With tough economic times upon us, many people are cutting expenses, and one monthly expense that can definitely be replaced by other methods is your gym membership.  Some people don’t even use theirs regularly, usually because it’s not convenient for them to go to the gym.  But, because people want to be able to work out, they start thinking about how they’ll want to begin their own home gym in a spare bedroom or in the garage.  But, once they start researching prices, they quickly realize that if they’re trying to save money, then buying new home gym equipment probably isn’t in the budget.  Fortunately, there’s a few great ways to get some good cheap and discounted gym equipment.  It will usually still be used equipment, but it does the job and doesn’t break the bank.

One of the first things you’ll want to do is to get up early on Saturday mornings, and start looking around at garage sales.  People who end up selling gym equipment at their garage sales definitely want to get rid of of the items, because they usually aren’t being used, they are big and bulky and taking up needed space.  For this reason, people are definitely motivated to sell the item, even if it means selling it for a lower price than expected.  Definitely try to haggle the price down a little bit.  Also, be ready to move the equipment that day, with a truck or something.

If you prefer to shop at home in your pajamas, then you can definitely take a look at Craigslist in their fitness/sporting section to find some good deals.  Since you won’t initially be dealing with someone in person, don’t try to haggle the price down too far, since they can just hold out for other offers.  But, you can still haggle the price down a little bit, but just like at garage sales, be ready to go pick up the item immediately, because they probably won’t hold it for you since there are a lot of people who flake on Craigslist.