When I wrote my post about the things we outsource and don’t regret for a second, reader Kelli left a comment that immediately made me pause. She said something along the lines of: “You should do a follow-up and ask people what they spend money on for health maintenance. That would be really interesting.”
Ask and ye shall receive. 🙂
I loved this idea—not just to share what we prioritize, but because I’m genuinely curious what you spend (or intentionally don’t spend) in this category. Health maintenance can look so different from family to family, so I’m curious what falls into this category for you.
For this post, I’m mostly focusing on ongoing expenses, not one-time purchases. That said, we have made some bigger, one-off investments over the years—like our home gym setup, a red light mask, RO water, and our sauna (which David is currently building and very excited about). But today, I’m talking about the things that show up regularly.
What We Spend on Health Maintenance
Here’s what’s currently in our health-maintenance bucket:
- DPC (Direct Primary Care) – a healthcare model where you pay a flat monthly fee directly to your primary care provider instead of using insurance for routine care. We like the direct and easy access to healthcare needs and personal attention it provides.
- Chiropractic Care – mostly for me because I need it 1-2x/month or my neck seizes up, but the girls join sometimes as well.
- Dental – regular cleanings.
- Dermatologist – annual skin checks for me, and every couple for David, though I’m trying to gear him to every year.
- Supplements, including the following that we have on auto ship:
- Pre-workout
- Creatine
- Aminos
- Cod liver oil
- Magnesium (this one for us and this one for the kids)
- Vitamin D
- Madeline Moves – app-based workout programming
- Function Health – for deeper labs and data that is easy to continuously monitor. You can read my personal experience here.
And this one might be a stretch depending on how you define things, but I’m including it anyway: I keep our coffee on auto ship. Is it a health expense? Maybe. Is it a mental-health-adjacent, daily-ritual-that-makes-life-better expense? Absolutely.
Now I want to hear from you.
What do you spend money on to maintain your health—or your sanity? What’s worth it to you, and what’s a hard no?
Laura says
This is an interesting topic!
Monthly, my husband and I each pay for healthcare through our respective jobs. My plan has (so far) covered PHP, OBGYN, and dermatologist appointments each year. It covers the majority of prescription costs as well. I have a gym membership that’s reasonably priced. My biggest expense is hiking equipment, which does tend to last awhile, but in upstate NY, I ended up getting a dedicated winter-focused hiking wardrobe that wasn’t needed when we lived in UT (avalanche risks) or SC (lack of sub-freezing hikes).
I also use electrolytes and protein powder daily, and take Vitamin D, Omega-3s, and creatine supplements. I suppose most groceries could fall under health maintenance as well, especially since I try to make protein-focused meals!
Brittany Dixon says
I’d love to hear about your favorite cold weather hiking gear! Do you have a favorite brand that holds up well?
I also use electrolytes. I buy those in bulk so they last a while, but it is a recurring cost I forgot about. And yes, definitely groceries here as well 🙂
Heather says
Medical massages is probably my longest & most costly reoccurring expense but so worth it. Along with helping with pain, it helps with muscle tension & stress. Groceries, magnesium, electrolytes, adrenal vitamins, b12 shots in the winter months, and yoga are also non negotiable health investments.
Brittany Dixon says
Tell me more about medical massages! I love the sound of them. What makes them different than regular? Lymphatic?
Austin says
Love this topic! Do y’all have regular health insurance as well in case someone gets a long term illness? I’m curious how that works with your direct to primary care physician. For example, a hospital visit, is that cash pay for y’all?
Brittany Dixon says
Yes, we have insurance, too! It doesn’t pay for our DPC, but it does offer us coverage for major life events. We opt for a high deductible.
Kelli H says
Oh yay! So happy you shared this. I feel like we have such a long list of medical maintenance items. Not sure if I should include our health insurance but that’s about $1,000/month for our family through my husbands job. Not great insurance but it really made a huge difference when Austin was hospitalized twice for his VKDB.
Ongoing for us is;
supplements (creatine, protein, electrolytes, C, D, Mag, Multi for me & David, zinc during winter, and others as needed)
Monthly or bi-monthly chiropractic appointments for David & I and monthly for our kids
Ladder App for David – A workout app to use in our garage gym (was also a big expense!)
Acupuncture (have stopped recently but was going twice a month)
Dental appointments twice a year for our whole family
Other things we’ve spend money for health items; red light, vibration plate, walking pad, added items to our home gym, and I’m sure others I can’t even think of!
SO cool you’re building a sauna. Can’t wait to hear about that!
Eva says
Besides health, dental, and vision insurance that’s taken out of my paycheck I spend about$170 month on CrossFit (been going for almost a decade and definitely hope to stick with it for life!), I aim to get a monthly massage or facial (but usually massage wins out) which ends up ~$120, and a reformer Pilates studio recently opened in my town so I like to go on weekends (it’s expensive but it’s a nice weekend treat if we don’t otherwise have plans) ~$120 for 4 classes. And once in a while pop into hot yoga ~$25/class.
Besides food & dining, and travel throughout the year, health & maintenance is my biggest spend category but well worth it to me. And I have a 1-yo so these days it’s extra important and honestly probably ends up being more than our travel spend because we’re not doing as many big trips right now in this phase of life 😆