How to Practice Self Care When You’re Broke

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When attempting a more budget-friendly lifestyle, treats that could be considered ‘Self Care’ can often go right out of the window – however, looking after yourself is important even when saving money.

How to Practice Self Care When You’re Broke

There are many reasons you could be suddenly facing a new, more budget-friendly lifestyle.

Whether it’s to pay off accumulated debts, a change in circumstance or simply that you want to get more value for your money day to day often some the treats that are the first thing to go when watching the pennies are also a form of self-care for many of us.

Related Post – What Is Self Care? 

Particularly if you are a busy Mum or businesswoman that little bit of me-time can have a huge effect on your mental health from day to day.

It’s understandable if you are feeling overwhelmed or stressed due to being broke. You can visit https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/psychologists/ for free articles (which are reviewed by licensed therapists) to learn more about coping tools for stress.

Here are my tips for practising self-care when you’re broke.

Take a social media break

Social media can be great for connecting with others and will make of us feel less alone in times of crisis. However, it can also be overwhelming, stressful and encourage us to spend money when we don’t want to.

Taking a break from social media can really help our mental health and lessen the feeling of everyone else having so much more than we do. In particular, Instagram has a culture of being very pretty and flashy – unfollow anyone that makes you feel like you need to keep up with them by buying things you can’t afford.

Seeing lots of bad news on social media can also be difficult, especially if you are having your own struggles with money and are someone who already feels anxious. Try to balance out that feeling of social media saturation by limiting the amount of time you spend on it each day and only using it to connect with those whose content you truly enjoy.

The Gym

When looking to rearrange your finances expenses such as Gym memberships are often the first thing to go- they can be super costly and are a huge waste of money if you’re not actually using them. However, if your gym is part of your self-care routine and your keen to keep it then try some of the following.

• Work out how often you actually go – if it’s 3 or 4 times a week then it probably is worth the money and worth sticking with. Try looking at how much each session is actually costing you and whether you think it’s worth that amount.
• Some Gyms offer a pay as you go rather than a monthly subscription – if you’re going less often but still want to keep your membership this might be a good option.
• Shop around – many Gyms offer excellent rates to new members, shopping around might save you some money while your sort your finances. You could even try asking your existing gym for a discount – don’t ask don’t get!

I also asked some of my lovely blogging friends to suggest their favourite self-care activities and I would come up with ways they could save money on them. Self-care means different things to different people so I wanted to get a wide-ranging idea of what people consider self-care and why they enjoy the things they do.

Being that the majority of them are money bloggers they also came up with a fair few ideas you can do for free too – I’ve included a list of these at the end of the post.

Reading

If you’re an avid reader, buying books can become a bit of a habit – especially if you always like to have a book on the go – places the trains station WHSmith can be all too tempting, especially if there is particular author that you love – it’s always so easy to buy their new books as soon as they come out!

See my Ultimate Guide to Saving Money on Books for lots of ideas on how to curb your spending on reading material

Yoga

Lynn James – Www.mrsmummypenny.co.uk ‘Starting off the day with a free yoga tutorial on YouTube is so good. I love psychetruth who have a huge selection of video for however you are feeling. The empowerment and motivational ones are great’

If your finances mean needing to give up classes you enjoy, such as Yoga, there are some options for reviving these on a budget. As Lynn mentions above, Yoga tutorials on Youtube can be a great way to your fix without paying a penny, or even needing to leave the house. It may also be worth shopping around – prices for classes can vary substantially.

Girls Night In

Michelle Bailey www.timeandpence.com ‘My favourite self-care activity is a girls night in with some girlfriends. A good laugh with friends is a great tonic!’

A night in with the girls, rather than a night out, is already a fab money saver.

Take those saving further by:

• Making sure everyone brings something – the host shouldn’t be left with all the costs for food and drinks
• If you’re big drinkers neither the alcohol nor mixers need to be branded – Lidl and Aldi in particular do some fab budget-friendly spirit options.
• And in case you have headaches or bad feelings the day after drinking, you may want to consider having hangover IV therapy. With hangover IVs being effective, accessible, and affordable – they are a great way to help start off the day after a night of drinking with friends!
• Skip the takeaway and bring your own food – if you’re more into a sit-down dinner than snacks ask each person to bring a different course so there’s plenty for everyone without breaking the bank.

Beauty Treatments

Jennifer Kempson – www.mamafurfur.com ‘Can’t beat a little manicure and pedicure at home or even a face mask’ 

Jennifer is absolutely right with her comment –  there’s nothing better than a bit of pampering and it’s definitely cheaper to it yourself at home. However, if you are used to heading to the spa or salon for your beauty treatments there are still plenty of ways you can save.

• Finding a local beauty school or training college often means treatments are much cheaper. They are still completely safe and fully supervised by professionals and you could end up saving a fortune.
• Websites like Groupon and Wowcher have loads of deals all over the country for various treatments, spa days hair salons.
• Emma Maslin from www.themoneywhisperer.co.uk‘I bought a UV gel kit about 3 years ago – cost slightly more than one trip to the nail salon and has had so much use. I love to put the radio on and do my nails in the evening – it’s so therapeutic as you have to concentrate so I don’t think about anything else!’

Coffee & Cake

Plus – A few Free Self Care Activities

As well as the forms of self-care they do cost money there is also plenty you could be doing for free. Sometimes it’s all about taking the time for yourself and learning what works for you.

Pete Chatfield – www.householdmoneysaving.com ‘Going for a run. It keeps me fit and gives me a chance to listen to some music or a podcast in peace’

Nicola Richardson – thefrugalcottage.com ‘My favourite self-care activity is to take a bath. Even a 5 minute soak in peace can do wonders for my frame of mind’

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