Friends & Time Can Save You Money!

If you are like me, you are always on the hunt for the best price when you need to purchase something. Depending upon what it is that I am buying, it could take me several weeks or months to do enough research to make sure I get the best price! This was the case when buying my car and then later down the road when I needed to buy tires for my car. I wasn't in a hurry and I felt the need to do the research because I wanted to educate myself on what kind of tire I should buy. However, not everyone has the luxury nor the desire to spend countless hours researching like I do. I rather enjoy it.

Recently, I have been scouting around looking for a gym that has a pool close to either work or home. Since there are only a few options in my area, I called 3 places and obtained pricing to make a comparison. Since I am a single homeowner with a mortgage and a car payment, money is strictly budgeted to say the least and sometimes extra cash on hand is just non-existent. Needless to say, I was not liking what I was finding. Despite having been a previous member at two of these places, I would be expected to pay a Joiner or Registrations Fee. At one of these places it was $100. In addition to that $100 was another $35 "annual fee" and they wanted 2 months up front!!! This simply was not feasible to come up with $170+ to walk in the door. I was thinking more short term membership to make sure I could... 1) Make this work with my job schedule and 2) Stay committed and at these rates, that was not happening!!

Well after being totally discouraged by the pricing, I decided to share my results with my friend. She after all worked out at one of the places I had not yet called on. She happened to know from going there that they had a special for $25 a month! That sounded great. So I called and yes there was a joiner fee that I could manage but again, two months up front. This place was still less than the others I had called. So it was girlfriend to the rescue as this was pretty much going to be my decision! But that is not where the story ends.

While contemplating all of this information and having decided that I would wait for one of my next paychecks before I took the leap, this same friend called me a few days later and told me that the very gym - her gym - was now offering a Groupon! What really? A 3 month membership for only $44!? That's less than $15 a month!  SOLD!!! I must have overlooked or not yet read that Groupon email alert, but I am so glad she saw it and shared it with me! So the moral of this story is that if you do not make quick and rash decisions and share what you are looking to purchase with friends, you can end up saving money, because sometimes you don't always find the bargains you are looking for on your own! So link up with your friends, or a money saving group, or blog, eh hum like this one and you might just save a few bucks on something you want or need!