Blogging Away Debt Blogging Away Debt follows real people on their journey to debt freedom — with tips on the debt snowball, budgeting, cutting expenses, and staying motivated.

by Adam Dawson

Time to stir up some controversy.

I’ve always heard this saying, “you can’t put a price on your health.” And I’ve always thought it was bunk.  When I was in my 20s, health came naturally.  Even when my diet was out of whack, my body was resilient.  I was rarely sick, needed very little health care, and stayed in reasonably good shape without too much work, or expense.

I think Emily and I have both realized that the thirties will be a different story altogether.  Fitness faux pas have much swifter and more drastic consequences for us.  Our nutrition choices seem to have a huge impact on our immediate health and well being.  So suddenly, the saying that you can’t put a price on your health makes more and more sense to me.

That said, as I mentioned in the last post, we’ve both decided to join a gym this year. Emily actually joined in the fall but I was reluctant due to my own laziness and the expense of the membership.  And it is definitely expensive, but my take is that it will be worth it in the long run.  In my own family, I’ve seen the future consequences of a life of unhealthy choices.  So we decided that we will just have to make whatever budget changes are necessary to make it work.  Although the bill is high, between a small company reimbursement and some other offsetting budget changes (less eating out, less trips to the movies, less junk food), the net impact on budget won’t be that great.  I could have found a cheaper solution, but I think there’s also a really huge benefit that the more expensive gym we chose is somewhere Emily and I can go together, with a range of activities suitable for both of us.  It’s actually pretty fun to spend this quality time together, and we can also encourage and reinforce our healthy habits.

So – your turn.  Does a gym membership fit into your debt payoff budget?  What price is a membership worth to you?

by Adam Dawson

Something I’m realizing as we blog about our debt journey on this site is that financial improvements, at least in our house, tend to come in the form of small changes that add up over time.  I used to think that our financial issues would be solved if we could just force ourselves to sit down and create a budget that “works,” using some nifty software, and deciding together that we needed to cut X,Y, and Z expense, and we’d just make all the changes and use the envelopes method, and then we’d be on the straight and narrow.

Maybe that works for your family, but we’ve repeatedly fallen on our fiscal faces trying these methods.  I’ve found that, when it comes to the daily grind of budgeting and managing the inflow and outflow, it’s a series of small changes that really makes the difference in saving money.  For instance, taking breakfast out of the equation because of the office snacks.  Searching out a good deal on a mobile phone.  Renting out a room for a couple months, and buying work clothes at Costco instead of a department store.

With the new year, we have a few changes that I believe will be a net positive on our budget.  I now pay for my mobile phone but the new cheaper plans from AT&T are saving me about $20/month.  $70 of my phone expense is reimbursed by the company.  We have an increase in expenses for the new year gym membership, but hopefully it will mostly be offset by savings from dietary changes we’re making (I’m trying to give up my diet coke habit, for example).  Eating out less and ordering water to drink will cut our restaurant bill.  Finally, I believe Emily is going to try Paul Mitchell School for her next hair cut and color, which should be radically cheaper than retail.

These are just some examples of the small changes we’ve made in the New Year.  We owe you a household budget and I am committed to posting and discussing.  But for now, we are getting closer and closer to making it work with these little changes that have added up.