Just relax, this won't hurt a bit

Before I gained my gorgeous son, I lost about 55 pounds. Pretty good, huh? However, ignoring studies that told me that women my size should gain NO weight during pregnancy, and optimistic promises from my very good doctors that I could limit my weight gain to 10 or 15 pounds, I followed what seems to be my downfall and my mantra: Anything worth doing is worth over-doing.

In my defense, over a span of six months I got married, moved into a new home and had a baby. As you can imagine, even one of those has many other stress-making steps. At the same time, at work, our department had a major re-organization. I was stress-eating for two. At the end, I had a wonderful marriage, a lovely place to live, an amazing baby, a closet full of clothes that I didn't have a prayer of fitting into and every one of those hard-lost pounds back.

So, I joined a gym. Correction: I joined an additional gym. It's called Breakthru Fitness and it's worth every penny of the approxomately $90 I spend on it each month.

Behold: My sexy gym with its sexy state-of-the-art Indo-Row machines

and mountain view. Plus towel service!!

At the same time, I held on to my 24-Hour Fitness membership. It was only $35 a month, and I used to work out there all the time with my girlfriends. Sure, I hadn't set foot in there for a year, but there have been rumblings that my friends might start going back there.

This was fine for months, until suddenly, I was having a hard tiem making my paycheck stretch out. What happened to that $300 to $500 sitting happily in my checking waiting to be kicked over to my savings when I got paid again? That amount had been dwindling with each check. Now, more often than not, I'm finding myself searching the bottom of my purse for change. (On the up side, I'm actually eating the shelf-stable meal replacements I purchased. So, the weight loss thing is happening. If only I could drop a pound as fast as I could drop a buck from my budget.)

Time to face the facts: I do not need two gym memberships. I am keeping the more expensive one for two reasons. First, I really love it. The classes are great. The trainers are top notch. It's incredibly clean and it offers daycare. OK. That's a bunch of reasons. Secondly, when I go there, I can get right on a machine or into my class and workout. At 24 Hour Fitness, it was always over-crowded and I couldn't get my workout done efficiently.(Plus, most of my workout pals already cut 24 Hour Fitness from their budgets. We can walk around the Rose Bowl together for free.)

Sorry, 24 Hour Fitness, you are out of my budget.

How I did it: I called their "cancel your membership" line at 866.308.8179. The customer service agent asked me the obligatory question about why I was cancelling. I said I found a gym that suited my needs better -- where I didn't have to wait in line for equipment -- and I don't have the budget for two gyms. She offered me some deal where I could retain a suspended membership for $10, and save myself a sign-up fee in the future. I said no thanks. Through my employer, I can sign up at a discounted rate and skip the new member fee.

Savings: $35 a month.

Total recurring savings so far: $35.