How to Overhaul Your Life to be Healthier, Wealthier and Have More Time

Everyone seems busy, overwhelmed, stressed and struggling with health, money and time.

I reached my breaking point recently and knew something had to change.

All the adults I talk to seem worn out and exhausted and they don’t know where to start to make changes to ease the stress, increase their income, improve their health and have more time.

As a family, we sat down and discussed what we all want and need, the lifestyle we desire and how we can make it happen for everyone.

Then we committed to helping each other and set a minimum timeframe where we’d do what we agreed and would track the results.

Here are the top habits and changes we made that increased our health, wealth and overall well-being.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links.

1. Automate Finances

The less I have to think about my money, the easier it is.

Most of our bills can be paid automatically, although I do check them when they come in to ensure they are correct e.g. electricity.

Paying insurance and other large bills annually makes life easier for me as it’s done once and I don’t have to think about it again.

Money is automatically transferred to specific accounts each time I get paid to account for all the bills so the money is always there.

Every year I do a full financial review to ensure we are getting the best deal on everything and are happy with our services.

Checking my accounts daily is still an important habit to me, automating my finances made this easy though and reduced stress in my life.

I cover this in how to get rich being lazy with money and how to be a millionaire even as a single mother.

2. Utilise Meal Kits (Free and Discounted)

Meal planning can save a small fortune but sometimes it feels like too much effort.

For the past few years, life has been hectic.

With 4 kids including teens and 2 under 2, running a business, all the usual life stuff… sitting down to do a meal plan feels burdensome at times.

Rotating meal kits means we use the discounts every week and the meals are planned out.

We pick the meals we want from the options while using different meal kits.

This saves me time since I am not doing the meal planning or shopping for 4 to 6 main meals and my kids can easily select their meals.

They know what to cook, grab the recipe card and dinner is sorted.

Each night is assigned to someone else in the family and we all take turns cooking and cleaning.

How to Rotate Meal Kits

HelloFresh offers your first box free. Sign up, schedule it in then cancel future orders. This way you get to try the box for free.

Sign up to Marley Spoon and use this discount which is up to $190 and split across your first few boxes. Cancel at the end of the discount.

Swap to EveryPlate and get up to $180 off, again split across your first few boxes. Again, cancel so it doesn’t continue while you use the next offer.

Lastly, use Dinnerly and get up to $144 split across your first 3 boxes. Cancel once done.

By the time you have finished with these discounts, HelloFresh or whichever one you started with is likely to be emailing you discounts to get you back.

Use those discounts and continue the process.

3. Use a Digital Calendar with EVERYTHING

We have a family Google calendar with everything in there.

Since we have so many extracurricular activities, medical appointments, birthdays, jobs etc. It is essential.

On our digital calendar includes everyone’s chores, what everyone is doing and when.

This dramatically reduces how much everyone is asking me.

By ensuring it is on the calendar, we set reminders and things get done.

Along with a digital calendar, I have a weekly one as a magnet on the fridge and a giant one in our hallway.

The numerous visuals help remind us and communication has been much better.

To save time, I schedule any appointment I can at once.

For example, my monthly beautician appointment can be scheduled at the same time every month.

Instead of rebooking for 4 weeks each time I go in, I have them schedule the year all my appointments are locked in.

This can be done for dental, vaccinations, check ups and numerous other things.

For more on organising your life and these habits, read Life Admin Hacks and apply it.

4. Maximise Reward Programs and Discounts

Another grocery habit that reduces stress and saves money but I do it in a way where I don’t have to think about it much is maximising rewards.

Apps on my phone and using them in my regular shopping is about the extent of it because I don’t want the stress of couponing.

If you do want to absolutely maximise them, I have 9 steps here on how to do it and get amazing discounts on everything.

I get free offers, money off my shop, bonuses on my birthday and other benefits with various reward programs.

My favourite ones are the ones I can use for travel or experiences for the family.

Here are some tips, especially for Flybuys and Everyday Rewards.

• Boost every offer. Even if you don’t think you’ll use it. Be sure to screenshot them when you use them though and check you get the extra points.
• Split your shop. Do not do all your shopping at one store. By splitting the shop, you get the sale prices and when they send offers to get you to spend, you don’t have to spend as much to get the bonuses.
• Shop the sales and buy enough until the next sale cycle. For so many things there is no reason to pay full price.
• Plan your shop. Do your online shop first to use the 10% off then do a shop later in the month in-store. Because I have 4 x 10% off offers, I can use this to get sales every week.
• Check credit cards and bank bonuses. CommonBank offers cash back sometimes in conjunction with different stores. By activating those offers, I get even more. Some credit cards come with travel insurance and other perks.
• Check all the other benefits and offers to see if they are the best option for you e.g. insurance sometimes comes with 10% off shopping etc.
• Do not spend just to get the discount unless it works for your budget and is on things you’d buy anyway.

Read how to combine discounts on everything for more tips.

