I joined a small gym a month ago. After one month, I must say, I'm still on the border with this decision. I have not gone as frequently as I thought I would. I did faithfully attend two kickboxing classes per week. Aside from that, I think I went to the gym about 3 or 4 times on my own.

The monthly fee is $79; if I attended 8 classes, that's roughly $10/class. I checked their website and read that, if you decide to attend a random class here or there, it is $10/class. So I guess I broke even. Factor in those 3-4 visits and I saved just an itsy bit of money.

So...the verdict? Undecided. One of the reasons I did not go to the gym was because it has been a very warm October. I've been ok with waking early to run in the mornings. But from experience, I know I HATE running in the cold, dark, icy pre-dawn hours, so that might push me towards using the gym. I'm actually going to go after work today and try out running on the treadmill.

I'll give this another month. If all I end up doing is going to the kickboxing classes, then I'll probably cancel the membership and just do the pay-by-class option. It depends if I can learn to love the dreadmill- oops! I mean, treadmill =)

Can I make it through this month without spending on non-essential items? By that I mean no clothes, no purses, no mid-afternoon vending machine sugar boosts. It would definitely be neat to see how much $$$ I end up saving. Estimating from previous months' expenditures, I might save anywhere from $300-500!