No Debt Plan

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I take 2-4 clients out to lunch every week. This means I am eating out in restaurants of various quality several times per month. It isn’t very easy to stay on the healthy side of the menu, either. I love my hamburgers, chicken wings, fries, and fajitas.

I eat out a lot, and I get to see the portion sizes at a large selection of restaurants. One thing is certain. Here in America, portion sizes have increased dramatically over the years. Literally at every lunch, I could take home half the food and eat it for dinner. Look at Coca-Cola bottle sizes over the years to emphasize the point:

I think the effect would be greater if the horizontal plane was straight… it definitely slopes down to the right, making the bottles in the middle look to be about the same height. Look at the jump in 1994! Remember, a serving size is 8 or 12 oz. (can’t remember which), but they give you a 20 oz. bottle. And you drink it merrily.

I go to Chili’s occassionally, and it used to be a favorite of my wife and I when we were dating. We always order the chicken quesadillas (chicken and cheese, no onions please). When I take a client to lunch there, I can order the same thing, and eat the left overs for dinner. But Mr. Average American doesn’t do that. He sees food on the plate, and scarfs it down. I can’t begin to imagine eating the quesadillas by myself.

Over indulgence packs it on

Let me paint a visual for you: one large plate, lettuce, chopped tomatoes, and sour cream piled in the middle. One half of the plate stacked with fries. The other half of the plate ringed with 8 triangles of quesadilla goodness. I tried to look the item up on the nutritional guide, but couldn’t find it listed (I may just be missing it). Another item I frequently get on client lunches is the Cajun Chicken Pasta. Gulp. Here’s the skinny on that meal:

1 serving, 1500 calories, 78 grams of fat, 39 grams of saturated fat, and 3,040 milligrams of sodium.

Yuck! And I can easily eat that all by myself. 1 serving? That’s disgusting. 1,500 calories! Compare the above items to the recommended daily intake on a 2,000 calorie diet… 65g of fat, 20g of saturated fat, and 2400 mg of sodium. In one meal you knock out 3/4 of your available calories for the day, and go way over your sodium intake.

If you could keep your willpower and stick with portion control, it still isn’t a great meal, but it isn’t a terrible meal. Cut all of the above numbers in half and you’d probably get a C minus on the report card.

Add in the fact that we don’t exercise any more because we’re too busy…

No wonder we are all getting fat.

What does this have to do with finance?

Everything.

There are several ways to link portion control to your finances:

• directly - eating too much food costs you more money in food
• directly - eating too much and gaining weight will most likely cost you more money in healthcare costs in the future
• indirectly - if you can’t maintain proper boundaries — portion control — you may be spending more than you earn, or spending frivolously

And that third point is what we’ll talk about tomorrow. Stay tuned. (Grab an RSS or e-mail subscription in case you forget to come back.)

Chandler: Oh yeah, gym member. I try to go four times a week, but I’ve missed the last 1200 times.
Ross: So why don’t you quit?
Chandler: You don’t think I’ve tried? You think I like having 50 dollars taken out of my bank account every month? No, they make you go all the way down there! Then they use all of these phrases and peppiness to try and confuse you! Then they bring out Maria.
Ross: Who is Maria?
Chandler: Oh Maria. You can’t say no to her, she’s like this lycra spandex covered gym…treat.

Thanks to the writers of Friends, we can kick off what I hope becomes a regular post that we’ll call Dumb Money. Simply put, these posts revolve around dumb money moves that are keeping you from getting out of debt. Keeping you from moving forward with your financial life. Sort of like Dave Ramsey’s stupid tax.

Physical exercise is a great thing. Staying in shape should help your finances down the road because you will be healthier. Exercising creates endorphins which puts you in a better mood. All around, exercise is a good thing and I’m not knocking it. In fact, I need to do more of it.

I am knocking paying $25 or $50 per month to let someone allow you to exercise.

What does a gym offer that you can’t do at home?

• Equipment? You can get by with the basics.
• Special showers? No; at least not that I’m aware of.
• Convenience? What is more convenient than your house or apartment?
• A warm space in the winter or cool space in the summer? If you work out at home, it will be heated and cooled just as much as the gym down the road.

In regards to equipment, you don’t need a treadmill, elliptical machine, or stationary bike. Some basic equipment you can use at home: tennis shoes and dumbbells. Of course the shoes are to jog/run outside. You don’t need fancy $100 running shoes either — I use tennis shoes I’ve had since high school. I’m 23. (Again, I’m not a fitness expert, but these work for me.)

Dumbbells are surprisingly diverse … you can work a lot of different muscles with such a simple tool. Judging from a quick Google search, you might expect to pay $1-2 per pound per dumbbell. So your $25/month gym membership would buy you two 10 lb. or one 20 lb. dumbbell in the first month. That would keep you busy for the first month, and you get to keep them! The next month you could buy additional weights, or save for something larger; in essence building your own home gym.

On top of jogging and dumbbells, you can do push-ups and crunches. All for free. In your living room. In your underwear (blinds closed, please).

Just like any other service provider, gyms want to entice you with “free” benefits — especially this time of year. It’s New Years resolutions time, so sign up now and get three months free! Or free spa treatments in your first month, or, or, or…

$25 per month is $300 per year. $50 is $600.What if you put $50 towards your debt snowball, emergency fund, or retirement account?

So don’t be Chandler. Suck it up and quit the gym!

* * *

I just noticed Flexo at Consumerism Commentary wrote an interesting article in 2007 about the gym: 10 Things Your Gym Won’t Tell You.