I’ve been flip flopping about the cost of exercise in the past few weeks.  I’ve been a great believer in exercising for “free” in the past. But I was given a free Les Mills Bootcamp (usual cost $299 for five weeks) and have thoroughly enjoyed the grueling experience.  I’m now chewing over whether to sign up and pay for another Bootcamp, or do go back to exercising on my own.  One option could be to go along to the Devonport Xpressos, which go out for a ride twice a week.  I may end up having to buy some new and expensive gear for this…..

Here are some of my previous thoughts, which I wrote for MSN (you can check out my other work on MSN):

Getting fit doesn’t have to involve going to the gym, joining expensive clubs and classes, or having a personal trainer. Just think about the number of people you know who have signed up to the gym or bought a 10-class concession card and never actually gone more than a handful of times.

Try one of these low-cost ways to get into shape:

Run, walk or cycle
Running, cycling and walking are virtually free especially if you already have the gear you need such as shoes or a bike. It’s possible to get very fit indeed if you dedicate yourself to these exercises.

At-home activities
Even if you can’t leave home to exercise, it’s possible to get fit. Old-fashioned exercises such as skipping, step-ups, sit-ups, squats and press-ups really do work.

Buy your own equipment.
It’s not free, but there are fitness aids you can buy for modest prices and use at home. The cheapest of these are probably hand weights, skipping ropes and exercise videos or DVDs. If the kids have a Wii, then consider buying Wii Fit or something similar.

There are even exercise programs on TV that you could record and watch or hire exercise DVDs from the library or DVD shop. If you’re sure you will use it, then buy an exercycle, treadmill or rowing machine. These can be picked up very cheaply second-hand.

Turn everyday events into exercise
That includes walking or running up and down the stairs at work instead of taking the lift. In one job where I worked on the fourth floor I never took the lift. And if you’re a parent, instead of watching your children dance, play tiggy or pass a rugby ball, join in with them.

Think laterally
One idea is to use public exercise equipment. It’s not common, but can be found in parks. In my neck of the woods I know of outdoor equipment at the Ngataringa Sports Grounds, run by the navy in Auckland’s Devonport, and also the Rocket Park in Mt Albert.

At Mt Albert you can bench press, exercise your triceps and more on brightly coloured gym equipment not that different to what you’d get at Les Mills or Just Workout. The navy equipment involves heavy pipes attached to chains that you use like traditional barbells and hand weights.

Get a friend to be your personal trainer, or be each other’s trainer
You can even find buddies online. The key thing about a trainer is that they make you stick to your goals and review your progress. But be careful. It’s easy to get injured if you follow an unscientific routine. If you do choose this option it’s best to download an exercise program off the Internet by searching for “exercise programs” and “work-out routines”.

Gym hop
Julia Neyman, author of the blog “Buns of Steal”, takes lateral thinking to a new level and has found a way to use gyms for free using a technique called gym hopping. “Gyms, yoga studios, karate dojos and the like all want my (nonexistent) money, and they’re willing to lure me with the offer of a free session, or sometimes even a free week. They think it’ll be love at first sweat,” she writes. However, gym hopping is easier if you live in a city the size of New York. There may not be enough gyms in Levin or Westport to do this trick.

Don’t forget that doctors recommend you get a medical checkup before starting a new exercise program.

Have your say: How much do you spend on exercise? Do you have any low-cost options to share?

Read more

• Health Hub
• Energy estimator
• Check your BMI
• Keeping an achievement diary

Supermarket shopping is a contact sport for Betty.  Watch me and you’ll see me make a dash past the fresh fruit and veg, straight to the budget lines.  It’s not that we don’t eat fruit and veg.  To the contrary.  But we certainly don’t buy it at Third World (you probably know it as New World). Nor do we buy meat.  Fruit and veg are bought outside of Devonport because it’s sometimes half the price. More about that in another post.  This one’s about Trolleyology:

So you just need to buy two things at the supermarket? Fat chance. Walk through that door and the marketing men have got you by the short and curlies. One false move, it was once said, and your bill explodes.

Nothing you encounter on your weekly food shop is accidental, from the bakery smells pumped into the entranceway to the placing of higher-margin baked beans at eye level. That’s thanks to supermarket psychology, or trolleyology as it’s dubbed in the United States.

