What Does Added Sugar Have to Do With Spending Money?

As y’all know, I’m not a minimalist. I like owning nice things and having a stash of items I may need at some point, but don’t need all the time (like giftwrap). I LOVE to spend money. I also love to save money, but spending money on things I know I will love is something that never gets old to me (unfortunately…oh, to be a natural saver instead of someone who wants designer shoes!)

What you may not know is that I have a serious sweet tooth. Always have. I love sugary snacks – sweet cereal, wine and margaritas, candy of pretty much any kind, cake, macarons, ice cream, brownies, ice cream ON brownies, and Oreos. Oreos are my kryptonite. When I buy them, I know I’m going to binge them until they’re gone. Apparently some people are worse than I am about eating entire packages of Oreos in only a couple of sittings, but yeah. I love sweets.

However, I also love being healthy and feeling good in my body! This means eating well overall, working out regularly, getting enough sleep, etc. I can’t indulge my sweet tooth as much as I would like to – but then again, it’s really a competing desire, right? I want to eat so much candy I turn into a piece of candy and I want to feel good in my body. Can’t have both. And feeling good wins out, all else equal.

So what do I do?

I ruthlessly eliminate added sugar where I can.

Added sugar is sneaky. It’s in most common, jarred pasta sauces. It’s in bread. Breakfast bars. Cereal that isn’t even “sweet.” Lots of yogurts. Sodas. Smoothies! Tomato soup. Jif-style peanut butter.

You name it, there’s probably added sugar in it. Even worse, Americans consume more added sugar than anyone in the world, and most don’t even realize how much is in their food!

So several years ago, I began monitoring my added sugar intake. I check nutrition labels at the grocery store and compile a mental list (probably should have a physical list) of products that have little or no added sugar. I buy natural peanut butter (SO MUCH BETTER), I buy pasta sauce with little or no added sugar, and I avoid almost anything granola bar-esque that has sugar as one of the first few ingredients (those delicious Fig Bars? Same amount of added sugar as a serving of Oreos!). If it isn’t OVERTLY a sweet treat, I’ve eliminated it from my diet unless there is a version that has almost no added sugar. 

The recommendation is 25g or 6 teaspoons of added sugar per day for women and 37.5g or 9 teaspoons of added sugar per day for men.

This doesn’t include naturally-occurring sugars. So fruits or anything sweetened with dates, for example, doesn’t fall into the “added sugar” camp. Same with milk. Milk has naturally-occurring sugars. We’re talking “the people who made this dumped refined sugar or corn syrup into the product while it was being made in a factory somewhere” kind of sugar situation.

The goal with monitoring and eliminating sneaky added sugar is not minimal sugar intake; it’s strategic sugar intake.

Because I want to use my sugar intake for *actually sweet things* that are worth the sugar usage. Not sneaky, added sugar that basically does nothing but pad my waistline and doesn’t even let me have the satisfaction of eating a cookie! So I CLOSELY monitor the other added sugars. This creates a “sugar bank” of sorts that I can use to justify my sweet treats within my diet (diet meaning what I eat each day, not that I’m on a diet) without sacrificing other things that are important to me, like overall health.

 It’s not about eliminating sugar; it’s about choosing where to have your sugar so that it actually adds value to your life! 

“Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.” - Benjamin Franklin 

What does eliminating added sugar from my diet have to do with spending money? Prioritization.

Something I see a lot of in “get out of debt” and budgeting content is that SPENDING MONEY IS BAD. You’re culling those extra expenses because they are BAD and they are KEEPING YOU FROM REACHING YOUR GOALS. When people calculate the “lost future value” of something like a weekly coffee purchase, I cringe. I understand the point – compound interest and all of that, but life isn’t just about saving for the future.

Yes, you’re giving up future financial value by buying something today, but you’re also gaining current value (and potentially future value, depending on the purchase!)…and every dollar you have can’t be saved for the future. It’s just not possible or reasonable to value everything that way.

Like culling added sugar in foods that aren’t actually sweet treats, culling things from your budget that *don’t matter to you* so that you can repurpose that money and spend it on things that *do* matter to you is not only valid, but it’s a smart way to plan your finances.

If your goal is to make ends meet or start an emergency fund, ruthlessly culling spending you don’t value (or that is unnecessary) allows you to spend money on your basics and put a little bit away without running out of money in the process.

If you make enough money, removing the “added sugar” from your budget is a great way to free up money – guilt-free! – for things you just *want* to buy. Maybe it’s a designer bag, or golf lessons, or a nice painting.

If you don’t watch TV, canceling cable can give you a nice $100/month to reallocate to something that isn’t necessary, but that you really want. Just like I can eat my Oreos without sacrificing my other goals because I didn’t accidentally eat a candy bar’s worth of sugar in my tomato soup and peanut butter sandwich.

To conclude: Treat your budget like I treat my added sugar intake.

You’ll probably find you have some extra money to use for things you value rather than losing it to things that, at best, don’t help you, and at worst, cause damage. If you reallocate that money, it will be better for your budget and may even help you spend on things you thought you couldn’t justify!

Do you guys do something similar with your budget? How do you feel about spending – shame or excitement? Does planning the spending help? Share in the comments!