Working out.....it will cost you!

Recently my wife Sarah and I began looking at our budget and trying to find ways to cut costs and pay off our debt.  We have struggled recently to pull more out of our budget without taking away from the hobbies that we enjoy.  Dinners out and spending money on "extras" have all been eroded away as we continue to review our monthly budget.  Then one day came the realization that we were paying $185 a month to workout!!  Now you might ask how we ever got to be paying that much for gym memberships.....well let me tell you.  Last November, I began going to a local Crossfit gym and immediately fell in love with the people and the challenges of the workouts.  At this point and time, Sarah and I were already members at Anytime Fitness in Speedway and between the two of us that cost about $45 a month.  When I first added Crossfit, that became an additional $100 a month to our workout total.  Finally as time progressed, I wanted to move to the more difficult and more frequent workouts at Crossfit bringing my total there to $145 and our overall bill to $185 a month.  Now some of you may be saying how in the world can you spend that much on WORKING OUT????  Well first of all, Sarah and I are big fitness people and Sarah herself is a personal trainer.  When I moved to Crossfit, I didn't cancel the Anytime Fitness as that allowed me to workout with Sarah from time to time and in our minds was only $25 a month. 

Then one day it hit Sarah and I like a two by four across the head on how much we were spending on working out each month in an effort to be healthy.  We started doing the math that if we saved that money instead of paying others to let us workout, over the next 20 years we could save over $100,000!!!!  Holy Crap was our first thought!!!  Since this day we have spent roughly $800 to build our own gym in our garage being able to do the many things I could at Crossfit.  We have canceled our memberships at both places and have vowed to find other ways to stay fit.  We even sold an extra computer and some of my textbooks for classes to pay for the gym.  Now we begin the process of building our savings and not paying to workout!

So I challenge you to think about what you spend each month at the gym.  How much could you save over the next 20 years?  Find ways to workout around the house or buy some simple equipment for your garage.  Many sites post their workouts and can be done with minimal equipment.  Fitness is not showing up and running on the treadmill! Think outside the box and think with your wallet as well!

Happy Savings!