Are You Caught In the Wellness Debt Cycle?

Green juices, boutique fitness classes, haute couture yoga leggings…how keeping up with the healthy high-rollers is slimming only one thing – our finances.

- Victoria Joy

It’s a scenario that plays out in households across the country: partner A returns to the flat they share with partner B after a long day’s shopping. They call a brief ‘hello’ from the hallway before scurrying quickly upstairs to hide their many shopping bags at the bottom of a heaving wardrobe – before any comments can be made about their ‘reckless’ spending. This shadowy sort of dance has become a daily occurrence for some women (and men) in the UK. One such is 34-year-old journalist and trainee yoga teacher Joanna Miller. But it’s not overpriced knitwear and luxury handbags she’s squirrelling away, it’s £100 designer gym leggings and raw superfood powders.

“My monthly outgoings have rocketed,” Joanna admits. “I spend nearly £300 a month on my gym membership and £40 on yoga classes. Then there’s my Soul mate food 

Paleo diet meal delivery, which costs £640 a month. And at the same time, I’m paying off my £3,500 teacher training fee in instalments.” Joanna’s spending habits have become so costly that she finds herself consistently maxing out her £1,200 overdraft each month (all the while feeling unable to admit the true extent of her spending to her friends and family).