Gym Membership Cost Cutting: Official MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

johanne1980

Hi,
Me and my family are all members of David Llyods (2 adults & 2 children)...however it was great whilst I was on maternity leave but now I am back at work (I'm a dance teacher), neither hubby or I have time to go...I am paying nearly £200 a month for this luxury that I am unable to pay for as my husband has just been laid off and I have to pay £600 a mth nursery fees. I am tied into a 12 month contract....is there anyway we can get out of this as we desperately can't find the money to pay for it!!!! PLS SOME ONE HELP ME WITH ADVISE??????????????

Jo

yummymummy79

A contract is a contract and you're tied in unless the company agree to let you cancel early, but they usually don't as thats how they make their money. Maybe write to them explaining your situation, ask if there is a way you could reduce the payments for the rest of the term etc but they are quite entitled to say no.

btw, this would be better in the consumer rights thread!

disabled_2

jon200 wrote: »

Hi guys,

Me and my partner are both pretty overweight and decided that now is the time to really knuckle down.
I excercise on and off. Enough to maintain my weight, but not enough to lose any.

Phoned around the local gyms (Wickford, Essex). Wanted a decent gym with lots of choice in excercise.
Best price i got was £37.95 each at Fitness First. They said they no longer do joint memberships because of a court case a couple of years ago.

We quite simply do not have that amount of money each spare per month to join and was wondering if anyone had any ideas or suggestions?

I joined the local leisure centre, but the gym is small and is always extremely busy to the point where you have to wait up to an hour for any of the cardio equipment.

hello i have just joned the site . I am disabled and a member of nuffield health club i can only go to the gym if i can and when i can . Nuffield wants £47 per month from me -off peak . i have just written and asked if they can do me a deal as it is too much cash fro the times i can go and cannot afford the premium membership . but they do have a swimming pool which not to many gyms have .

sooz

spend £75 at boots.com in September & get 1/2 price virgin active membership for 12 months.

http://www.boots.com/en/50-percent-off-Virgin-Active-Health-Club-Membership_1017053/?cm_re=Product-_-090909_150909-_-C9083_Image2&cm_sp=half_price_virgin_active_when_you_spend_75-_-090909_150909-_-C9083_Image2

I_am_mad

Hi does anyone know or had any experience of getting reduced rates with this gym as I am thinking of joining as it is is closest to me. I am a student and the rate is 359 for a year, which at the moment cant really afford but do really need to join the gym.

Any info would be grateful. Thank you

lenga01

sooz wrote: »

spend £75 at boots.com in September & get 1/2 price virgin active membership for 12 months.

http://www.boots.com/en/50-percent-off-Virgin-Active-Health-Club-Membership_1017053/?cm_re=Product-_-090909_150909-_-C9083_Image2&cm_sp=half_price_virgin_active_when_you_spend_75-_-090909_150909-_-C9083_Image2

Just wondered if this deal was still on as the link is not working for me now,

thanks.

katy.martin.london

Hi,

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this but I just joined Club Motivation which is inside Holiday Inn (we used Borehamwood branch)

The people there are great - and one of them knows that money is pretty tight for us right now so she told us about Health Force - a website that deals with all sorts of different gyms all over the place.

This is online and reduced our membership from £36 a month to £25.50 a month with no joining fee. it's only for 3 months instead of the full year like normal membership so if it doesn't seem like good value or we see a better offer we can change over.

You can do it online but you don't have to - we did it in the gym and we also got a month free because we asked when we signed up to the trail (2 weeks ago) about offers and they gave us a big postcard with an offer on and the manager felt obliged to honour it.

Hope it helps someone.

Katy:D

lizclassic54

On Sunday I visited my local LA fitness and bought 20 guest passes for £50
Thats a full day pass (you can leave and return during the day) AND you dont have to visit with an exisiting member!
Thats a deal and means I dont feel guilty when I miss a few days

jago25_98

The main thing I recommend is look in your local yellow pages (or yell.com) for a small independent gym.

This might be a family run affair, or associated with a school or community centre.

Forget the chains, they may be better on comfort but aren't listening to what people like me want. I always have to join small gyms because I move about and the large chains will not make any offers to help people who move about for work, even when a group of 10 of us approached our local Cannons in Plymouth for a discount or access to nationwide branches at the same price as one site access.

Independant gyms are soo much better. Come in, say hello and you're on a first name basis. Friendly. Motivating, and the last place I was at I got free training, and could pay per week or month. The place before that was run by the previous British bodybuilding champ.

Another trick could be arranging regular training at someone's house who has some equipment.

Finally, gyms help because it's a place you go to, so it's motivating. Instead of this if you can get a pattern in terms of time (i.e. a morning run), then you're still getting the benefit. If you're running on the beach, or a park there's still people looking at you to motivate.

allan2006

I recently cancelled my fitnessfirst membership but am looking around for another gym to join, ideal less than £35 a month.

Currently though there dont seam to be any offers on, and they are all charging joining fees.

I`d imagine the gym chains will start their get fit for xmas marketing scheme soon though........