I feel dirty!

You know what will make you feel as dirty as haggling with a slimy car salesman for a new car? Shopping around for a new gym! I recently quit my job at the Y, which means I need a new place to work out. I first went to a local chain. They weren't too bad as far as the sleaze-factor goes. Their joining fee was a bit high at $60, but their monthly rate is only $20. It's a pretty basic place--cardio, weights, some classes. Not a lot of frills, but that's fine with me after working out at the Y for 2 1/2 years. Believe it or not, I'm not used to a lot of frills in my life ;)

The next place I went (intentionally toting my price info sheet from the previous gym) was the monstrous new L.A. Fitness. Oh my. That was an experience. After driving by the massive church-like structure that was supposed to be a gym, I should have known better. I walked in the door and was assigned a young, hot guy to first escort me around, before we sat down to "talk". He gave me the grand tour of the 90 pieces of cardio equipment, the acres of weights meant to work everything from my abs to my pinky finger, the locker rooms with wood-panelled lockers, the indoor pool, spa, and the childcare room with a McDonald's like play place and theater seating in front of a large screen T.V. I made the mistake of asking if they have anyone to assess body fat, as this is something I've been keeping up with for the past six months. Well, of course they did! And we could do it right now! Then I got the pleasure to meet "Toni", who was going to assess my body fat. Toni (a chick, if you didn't get that from the "i" in her name) asked me a few questions about my height, my weight (oohhh, she said, with a very surprised look on her fact), and then she had me stand with this contraption that read my body fat in three seconds. As she was telling me about how building muscle is what they do here at L.A. Fitness, I found her voice trailing off...I was mesmerized by her collagen enhanced lips, and wondering to myself just how many plastic surgeries this woman had had in her life. She looked strikingly similar to a plastic surgery addict I remember seeing on an old episode of Dr. Phil...but, I digress.

After my encounter with Toni, I got to sit down with whats-his-name hot guy (I honestly don't remember his name), and discuss just what we might do to "help" me today. This started out cordially enough. He started with one set of numbers...an exhorbitant joining fee of $150, and $59/month, or some other equally ridiculous amount. And then he sits back and says, "So, which of these do you think might work for you?"

"Neither", I said. He probed as to why I felt that way. "The joining fees are ridiculous." So he runs through a second set of numbers which I also rejected, and then a third (you see where I'm going with this). Then he says, "I see you went to [competitor's gym], what if I could meet their price, which would you choose?" I told him that I would probably choose L.A. Fitness, since it's more convenient to my son's school. "But we offer so much more VALUE than they do, to get you the results you want!"(I don't remember mentioning to him what results I wanted, I guess he inferred it from the diagnosis of my fat percentage). So I took that moment to level with him. I said, "Look, your gym is pretty, and new, but I, ahhh, don't really care. I'm not really impressed by pretty. I need a gym that's convenient, affordable, and that has good, safe childcare for my kids." Then he starts to get a bit testy with me. "Well, let me ask you something. If you liked [other gym] so much, why didn't you sign up when you went in." I think I made some kind of snorting sound, and I told him, "Because I'm smart with my money. I'm not going to sign up with the first gym I check out, without looking around to find the best value for my dollar. By the way, can I get a trial pass?" He begrudgingly agreed to give me a three-day pass, but assured me that I would lose all these great deals he had presented me with by not signing up today. I replied that I never had any intention of signing up today, and all of a sudden he became very aware of the next customer behind me. I don't think he actually ever said goodbye or anything...I just remember being somehow aware that our conversation was over, and meandering towards the door.

I don't even think I'll use the guest pass. I'm too scared of seeing that plastic lady again.

College Education on a Budget

I realized I never blogged that I graduated from college last month. :) I earned my B.S. in government, and graduated Magna Cum Laude.

One of the things about going back to school that I am most proud of, is that I did it without any student loan debt. I went back to community college in August 2005, and at that time we were so poor that I got way more financial aid than I even needed to go full time, buy books, etc. I am now a huge proponent of community college, and will encourage my children to go to community college after high school. Some of my professors were really wonderful, and you just can't even compare the cost. When I went to school in 2000-2001, I made the financially dumb decision to go to a private university. Neither of my parents went to college, and I honestly never realized that there was a difference. So imagine my shock when I found out that a class at a community college costs $200, instead of $4,000! What a deal! Especially since I can honestly say that the education I received at the private school was just not worth that much more than the community college education. In the Fall of 2007, I transferred from community college to a state university. I got a part-time job and started feverishly saving money to pay for what financial aid I didn't get. I was determined not to take out loans--we are done with that. The first two semesters I had to pay out about $1200 plus books. I also got very creative about purchasing books--I NEVER went to the college bookstore. For the most recent summer and fall semesters, I had enough money in grants and scholarships to pay for everything I needed and then some. I made a hobby out of finding scholarship money. In my last semester I still needed a math class, so I made the decision to take it at the community college, saving a bundle. I was also able to take that class online, saving gas money.

Me and my brood on graduation day:

Blog of Shame

Apparently, I've already broken my New Years Resolution. Sigh.

Saved some money yesterday by cutting Ethan's hair at home. I think I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself :)

$327 Snowball to Discover

Our Discover Card is our last little bit of consumer debt. The balance stands at $2800. We'd like to have it paid off by March. It's got a big minimum payment of $150, and it will be awesome to free that amount up every month. My goal is to send them a total of $1100 this month. We divide our budget up in half, since Michael gets paid twice a month. I just sent them the extra $327 that we had in the first half of the month, and I'm hoping to send them $785 from the back half of the month (barring anything unforeseen).

We've already paid off:
My Car
A family debt to Michael's brother
A family debt to my grandparents
Capital One
American Express
Michael's Car

Once we pay this last consumer debt, we're left with two private student loans, and one big hairy federal student loan that's going to take a while to pay off.

I refuse to turn the heater on

Our electric bill was really high last month (almost $200), so I'm going back to being a thermostat nazi. After being 80 degrees yesterday, it is currently 36 degrees with a wind chill of 25. Gotta love Texas. In the past, I would get up in the morning and stay in my tank top and pajama pants and crank up the heat. I was just too lazy to get up and put on some extra clothes. I got up, and instead of turning on the heat, I put on an extra layer of clothes. Seriously, how hard was that?

Found money

That was a nice surprise! Yesterday, Michael and I were getting organized to go grocery shopping. I checked the budget so I could go to the bank and pull out cash for the grocery envelope. I had budgeted $180 for two weeks worth of groceries. Michael pulled out the grocery envelope and I guess I had forgotten that I still had $40 from December. So we only needed to budget $140 for the next two weeks. I've actually had leftover money the last couple of months, so I think I'm going to experiment with lowering the grocery budget.