Into the Glimmer

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Fitness expenses running wild (and what I'm doing about it)

Anyone else have out of control fitness expenses? Seriously. I sat down recently and looked at all of my expenses and outside of basic living (food, mortgage/housing, healthcare, toddler, dogs, etc.), fitness is my biggest discretionary spend per month. And it's mostly on gym and studio memberships. 

We're hoping to buy (or build) a new house soon since our house is just not working for our lifestyle at this point - two people working from home, a toddler, 4 dogs, and multiple out-of-town family members who come stay with us for vacations. Yeah, it's busy (and crowded) here. 

In order to get the house/space we want (because I'm not into compromising this time around), we need to save some cash to get our mortgage payment where we want it (because I'm also not going to be house poor). So it's time to cut back on some of my monthly spending and funnel that all into savings specifically for a house downpayment. 

Things I'll keep

  1. My running coach. I need her. She stays. Non-negotiable.
  2. My gym membership to O2 fitness (for now). They've got treadmills. And I don't, and I won't until we have a larger space for one. I need a treadmill for summer speedwork. Plus they have BodyFlow and BodyPump class (among other things) that I need make better use of. I've been to the gym probably once in the past 7 months or so. I'm paying for it. I need to use it. 
  3. Class pass to my favorite barre studio. I'll keep this, but spread out my class pack to make it last longer so I'm not purchasing it as frequently. 
  4. Annual paddleboarding membership at Ocean Fitness. I live at the beach for a reason. Paddleboarding is one of them. Plus one annual membership there costs less than a monthly class pack at most studios. 

Things that go

  1. My many other class passes to other studios. It's just not necessary and most of them aren't close enough to my house for me to get to them in the times I have to go. Both the gym and the barre studio are less than 5 minutes from my house. Any farther than that and it doesn't work for me. I end up not using them all and they expire. It's time to stop wasting money. 

Things I'm trying

I'd like to do some quick (30 minutes or less) HIIT and yoga workouts at home so I can squeeze in a few more strength sessions each week. So I'm checking out a few apps. 

  1. I signed up for a 30-day free trial of Daily Burn. It has a fairly comprehensive selection of workouts, but not as many of the shorter sessions I was looking for. 
  2. Right after I signed up for Daily Burn, FabFitFun subscription box (which I subscribe to) released FabFitFun TV and it comes with the box membership. The workouts look promising and there are several shorter ones, so I plan to try those since they come with my box subscription.  

Anyone else find their fitness expenses getting out of control? What do you do to reign it in?