These days psychologists, retail geographers , and food marketing experts pour over ever last inch of supermarkets looking how to extract more moolah out of you.  Your every move in the supermarket is choreographed, says consumer psychologist Dr David Lewis. Generally speaking the most expensive items with high profit margins are placed on shelves that are at shoppers’ eye level. Powerful companies such as Proctor and Gamble and Kimberley-Clark actually pay a premium to snatch these shelves.  So if you’re shopping for nappies, Huggies will be at eye level and Budget brand white el cheapo nappies will be somewhere around your feet.

Am I being cynical?

Lewis who has spent 15 years analysing how we buy says: “nothing is left to chance.”  You’ll find that the width of the aisles are planned so that you are prevented from bumping into other people, but aren’t too wide so you can’t get you hands on products. Composers even spend their lives writing music designed to entice shoppers to buy more goods.

Products are often grouped together to entice you to buy more, Lewis adds.  You’ll often find pasta sauces on the same display as a featured brand of pasta.

How do they do this?

The supermarkets have vast amounts of data about our shopping habits from point of sale, loyalty card databases and also market research data that is given to psychologists and the retail geographers to create an optimum store layout.

How can you beat them at their own game?

The best defence against inflated supermarket bills is preparation. Put simply, you should always shop on a full stomach, go with a list, only buy sale items and offers and visit at the time of the day when fresh produce is discounted. Many experts say you should plan your meals for a week at a time and only buy items you need for your menu plan. But I’m supremely organised, yet I couldn’t stick to that and I don’t know anyone who could.

Another of Betty’s favourite topics over the years has been parenting on a budget. Back before my first child I hated the idea of driving the suburbs in an urban Landrover, bankrupted by the paraphenalia I’d bought for the kids. Here’s something Betty penned right back at the turn of the 21st century:

What are the golden rules of buying on a budget?

To kick this blog off, I’ve gone back through some of my old files looking for classic Bargain Betty-isms.

One is the theory of Bangernomics, which I live by. I’m still driving the same car I bought on my return to New Zealand in 2003 and long may it live.  No keeping up with the Jones and their flash lease cars for betty:

How Bangernomics works is that if you can swallow your pride and drive a slightly older car or hold onto your existing wheels for longer you’ll be able to afford other luxuries, or even better, save more with RaboPlus. Check out the website www.turnerschallenge.co.nz if you want to see just how rapidly cars lose their value. The lowest price for a 2003/4 Honda CRV sold at auction in Wellington in the last six months of last year was $16,400 compared with $7,750 for the 2001/2 year. And the older one had fewer miles on the clock. Ouch. Think of how many holidays to the Gold Coast or Fiji that would cover.

Some expenses cost more for new cars than old ones. That includes regular service at a main dealer, rather than Joe Bloggs local motors, to keep your warranty alive. You’re likely to pay more in insurance as well.

Wellingtonian Tim* discovered Bangernomics while on his OE in London. Faced one night with a £25 taxi fare, he bought a mate’s Nissan for £80 on the spot. Tom owned the car for five months, in which time it cost him nothing more than ordinary consumables such as petrol and window washer fluid. He then sold it for £50. Tim’s next car, an £8,000 Range Rover cost a further £8K over four years.

That doesn’t mean you need to buy a rust bucket. Rather try keeping your existing motor for longer and don’t fall for the industry’s marketing ploys to sell you a new or nearly new car every year. The money would be better put towards assets that grow, not depreciate.

If you really want to know exactly what your car is costing you, visit the car cost calculator on the NZ Motorsport website at: http://www.nzmotorsport.co.nz/calculator/carcost.cfm

You can find more useful information about cutting the cost of motoring at:

www.fuelsaver.govt.nz

www.aalemoncheck.co.nz

www.aa.co.nz (for car running costs)

Bargain Betty has been my alter ego for at least 15 years.  The name “Bargain Betty” was coined by my German flatmate of four years Sylke Joa to describe my prowess at sniffing out a bargain. Sylke was a master at saving money as well and we fed off each other’s ideas.

Over the years I’ve always enjoyed writing articles about the secrets of savvy shopping. From this my blog has been born.

As you will see over time that I’m happiest when conjuring up ideas to save money. The more creative the better.  This also requires you, the reader, to give me topics to investigate and to challenge my ideas.

Happy reading and posting.