27 Mar

How Are You Doing with March’s Money-Saving Challenge?

At the beginning of 2010, we issued a money-saving challenge to our readers. We’re challenging you to try a different money-saving method each month out of this year. We hope that this will prove to be an easy, creative way to set aside a little bit of savings. It’s almost the end of March so we wanted to check in to see how you’re doing with this month’s challenge.

Recap: March’s Challenge

The challenge for March was to quit the gym. The purpose of this money-saving challenge was to encourage you to find ways to enjoy fitness without spending a lot of money. If you stop paying money for gym memberships and fitness classes and start trying to exercise in frugal ways, you should be able to save at least £60 ($100) per month which is the goal.

Problems That People Might Be Running Into

This can be a relatively easy challenge for a lot of people. However, it’s called a challenge for a reason and that’s because it can also be tough. If you’re trying to keep up with saving money on fitness then you might be facing some difficulties. Some common difficulties that people might be facing with this challenge include:

• You’ve quit working out all together. One of the biggest problems that people run into with this challenge is that they quit the gym but then can’t get motivated to continue working out. This is not only bad for your body; it can be bad for your budget depending on how you’re spending the time that you used to spend at the gym. If you’ve run into this problem, it’s time to get back on track. Find a jogging buddy or brainstorm a list of free fitness activities that you can start to enjoy today.
• You’re stuck in a gym contract. Some people went to their local gym to end their membership only to find out that they are stuck in a contract that they can’t get out of without paying a fee. In that case, it’s not frugal to quit the gym. You’ll want to read the fine print on the contract to make sure that you really can’t get out of it. Then you’ll want to see if there are any other fitness expenses that you can cut back on. (Re-read the full post about the March challenge to get some ideas.)
• Someone else is giving you a guilt trip. Many of us go to the gym or workout with other people in our lives such as a friend or spouse. If you want to change up the workout routine to be more frugal but the other person doesn’t want you to then they might be trying to guilt trip you. If that’s the case, it’s time to sit down with them and have a talk. Clearly express what your money-saving goals are and why this is important to you. Ask them to work with you and assure them that you still want to work out with them but in a more frugal way. Let them know how much your support is needed in this and hopefully the problem will be resolved.
• You’re not sure if you’re really saving money. Many people switch gears with fitness but then end up spending money on different fees or equipment or sports clothing. Make sure that you track your spending so that you know for sure how much this challenge is really helping you out.

Renewing Your Motivation

At the end of the month, it’s good to renew your motivation to this goal to give it a final push. Here are some tips:

• Add up the potential savings. If you haven’t quit the gym yet or you’re not cutting back on fitness spending as much as you’d like, it might help to see the numbers. Sit down and brainstorm all of your exercise expenses and then calculate them to see what your savings would be if you switched to free fitness.
• Find a free fitness option that you’re really excited about. Do something new and wacky and wild that you can get really excited about at least for a short period of time. Find a free local class or ask a friend to exercise with you. If you feel excited about fitness, you’ll be more likely to work out and to stick with the goal of doing it for free or cheap.
• Make a written commitment to yourself to meet this goal. Sometimes we just need to sit down and clarify our money-saving goals before we can truly put them into action.
• Make a list of the benefits you get from not going to the gym anymore. You want to focus on all of the benefits and not just the fact that you’re saving money. Maybe you spend more time with your kids now because working out involves hiking with them or perhaps you waste less time going to and from fitness classes now that you do yoga at home.

Can You Do This All Year Long?

This is a really great money-saving challenge because once you make the switch it’s one that you can probably stick with. If you keep working out for free or cheap all throughout the rest of the year then you’ll save a lot more money in 2010 than the original goal of this challenge. Do you think you can keep it up?

Track Your Progress in Our Comments

We want to support you in saving money. If you’ve been participating in this challenge, we’d love to hear how you’re doing. If you’re just a reader who is thinking about trying out some of these challenge tips, we’d love to hear that too!

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