While I pride myself on my ability to make frugal choices when necessary, I recently did something wildly different. Ian and I made the decision to join a gym. Not only did we decide to skip out on some of Manhattan’s cheaper gym options; we went all out on one of the most expensive gyms. As recurring high-cost purchases go, this is it. Fitness is worth it, though, and I’m hoping this huge cost will be the kick I need to get my act together.
My Tenuous Relationship with Exercise
I hate exercising. In my last apartment, I had access to a free gym, which I rarely used. Before this year, my main source of exercise was ballroom dancing, which cost me $5-7K yearly since I moved to NYC two years ago. That is no more. Ian and I have since relocated to the West Village. That has helped me finally take the final step in leaving ballroom (for now), a move that has been in the making since I moved up to NYC from DC.
At first, I thought this would be win-win. Cutting ballroom costs would more than offset the increased cost in rent from moving into the city, and it’s not like I was getting a huge workout from dancing, anyway. Who knew I would miss moving around for 45 min once a week so much?
Ian has been asking me for months (probably longer) to join some sort of gym/class with him. For most of this year I pushed back, saying that yes, we could sign up for yoga eventually or yes, I would go on runs with him (as that is a free/cheap activity). Nothing happened. I shouldn’t be surprised, I have a constant problem with holding myself accountable when it comes to fitness.
Would You Pay Money to Lose Weight?
I feel like a lot of people would say yes. In a sense, this is what weight loss surgery can be, as well as diet programs. Isn’t a gym membership similar? It’s cheaper than other weight loss options but requires more energy and work. In today’s society, weight loss solutions are billed as high-cost purchases.
Well, I’m not an exception. I want to lose weight. I’m willing to pay for it, and I know I have a history of no accountability. In fact, there aren’t many things I pay attention to as close as I do money. What better incentive for weight loss than a financial one?
After months of inaction, Ian finally decided to go for an Equinox membership. He toured the one next to our apartment and was impressed by the class options, amenities, and other member benefits. After a week of deliberation, I joined as well. (He did get a $150 referral bonus.)
Tracking High-Cost Purchases
This gym membership may be the most expensive recurring discretionary purchase that I’ve ever had. To me, a monthly cost of $205 for a gym is astronomical. It’s excessive and unnecessary… I’m now paying it.
The minute we got home from signing up, I drew up a chart. If I’m paying this much for access to something I don’t even like, I better be getting my money’s worth. These are the basic guidelines for tracking the value of high-cost purchases:
- Segment the purchase into distinct benefits that you can use
- Assign a dollar amount to what you think that benefit is worth (not how much it costs)
- Decide on a time frame during which you want to receive the full value of your purchase
- Track your usage of each benefit; tally up the full value of your usage at the end of the time period
With a monthly gym membership, setting a time period is easy. However, you can still use this process to track the value of an expensive purse or a pair of shoes. A personal example – over a year ago, I spent $300 on a pair of boots and a coat (each). Although I didn’t approach those purchases with this tracking mindset, I easily could have. How much do you value wearing nice boots? $1 per wear? $0.50? If you’re serious about your large purchases, use this method to see how long it takes for you to get the full purchase value out of your usage.
Okay, that may be too intense for clothing items, but the general rule applies. My boots cost $300, and I’ve worn them maybe 50 times so far, which makes my per use cost $6. To me, that’s too expensive, so I know I need to wear those shoes at least 50-10 more times before I think that purchase was really worth it. (I do love those shoes though.)
All high-cost purchases can be broken down this way.
One Month of Equinox: Evaluating Worth
After one month of membership, here’s where Ian and I net out:
Ian: $225 in received value. Me: $187 in received value.
With the initial freebies from Equinox (free personal training session, 1:1 Pilates, and an Equifit appointment), it wasn’t hard to get a lot of immediate value from this membership.
To reiterate, we assigned values based on how much we thought each thing was worth, not by how much it costs. Many fitness classes easily go for $20 in the city, and a personal training session can also climb to $100 in a heartbeat.
Is This Gym Membership Worth It?
For Ian? Absolutely. The additional $50 in added value that he added at the end of the month covered what he called the “halo effect” of having a gym membership, which helped him make healthier choices even when he wasn’t working out.
Personally, I can’t put a value on that – my $20 in added value was for getting additional structure around what to do at the gym, and also for the times I hung out on the roof deck by the pool, admiring the city views. Although I didn’t get the full value out of the gym compared to what I’ve paid for it, I’m going to continue this experiment a while longer. I missed a whole third of the month due to traveling – if not for that, I would have easily gotten past $205 in usage.
After this first month, things are going to get interesting. Without the first month freebies, is this gym still worth it? Updates to come in future!
What other methods have you used the track the value of high-cost purchases?
Comments
This is a great idea and I’ll be interested to see what you think in another few months! My barre membership is way easier to quantify since the only benefit is the classes themselves (and I do get a discount on merchandise but even with the discount I’m still not buying $80 leggings). As long as I’m going 3x/week I’m paying $8.25 per class, which is absolutely reasonable to me!
I toyed with the idea of signing up for something cheaper like Yoga classes or Barre, but I realized I wanted something with a little more variety. That said, I clearly haven’t taken full advantage of that Equinox benefit yet – something I need to change ASAP!
I would join Equinox so I can get some Kiehl’s toiletries 🙂 I feel like spending a lot on a gym would actually force me to go. Accountability! I hate the idea of wasting money so if my gym membership was $200+ per month, you bet I’d be there almost every day.
In terms of deciding whether a high-cost purchase is worth it, I think about it in terms of how much I’ll use it. For that reason, I don’t think twice about the purchase of an expensive winter jacket or shoes I’ll wear every day.
I am definitely loving the unlimited Kiehl’s products at my disposal 😁
Everyday wear items like jackets and shoes? Easy enough. I think it becomes harder to evaluate for things like fancy occasion dresses and other limited use clothing. That’s why I’ve started using Rent the Runway for when I need nice attire than I own (which is not that often).