Guest Blog: 5 Ways to Live Healthier & Save Money Doing It

For those who are new to the ScriptSave® WellRx prescription savings program, you may not realize just how long our company has been in the business of saving patients money on their prescriptions. It’s actually well over 20 years – we date back to 1993.

It’s certainly nothing new to us to encounter people ‘paying it forward’ and helping spread the word about our prescription savings program. That said, after all that time, we’ve only recently opened our website to guest bloggers.

If you happen to be from the Asheville, NC area, you might well know Julie Wunder from TV. However, after an 11 year stint as a meteorologist and morning news personality on WLOS (which included an Emmy award for her efforts), she now curates the highly successful lifestyle blog, “Running In A Skirt” (attracting more than 100,000 unique readers every month) and we’re thrilled to be letting her take over our blog page for this post about…

“Living A Healthy Lifestyle Without Breaking The Bank”

The New Year is the perfect time to make goals and be healthier. It seems easy enough on the surface, but the cost of your new clean & active life can add up quickly. From all those tempting ads for expensive exotic foods to the attractive boutique fitness classes, that nourishing new lifestyle can certainly come with a price-tag attached. But with a few easy swaps and tricks you can still hit your goals and actually save money doing it.

1. Plan Your Meals

Healthy living really does start and end in the kitchen. If you workout five days a week and still eat garbage, you will not feel as good as you could if you were eating a rainbow of healthy fruits and vegetables daily.

To save money on your new healthy eats, plan your grocery trips ahead of time. Before you meal plan, check your stores weekly sales online and what is in season ahead of time. That can give you a great jumping off point for meal ideas that aren’t going to be crazy expensive. Also check healthy living blogs for creative dinner ideas. Meal plan, make a list and go into the store buying just what is on the list. Shop smart and reduce the urge to impulse buy.

2. Eat More Plant Based Meals

You don’t have to be a vegetarian to get the benefits of eating the occasional plant based meal! Plant based meals are not only often less expensive but they can also reduce your risk of chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease and obesity. Beans, oats and in-season vegetables are all very budget conscious items at the store that make great meals. Scan through this page for some great vegetarian recipes like this Nourishing Crock Pot Vegetarian Lentil Soup. It’s protein packed, inexpensive and delicious!

3. Consider workouts without using a gym

Gyms are great, but the price of membership can add up. There are so many great home workouts you can do for free with little to no equipment. A quick google search can help here, or check my “Running in a Skirt” blog site for the ones that I really like. Also consider taking up running. All you need is a good pair of shoes and a running outfit in technical fabric to start. You can save hundreds of dollars doing this! Of course, if you have any concerns related to health or physical limitations in this regard, you should always consult your licensed healthcare professional for guidance on what’s appropriate.

4. Drink Water

There are so many expensive beverages on the market right now, ranging from sodas to sports drinks to bottled fancy enhanced water.

Skip all of that and buy yourself a nice refillable water bottle and fill it up often. Water is almost always free and is the best thing you can be drinking for your body anyway.

5. Don’t Overpay for Prescriptions

For many of us, staying healthy means staying on top of our prescriptions. I have asthma and get a pill and two inhalers filled regularly. I wish I didn’t need them, but I do. I don’t breathe well without them so they are a key part of my healthy lifestyle. Over the years, these medicines have gone up and up in price and the cost can be overwhelming.

I always thought I had to just take the price I got at the pharmacy I went to all the time, but I recently learned that I can shop for my meds in the same way I shop for groceries. Prescription costs can actually vary so much from place to place, even with insurance—who knew! The new ScriptSave WellRx website & mobile app make it easier than ever to personalize my shopping experience to make sure I’m getting the best deal on my prescriptions.

The ScriptSave WellRx app is a free download, requires no credit card details and has no membership fee. Trying it out costs you nothing and it could save you a boat load of cash!

All you do is put in your zip code and enter any medicines you are taking.

The ScriptSave WellRx app will then do the price-shopping for you. It shows you the price of meds at all the pharmacies near you. It shows the cost without having insurance and it may surprise you that sometimes it is less than your co-pay.

I did a simple search for one of my meds and saw just how different the price can be from pharmacy to pharmacy. It ranged from $12-$35 a month … which could really add up since I take it every day. The app has saved some of us 80% and, on average, there is a 45% savings. Not bad for something they provide to patients for FREE and with no strings! There is even a feature that will let me put all three of my prescriptions into the app and find the one pharmacy that has the overall lowest price – they call it “Medicine Chest Pricing” (although you need to create a free account to access that feature, in order for them to be able to keep your data secure).

I’ll be checking back the Script WellRx app before each refill because prescription prices can change daily.

Hopefully these simple tips can help you reach your health goals and help you save a little cash at the same time!

Download the free ScriptSave WellRx app from the iOS app store or the Google Play Store,
and get registered to take advantage of our free medication adherence tools.