It All Adds Up, The Podcast

About 75% of US adults wear glasses or contacts. The average glasses wearer spends up to $600 per pair, and the average contact wearer spends $250 per year on lenses, plus expenses for solution and cases. You can reduce these costs with regular eye doctor visits and by eating more veggies.

The average American spends only $92 per year on reading material. Reading more books improves your literacy skills, and childhood reading increases adulthood income by over 20%. Purchasing used books or reading free books from the library are great and affordable ways to enhance your life.

The average US household owns 5 electronic devices that have high upfront and ongoing operating costs. For example, the US spends $16 billion on streaming services per year. You can reduce these costs by using your devices until they break, by reducing streaming services, and by using your devices less. 

The average family spends close to $7,000 on toys per child from birth and throughout adolescence. Toy purchases are important because toys greatly impact childhood development measures like attention span, coordination, creativity, and interpersonal skills. Purchasing fewer and more purposeful toys can provide huge savings!

In 2020, the US spent $99 billion on pets. Some expenses, like training classes and healthy food, are good investments to ensure your pets’ safety and health. But there is high potential for savings with purchases like pet clothing. And you can save up to $4,000 by adopting (instead of shopping for) your next pet!

The average US household pays over $7,000 to furnish an apartment with new furniture. The cost for a new mid-range sofa alone can be as high as $2,000. These expenses can be reduced by purchasing second-hand and multi-purpose furniture. Further savings can be achieved with strategic furniture placement.

Every year, the average US household spends $180 just on paper towels, not to mention the cost for all their other cleaning supplies. Chemical cleaning solutions can have costly health consequences. By switching to reusable cleaning tools and to non-toxic cleaning solutions, you can save close to $300 per year.

The US spills 17 million gallons of gas every year while filling up residential lawn mowers. Assuming $2.60 per gallon, that’s over $44 million wasted on spilled lawn mower gas! Smarter lawn mowing methods combined with strategic tree and shrub placement can provide huge gas, energy, and water cost savings.

This interview with YouTube cooking star Ethan Chlebowski takes a closer look at some of the topics we discussed in Season 2: Food. Ethan reviews some clever tricks for buying in bulk, repurposing food scraps, and eating more vegetables to make home cooking cheap, healthy, and tasty.

The average US gym goer spends $300 on annual gym memberships. If these memberships are used regularly, they are a great investment, since exercise can reduce medical expenses by $2,500 per year! You can save money while you exercise by taking public transportation to the gym or by working out at home.