You might recall that back in October, we canceled our long time gym memberships to Planet Fitness for a number of reasons. We weren’t using it and basically throwing $20 down the drain every month, for one thing. And for another thing, we just didn’t like it there anymore. The vibe had really changed over the years and we didn’t enjoy going anymore. We decided to look into possibly getting a family membership at the Y in the future, and that was that.
Just a short while later, in January, we discovered I was pregnant. Determined to have a fit pregnancy this time around, we bit the bullet and joined at the Y a lot sooner than expected (memberships are expensive and we wanted to pay down more debt first). We were really excited about all the amenities — child watch, wellness center, pool, hot tub, spa, classes! — and decided that we may as well splurge a bit. We were both excited to get back into fitness, and we loved that we could bring Caleb with us. After receiving a referral discount, we were paying about $83 a month for a family membership. We had it billed to our Visa credit card monthly, and though we paid enough to cover that amount on the card each month, it started to really impact the speed of our debt re-payment. For example, during a month of re-paying $200 to the Visa, the balance would only drop by about $100 or so after we took interest and the gym membership into account. Despite paying a good portion of the bill, our debt was merely inching down, and only about HALF of what we were spending on it was actually going towards reducing the actual balance. Very discouraging!
We also didn’t use the gym in the way we intended to. Jerry, exhausted from night shift, hardly went AT ALL. I was going about 3-4 times a week for a couple of months but then slowed down to twice a week once the spring hit and my body became more achy and exhausted from the pregnancy. If I used it 8 times a month, that meant I was paying over $10 a session… and each session was only about 35 minutes in the wellness center, using a treadmill or an elliptical, while they occasionally watched Caleb in the child watch center. $10 to work out for half an hour? That seemed pretty unreasonable to me.
If we had been using all the amenities that came with the membership, it would have been a lot more worth it — the pool, for instance, and especially the classes. Buuuut I was advised by my doctor to avoid classes until after the pregnancy. That meant we were coughing up a hefty monthly fee to literally use a treadmill and elliptical a couple of times a week. In my debt-paying, frugal, cheapskate mind… this gym membership was becoming a giant nope very quickly.
In June, after just six short months, we went and filled out the paperwork to cancel. I marked “too expensive” as our reason for leaving, and that was that.
Reducing our monthly expenses by $83 is massive to us. When you’re in that debt-repayment frame of mind, that’s a huge chunk of money. Now if we pay $200 on our card a month, the balance goes down by nearly that whole $200, minus a few bucks worth of interest. Before, it would have only gone down about HALF of that due to the gym membership too. We’ll get that paid down to zero a lot more quickly, now!
In all, I don’t really regret joining. It’s a nice gym and I did enjoy my time there for the most part, but I also don’t regret canceling. Once the baby comes and I’m cleared to work out again, Jerry and I have big plans to take up running again. It helped us both get into amazing shape and feel really fit. It was an activity we both enjoyed, and I loved running races with him. We’re both feeling self-conscious, and getting back into shape will really help us both. Plus, I just miss the feeling I used to get from running. We’ll start off slow, of course. It’ll be a LONG while before I’m ready to run a half-marathon again, or even a 5K for that matter, but I’ll get there. We’re even thinking of getting a treadmill for when the weather is too awful to run outside.
If we find that this plan doesn’t work, we would like to re-join a gym. The Y is a possibility, but we’re looking into other options too. For one, the Y is the most expensive option, and two, our particular location was always way too busy for my liking. They have a Silver Sneakers program for elderly folks who get in for either free or very little, so the place was always swamped. The lobby tables were always jam packed, and there were occasions where I couldn’t get on a treadmill because they were all in use. For $83 a month, I expected better than that. When looking at other gym options, I’d like to find another one that offers classes, and I’d also like to keep our total bill at or below $50 this time (for both of us combined, so we’re looking at $25 per person, per month). A pool isn’t necessary for us, but the classes are a little more important since I find them to be motivating.
Ultimately, we just weren’t using the membership enough to justify the high cost. There are cheaper options out there that we are looking forward to taking advantage of after the baby is born. Running is number one on my list!
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