Monthly costs

[FabFitFifties]

I currently pay £32 a month, to do pilates once a week face to face, and £10 a month fir access to video classes by my instructor. I want to join a gym. Average gym costs are about £30 a month in my area - or £28 for council gym including swimming. I love my pilates, and don't want to give it up, but want to increase my fitness. So I'll be looking at about £70 a month. I can afford that, but it seems a lot. What do you pay monthly for fitness? I'd love to do 2 pilates a week, but another £32 pound on top seems OTT.

[sinpan]

Currently paying very roughly £40ish per month for the gym, £16 for a couple of fitness apps which I do use (but probably not enough) , and another £28 for weekly online sessions with a trainer I like working with - that is for this month only but I'd be happy to continue. I pay upfront so I dont have to think about it again.

i ended up gradually escalating my spend during lockdown when the gyms were closed, so now £90 per month seems perfectly normal - and that is still not close to the cost of some exclusive gym memberships. But i will probably drop one of the apps at renewal time now that the gyms are open.

I think it depends what the value is to you? If you love your pilates trainer, that is probably worth a lot. Can you try out the gym subscription for a few months and cancel if you dont like it?

[TreesAGreenInTheNorth]

£140 for gym membership incl classes, gym, spa, pools. Sounds a lot but before joining I spent at least £100 a month on yoga without pool/spa/gym/other classes.

Yoga is £12 a go here - in the north.

[FourChimneys]

I don't pay anything but I guess that isn't helpful. I walk about 30 to 40 miles a week, run twice a week and do about 20 minutes of exercises at home every day.

[Ikeameatballs]

£15/month for gym here.

[pearandsausage]

I have membership to a CrossFit gym which is 4 classes a week for £85 - sounds pricey but I rarely miss a class so works out as £5.30ish per class which I think is reasonable

[MsMartini]

£45 for high street gym membership that happens to include a weekly specialist class in my main thing (calisthenics), £50pcm for PT (weekly but I share with training partner, we only pay if it happens), £5 most weeks for Saturday park bootcamp.

I used to pay about £65 for high street gym membership, and at another time 2/3 classes a week at 8 quid a pop.

Do any of your local gyms have decent Pilates, OP, so you could get it included? I'd never have thought my little local small chain gym would have this class.

[rookiemere]

£89 per month for gym membership plus £4 per class for neighbours outdoor weekly class.

[ivykaty44]

£66 for a gym membership, swim and spin mainly, some money on cycling outside

I look on it as an investment on my body and that hopefully it'll pay off long term to leave me with a comfortable body to live in. I figure if I smoked it would be costing me £10 a packet and £35 per week if I smoked 10 each day.

[FinallyHere]

How do you decide what is reasonable and what is OTT for your own health and pleasure? Would it help to consider what you can afford and what else you might do with that money?

For the record, my DH is not very well so our opportunities to travel and have holidays etc are dramatically reduced.

Some of the money we no longer use on holidays etc I now use on myself, for a weekly 121 yoga lesson plus a health club membership of an amazing health club which is an absolute luxury. I redo the yoga myself throughout the week and am also a member of several walking groups and target 10k steps outdoors daily.

All treats for me and completely calorie free.

[easyday]

I pay £48/week for two hour long zoom personal training sessions, which is cheap - normally it's £50/hour and up for PT around here.

[PeggyGa]

£171 for a gym with a lovely spa, outdoor pool, unlimited classes including reformer Pilates. I get my money worth and spend alit of time there

[ForcingSmiles]

I paid about £400 for the year for my gym membership which gives me access to all the gyms in my local area.

£32 is excessive for one face to face class a week. Can you not find a gym (I know mine does as I do them) that offers pilates classes? Part of my membership includes the classes so I can do as many as I want (I currently do three alongside other classes)

[MigsandTiggs]

I have been doing Pilates for twenty years with the same instructor, so I've opted for a weekly in person class @£10 plus an off-peak Village Gym membership @£44 as I'm now retired. The membership is cheaper because I joined the gym about six years ago and my fees were fixed. Current Off Peak membership is £51 and Peak £69. I do about eight gym classes a week, Step, Legs, bums and tums, aquarobics, Tabata and Pilates, even though it is at a much lower level than my other class.

