Saturday, August 2, 2014

The A La Carte Method for Gym Memberships!


{image via}

Hello my lovely readers!

This weekend my boyfriend and I were talking about how much we would love to do more swimming.  My apartment building doesn't have a pool, but there is a community center right around the corner which has a big gym, swimming pool, a sauna and steam room, and tons of weekly workout classes.

I decided to call up the community center and ask about membership rates.  They quoted me a $200 registration fee and $117/ month membership fee.  The price is a little steep for me because although my health is super important, I know myself pretty well and I'm not sure if I'd actually go enough (at least once a week) to make it worth it.  I don't want to just throw money away on a membership I won't use very often when I'm trying to pay off massive debt!  That would be downright silly.

So I asked the community center's registration person how much a day pass would cost.  Turns out it's $25 for a day pass, and you can access all of the gym's amenities with a day pass!  So for someone like me that might only go once or twice a month and then not go for a couple of months, that seems like a much better idea than the monthly membership!

This is just one example of ways you can save money by purchasing things "a la carte" rather than as a package or a monthly subscription service.  You have to weigh the costs and benefits for you and how much use you might get out of that particular purchase.  In this case, it looks like the A La Carte Method* would work best for getting all of the benefits of some time in the gym without hurting my budget too much.  If it turns out I'm going more than 3 times a month and it might be worth investing in a membership, I can always rethink the decision.  It's totally flexible, which is why I love it.

What about you?  Do you use the A La Carte Method?

{*I first heard of this concept through Ramit Sethi's blog.  Check it out!}

1 comment:

  1. This blog is great my friend keep it going and have a nice day!
    Malegra DXT

    ReplyDelete