
Comments