Frugal Fitness

I paid off a credit card today. Part of me is relieved but part of me is exhausted because of the amount of time, energy and planning it took to accomplish this. While thinking about finances, I couldn't help but to think about fitness too. We spend hundreds of dollars a year on fitness stuff - everything from classes to apparael. If you think about it, it totally makes sense that its a multi-billion dollar industry.

While I'm shedding physical weight, I realized that I need to cut debt weight as well, hence the reason I'm cancelling my gym membership. I'll admit: I'm terrified! Where am I going to work out when it rains? How will I stay motivated? What if I need equipment? All of these questions plagued me this morning but I decided I can work all of that out. Let's look at the numbers:

If you are paying $36 a month for a gym membership to a 24-hour facility, that's about $432 a year. Not to mention if you take classes sometimes or try the latest fitness rage. You can easily spend up to $1000 a year.

My job has an on-site gym facility that I can use for free. Score! My local rec center has an indoor walking track with a membership of $20 a year. Oh yes, I'll take that! The gym facility there? $120 for the year! Score! The catch: the building closes at 8:00 p.m. and we working moms don't really have any free time until after 9:00 p.m. when the kiddies are sleeping. For that, the Xbox can help.

I have an Xbox Kinect and recently purchased an awesome Nike+ Kinect game. This game is amazing and syncs with my Nike+ account. Did I mention that your body is the controller for all Kinect games? That means you can workout and have fun too?? Score!

Getting fit is just as important as managing your money. Never feel that you have to scarifice one for the other because there is always another way to work it out...for free.