[MrOllivander]

£39 a month for peloton
Covers the bike classes, strength, yoga, stretching, walks/runs, meditation....

[hellcatspanglelalala]

£15 a month, including free classes 😁

[FabFitFifties]

Thankyou everyone, seems I'm a skinflint! I really love my pilates class, and I think our teacher is exceptional, so I think the feel good factor is probably worth it. I'm going to keep it going, plus the video access. I have a community centre near me that only charges £3 per session for their gym, so I'll see If I regain my old love of weight training. If I do, I'll join the council gym and take comfort in getting swimming and other classes thrown in. I'm happy if I feel like I'm getting a bit of a bargain somewhere 😂 TreesAGreenInTheNorth- £12 per yoga session!! I'm in the North too, and used to pay £5! PeggyGa-£171!!! 😲🤣

[Goatinthegarden]

Technically, I pay nothing at all. However, we turned one room of our house into a ‘gym’ so there was some cost involved in that. I also hike, run and cycle and I dread to think what I’ve spent on the gear I use.

I get a lot of use out of it all though. My late father used to talk about cost vs hours of entertainment. So I think if you pay £££ for a gym membership but use it really frequently and really enjoy it, then it’s worth it.

[Gladioli23]

I pay about £70 a month for my gym membership - which is a lot, especially as I could get a full gym membership for about £40 a month inc swimming. But it has an outdoor pool, is open pretty much every hour I could want to go and I really enjoy it.

I would say though that my gym membership includes Pilates etc - it has 14 pilates classes a week, plus 12 yoga and 6 yoga/pilates mix so it might be worth trying a local gym membership and seeing if you like any of their instructors - as that might enable you to just pay a fixed fee for as many classes as you want - obviously v dependent on class timing too!

I really like that smoking analogy - it definitely costs a lot less than that!

[CirreltheSquirrel]

£12.99 per month for zwift, £140 per month for a cycling coach, free weekly yoga at work (just 30 minutes but that's enough for me at the moment), plus the money I spend on cycling kit, cafe stops and race entry. But it's basically my only hobby.

[hihellohihello]

Only pay for kit. I run and walk, do weights, strength and resistance exercises at home. Any new exercises for my routine I look up on YouTube.

[FabFitFifties]

I think I'm coming round to the cost v entertainment/benefits way of thinking. I think I've been brainwashed by my partner into thinking I have to go for most cost effective options. I need to be more true to me, and think for myself again - in my 20's I joined the most expensive gym in my area and went to lots of additional classes elsewhere, for years. Didn't give the cost a second thought. It was a priority for me. Stopped in my 30's when we moved in together. He moaned about the time spent exercising,even though that's the me he'd known me for the first 12 years of our relationship. So I'll use my money on what I enjoy - assuming my love of exercise is rekindled! I don't think I'll be joining the really expensive "leisure club" type gym again though - I associate that with a much younger/slimmer/stronger/more glam me, that is far removed from my present state!

[rookiemere]

Also convenience is a factor.
I was going to cancel my expensive gym membership but they've offered me 2 months for free which makes it only a little bit more expensive than other places, and it's just so easy to book classes there and turn up.

[rookiemere]

Also I bet your DP spends money in what is important to him. I was thinking of cancelling to save our household money, meanwhile DH is planning to get a Porsche which seems to go up in cost by £5k every time I speak to him. I realised that I was economising so he could appear like a king.

[Iamanunsafebuilding]

I pay £20 a month for my gym membership and that includes classes. I'm a runner and I run outside so I didn't want to pay loads for the gym as I knew I would only go twice or maybe 3 times a week. My gym isn't flashy and doesn't have a pool but it's 10 mins down the road and has body pump classes!

[Twilightstarbright]

I pay for Peloton which is £39 a month, and the local council leisure centre which is £29 a month but mainly to take DS swimming.

I love the analogy of smoking/investing in my health. I think as long as you use these things it’s ok. I’ve previously spent £100 a month for a fancy gym and never gone.