5 Ways to Spend Less and Stay Well

4. Drop Your Gym Membership

Who needs to pay hundreds of dollars to work out? Why not rent exercise DVDs, or break out the old VCR and dust off those VHS tapes? Or make your living room a yoga studio a few nights out of the week?

The only thing you risk losing is the camaraderie you can find at the gym. But that's easy to re-create at home. Invite a few friends over, pool your tape collection, set realistic goals and make a commitment to stick to the plan.

Dr. Janet Taylor, a psychiatrist at New York's Harlem Hospital, points to a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine that indicates that obesity spreads through social ties. On the flip side, says Taylor, one's social network can be linked to health-promoting behaviors.

Intuitively, we already know this, don't we? Aren't you more inclined to choose a chef salad over pizza if you're with your "healthy" friend, and more inclined to order dessert or (gasp) take a drag on a cigarette if you're spending time with your "unhealthy" friend?

But there's an added benefit to spending quality time with friends and strengthening those bonds, Taylor says. "People who have good, trusting social support networks may have lower stress levels, which presumably can lessen the inflammatory response. A heightened inflammatory response has been linked to chronic disease and autoimmune illnesses."