Gym Membership

Many things in a fulfilled life require an element of discipline like I keep preaching. Belonging to a gym is ideal in the Western world for losing weight, staying in shape or even socializing. However when you start paying those membership fees, do make sure you are getting your money’s worth. Griff Hanning’s post at Moolanomy puts the monthly fee estimate of gym membership at $33 per person. By his calculation that is a whopping $792 per year for a couple. Not to mention commute time (Time is Money, eh!), baby sitter gets paid too and registration fees (yes it is indeed part of the deal). My estimate would be more or less $1200 to $1500 if you get an actuarial scientist to do all the calculations.

If this is money well spent for you, then go ahead and get fulfilled. If you are thinking of how $1500paid yearly if compounded yearly can yield another $2000 over 5 years in a typical stock market at a yield of 8% per anum, then you are my kind of person.

Simple solutions

If your job allows you to carry a back-pack while working, doing so with say another 20-30 pounds load keeps you toning and working all day. This solution should work for many students.

If you are double lucky and you own a bicycle, ride it to work, weather permitting.

If you work in a high rise building, take the stairs. With your back-pack full of those big textbooks you never sold when you graduated from college, you will be burning much more calories.

At the mercy of the weather, take long walks with everyone in the family, so no babysitter to pay. This will even provide more quality family time than when in the home and everyone is doing one thing or the other. If the children are still toddlers or need to be in a stroller, then better, push it!

Early morning tandem sit-ups are another interesting one especially for couples.

It goes like this:

Couple A to partner: Gimme a ten: 1 -2 -3 -4….10

Partner to couple A: Gimme a fifteen: 1 -2 -3…..15

This can be real fun as each person takes turns while the other counts military style. Of course you will know your limits and what the penalty is for whoever fails to hit the number. You can even make the number increase by 2s so that you do gimme a 10, then gimme a 12 and so on.

You can also buy some dumbbells or other home gym equipment that you like but these easy money-saving-tips can indeed help keep you in shape without flushing your money down the drain. If you have come here looking for ways to keep in shape, lose weight or look spectacular, I would recommend HealthNut’s Blog. Just make sure you come back here to thank me for pointing you to her!

Do you have any other money-saving tips for keeping in shape, feel free to post your comment below.