5. Take Mini Breaks and Activities

Being pregnant in 2020 and again in 2021, then spending 2022 with 2 young kids and my teens, moving interstate and moving again on my own, as he was in another state, was tough.

I lost all sense of time and my self-worth.

A huge part of my life before was travel and experiences plus some time to myself.

My teens have missed this too so I took the initiative to book in a selection of mini breaks as well as some bigger ones.

Planning day trips and mini holidays throughout the year has eased my stress levels a lot because I have something to look forward to. And they don’t have to be expensive.

When travelling, it’s wise to get travel insurance. We partnered with Freely to get you 10% off travel insurance. Use the code Thrifty10 at checkout to get it.*

What Do I Have Planned?

Each month, I have a few specific things I’d like to do and one weekend away where possible.

On weekends, day trips to see waterfalls, caves, hike around the area, use the standup paddle boards, snorkelling etc are our favourite activities.

Due to various sports or hobbies my kids do, we have weekends away based on those such as state wrestling championships for my 14 year old and Supanova for my 16 year old.

Any activities requiring money have a budget and I source the cheapest possible way to do it.

Sometimes we get paid to do these things or there is a small budget from the organisation (e.g. wrestling) to cover expenses.

How to get Mini Breaks or do Hobbies on a Budget

What day trips are close to you? Think about your hobbies and interests then look up relevant events on Meetup, Facebook and similar. Google free activities in your area.

Whatever hobby you have or want to develop, check clearance sections of stores, keep an eye on sales and look at Facebook Marketplace.

I love day trips when you are on a budget because with a little juggling, you can often find the money in the petrol budget to go see a new waterfall, snorkel somewhere, check out a hike or have a picnic within an hour or two of where you live.

Check out these 10 tips to save money on travel and these ideas to make money while travelling, even as a family.

6. Invest in Items to Improve Your Life

Rather than paying for Netflix or some other subscription that is just another way to waste time, what could you spend that money on to improve your life?

Instead of wasting my time or money on things that don’t bring meaning to my life or improve it, I am investing in myself and things that make my life better.

For the past few years, I put everyone before myself and it showed.

Looking at my life, it was easy to spot areas I could improve and spend some time or money to get some of my time, health or money back.

What you invest in to improve your life depends on the life you want.

Here are a few ideas based on our life.

Home gym. We already have this set up in half the garage. For a few hundred dollars on Facebook Marketplace, I got everything we wanted that was worth thousands.

Including weights and a bench, 3 machines, dumbells, a medicine ball, a boxing bag and more.

Mixer. For how much we cook, bake and enjoy trying new recipes, I really should have bought one before now.

Clothing. Being pregnant in 2020, 2021 and the start of 2022 means I lived in a few outfits and haven’t felt my best. Everything has holes in it so I bought new activewear, sneakers, lingerie and some dresses that fit and make me feel good.

Other. Books, courses, educating myself, self-care including massages, therapy, clothing that fits me and makes me feel good e.g. lingerie, activewear and nice dresses. Shoes that are comfortable and stylish.

Often we talk ourselves out of things due to the perceived expense, yet those same things would save us time or money or bring joy.

Life is not meant to be all about sacrifice and if there is something you have wanted for a long time but have put off, review your budget to see how you might be able to make it work.

Here are 5 things to do to invest in yourself on Aspiring Millionaire.

These 7 must-have kitchen items to make and save money plus these 11 eco-friendly buys.

7. Establish Routines

Specific routines help me and if you truly want to achieve your goals, you need systems and routines.

These aren’t all about having a full morning routine with meditation and working out, although I do like that.

Routines can be for every area of life from getting the kids ready to packing lunches to how you manage your budget.

Anything you can make routine, systematic and automated makes life easier.

Throughout my life, different routines have helped me achieve various goals.

Having young kids recently made it a lot harder and I allowed that to be an excuse.

It’s too hard with 2 under 2 and teens, right? Since the middle of my last pregnancy (late 2021), that’s what I told myself.

That it’s too hard, I won’t have time for myself, I am exhausted, there’s no point etc.

I was exhausted, I was doing everything on my own with no sleep and no respite.

Further to that, I put so much pressure on myself to have great routines for my health and life.

Ideally, I’d exercise an hour every day, eat perfectly, meditate for 20 minutes etc.

However, realistically, doing all the parenting and everything else on my own meant I rarely had the time to do this.

When I did have time, I felt the pressure to work because we needed an income.

Without my income, we wouldn’t be able to afford anything.

Something is better than nothing! While you might have an ideal routine, doing some of it or shortened versions of it is better than completely skipping it.

For example, maybe I couldn’t meditate for 20 minutes but if I could get 1 to 5 minutes in somewhere, it absolutely helped my mental health.

My Routines

Your ideal routines will depend on your goals, needs, wants and abilities.

My ideal morning routine is here and my evening routine is here.

Some mornings I can do it all before my kids wake-up, other mornings, I do it with them.

As my babies have become toddlers, in some ways, aspects of my routines have become easier because they can be done together.

