The Price of Fat
May 25, 2006 
You hear people talk about how expensive it is to be overweight in terms of health costs and doctor bills, but what they never mention is how much it can cost to join a decent gym!
There is a nice (but not fabulous) gym really close to my house that offers the hip-hop and cycling classes that I want to take. I went in this morning to check it out, and it is WAY more expensive than I was expecting. It’s a $250 enrollment fee plus $80 a month. Is that alot? You do get all of the classes for free, plus nice gym equipment and a pretty good dressing room, but I still think that’s pretty bad. Am I wrong? Is this reasonable?
That’s a lot, and it can be negotiated. With just about 2 minutes of “Oh, that’s way more than I can afford,” I got my gym down from $60 a month to $35. And the “initiation fee” or whatever should be completely waivable. Tell them you ain’t got it and see what they can do.
NOW is a good time because salespeople get hungry to make their number at the end of the month.
That being said, I still never go to the gym.