I can’t afford THAT!
This is a nice little one I hear all the time.
“I would love to do personal training or CrossFit but I just can’t afford it.”
So then they do the alternatives, either nothing, or worse case scenario, take out a gym membership and get locked into 12 months, 2 years, whatever, and only go once or twice.
I am now calling shenanigans on this “excuse”!
Something you may not know about me is that I have a degree in Commerce and spent 8 years in sales and marketing. So I not only know a little about cleans, snatches and muscle ups, but I know a little bit about budgeting.
So I am going to break it down for you as simply as I can to show you that you can not only afford it, you can’t afford not to do it!
This will be quite simplistic so bear with me for a bit.
I am going to pop in a few “incidentals” and show you that it really isn’t that expensive nowadays to have a PT or CF membership.
So maybe your standard week consists of 1 or 2 takeaway coffees each day, maybe a bought lunch 2 days per week, takeaway food 1 night per week, drinks at the pub 1 night a week plus your unused gym membership.
We have:
Coffees $40 per week
Lunch $30 per week
Takeaway $20 per week (conservative)
Drinks $50
Gym Membership $10-$15 (unused)
Here we already have $150- $155 per week. Now you can add in and take out the bits that apply to yourself, but you can see that a few little savings can add up quickly.
Reduce your espresso coffees to 3 per week, save $28
Take your lunch from home each day and don’t throw away spoiled food at the end of the week save $30
Get rid of the takeaway, it is doing you no good, save $20 per week.
Have a few less drinks, alternate with water, save $25
Scrap the unused gym membership, save $10- $15
So we have cut $113-$118 from your expenses.
A CrossFit membership is $45-$55 per week, you are $58 to $73 per week better off by having that membership.
But this has only scratched the surface, there are countless other little things that you purchase over the course of the week that you either don’t need, or are detrimental to your fitness goals. And that is the main point, the vices I have cut back on are detrimental to any exercise program.
I’ll go further in another post about not only the monetary, but also the costs associated with health issues.
About the Author
Jim Ridley is Armidale’s accomplished personal trainer. Having lost over 25 kilos and becoming a PT, Jim knows where you are coming from. He is the owner of Gym Ridz Personal Training and CrossFit Armidale, 2012 Winners of the Health, Beauty and Wellbeing section in the Armidale Chamber of Commerce Business Awards. The only private training studio in Armidale and Armidale’s only CrossFit gym. He is also an avid if not tragic St George Illawarra Dragons fan.