For example, getting early morning sun, doing yoga, making meals and so on.

By reviewing what in my routine could be done with them, what could be done around them if they are busy colouring or something and what needs to be done without them, I was able to restructure my day and achieve all I wanted to.

When it comes to cleaning routines, we all pitch in (read how to get your kids to help at home).

As for other areas, I have mini routines for all sorts of things and the more I make them habit, the easier life is for my whole family.

8. Foster Independence In Your Kids

Too many parents do everything for their kids and now we have numerous adults who can’t cook basic meals, change a tyre or do other things that used to be taught from a young age.

Helping your kids can be good but you need to teach them how to do things.

My aim as a parent is to raise confident, capable, intelligent and compassionate adults.

They will always be my kids but they won’t always be children.

My eldest is 16 and throughout my entire time as a parent, I have fostered independence in all my kids.

People are often shocked at what my kids can do, how confident they are with it, their awareness and intelligence levels too.

This is because I have given them freedom to be themselves, taught them what I know and taught them how to continue learning beyond me.

11 life skills I want my kids to know outlines some of this. Also, read how to teach your kids about money and how to get your kids to help at home.

9. Take Control of Your Phone

How much of our life is dictated by our phones now?

Go into your settings and check your screen time, it might horrify you.

We spend hours on our phones and watching TV/streaming, basically wasting our life away.

How different would your life be if you dedicated that time to something worthwhile?

Delete unnecessary apps, remove notifications and limit your phone usage.

One of the best things I did was remove social media from my phone.

This way, I can only access it from my laptop when I choose and for the time I choose instead of mindlessly scrolling.

Put your phone in another room when you sleep so you aren’t tempted to look at it during the night and it doesn’t disturb you.

Use the do not disturb feature at certain times and take control of your phone instead of letting it control you.

You do not need to be accessible 24/7, it’s ok to switch off, remove notifications and live your life.

How to Stop Mindless Scrolling

In general, replacing habits is easier than simply stopping them, making habits hard to do and stacking good habits makes them easier too.

Since scrolling social media is the default action whenever we are bored, think about what else you could do during that time.

Learn a language with an app instead of scrolling social media.

Make money with an online survey.

List something for sale if you took photos earlier.

Read a book, preferably a physical book not a digital or audiobook. Check out 23 books that will change your life for some of my favourites.

Do some exercise, any movement you enjoy such as dancing, squats, skipping, anything.

Look for ways to replace the scroll with something productive.

10. Outsource What You Can/Want

Despite what media might push, we cannot do it all on our own and we do not all have the same 24 hours in the day.

What we are capable of doing, how much time different tasks take us, the needs of others in the family and so on dictate how much time we have and what we can do.

Don’t beat yourself up if you feel you can’t do everything.

Look at what you can outsource to free up your time and headspace.

To make it more budget friendly, sometimes people start with something that can be outsourced to free up time and costs less than they could make in that same time.

For example, it might take you 3 hours to mow the lawn and in 3 hours you can make $100.

The teen in your area might be mowing lawns for $50 which means they make money, you save yourself 3 hours and you could spend that 3 hours doing something more constructive to make you $100.

Cleaning, ironing, lawns and those larger home tasks are generally the first things to be outsourced as they take such a large part of our lives and time.

Check out everything about insourcing (getting everyone at home to help) and outsourcing to see how to make or save money with each one.

11. Break Bad Habits

I mentioned our phones above but how many other habits do we have that detract from our lives?

Alcohol is a significant one that is normalised, as are energy drinks.

Two things I have had issues with in my life and prefer my life without them.

When you do the research on many of the things we use to ‘cope’ or get through the day, we can see how bad they are for us.

For example, alcohol is a poison which has been shown to have lasting impacts.

You might drink it at night to wind down or destress but it raises the cortisol in our body, leading to even more stress.

Often, when drinking, our sleep is not good and we rely on even more caffeine the next day, then alcohol at night.

It can be a vicious cycle, even if you are only having a few drinks.

Try a month without alcohol and see how different you feel. Everyone I know who has done this is amazed at how they feel after the first week or so.

They have more energy, skin is clearer, they sleep better and their mental health improves.

Think about your habits and which ones might be adding to the stress and expenses of life instead of making it better.

12. Regularly Review to Improve

What sort of life do you want and how do you want to be remembered?

Do your current habits, systems and lifestyle reflect that?

Take time to regularly review everything from your values and what you want in life, to your goals, habits and finances.

If you don’t review what you are doing to ensure you are on track, you can easily end up far away from where you want to be.

Check out the 30 days of money challenge for tips and things you can review in all areas of your life.

Each week, I have an abundance meeting to review my budget and goals.

When it comes to my goals, I have a whole motivation wall set up to keep me focused and so I can easily track where I am at.

I know my core values, the lifestyle I want, who I want to be and the legacy I want to leave.

Being confident in your choices and decisions around your life makes it so much easier to live it your way.

What habits are you changing to make life healthier, wealthier and easier?

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