Which gym? Cheap but a drive or local but expensive?

[Mikunia]

I can't decide which gym to go to!

I've been a member of PureGym for years, it's cheap and I get gym and classes access for £22 a month, parking is easy and free. But it's a 20-minute drive away and I no longer work in the town it's in so have to make a special trip and my fuel costs £3.20 per gym trip. My life circumstances are different now and time is very stretched so that extra 40 minutes on top of a gym visit can be hard to justify. There's no community, it's in and out, get the job done. Classes are only 30 mins so I usually then do a bit of gym as well while I'm there. Sometimes I go just to do the gym for an hour.

My friend bought me a month trial at her gym in our town. It's a really friendly gym with a community (people chatted to me even on my first visit) but it's £46 a month just for classes. Classes are 45 mins. To have the gym as well is £58 a month. It's a five minute drive away (20 minute walk) but parking is tricky though free if you can get a space. If not, then it's £2 in the car park next door.

So if I go twice a week I'm deciding between:
Cheap: £28.40/month plus 80 mins driving time a week, gym and classes
Local: £46.64/month and 20 mins driving time a week, classes only

I don't know what to do! £46 for only classes is a lot of money. But I'm already paying £22 plus fuel so it's "only" £18 extra a month. I can't afford to add the gym as well but I do have weights at home however I never make time to do them like I make time to go to the gym.

But I can't just get better at going to the cheap one as the class times mean I often can't make the classes due to my other commitments because I don't have the physical time to get there and back.

And, I work for myself so time is literally money. That extra hour a week driving to the cheap gym costs me £14 in wages, net. So I could argue the expensive gym is only £4 extra (but still classes only).

The other factor is I hardly ever manage to go to the cheap one now because of how my life is with work and children who both have additional needs, whereas I'm managing to get to the local one.

Is the driving time saved (30 mins saved each gym trip) and the ease of being able to pop out for a class and be home in under an hour, instead of it taking over an hour for a shorter class worth the extra £16 (£4 if taking my wages/working ability into account)? But then it's only classes and would be an extra £30 (or £14) to add the gym which is so expensive.

What would you do? And why? I think hearing other perspectives on this will help me decide!

Local, expensive one every day. The cheapest gym in the one you actually go to. The biggest waste of money is the one you pay for but never manage to actually attend.

As above.

Local expensive one. It's so easy to fizzle out if you have a long drive. I'd walk to the local one to get the extra steps in.

Do they do classes with weights? I used to do a class where there were different stations with weights and it was great- I thought it would be too hard core but it wasn't.

Yes they do, I've been to that one and it's good.

What are you driving that your fuel costs are so high? Or is it a motorway journey?

To make good use of a gym it needs to be a habit it's easy to keep up. You have to be extra disciplined to drive that distance in order to go. Local but more expensive is likely to be a much better investment for those reasons.

Go for the local one. You're more likely to actually use it.

Cheap but rarely used is poor value for money. Factor in 40 mins of petrol, wear and tear on the car and your carbon footprint to each visit and it's a no brainer.

It's just what my car costs, 20p a mile, it's a diesel people carrier and it's old. I worked out what it costs from my actual fuel costs

Local more expensive one, but maybe wait a bit to see I'd they do any deals. I did a gym membership once in Sept not knowing they do a December special offer, which was super annoying. Maybe ask what deals they've had in the past so you know if this is likely.

Can you run to the gym? Make it your warm up!

I think I would die if I ran! I'm not a runner at all. Maybe when I'm fitter but my cardio is dance and ice skating rather than running. I don't do treadmills or anything like that.