A Good Deal

Last year, with the Chick home schooling, I made the effort to take her to the gym twice a week as part of her P.E. course. We logged all of her hours and what she did. In that time, I discovered that a treadmill with my MP3 or a television is a pretty easy way to exercise. There were several times I spent most or all of my hour on the treadmill.

After the summer was over, I really wanted to keep going even though the Chick was back in their private school. The problem is that the gym (where we get a free membership through Hubby's work) is 30 minutes away on back roads. So the gas which had gone up exponentially since last school year is ridiculous. Especially when you're talking several trips a week -- I was thinking a minimum of three. Add that to paying tuition again and we're talking some belt tightening that has nothing to do with losing weight.

So I tried to content myself with doing yoga on the Wii. And even though my muscles had some soreness, it just didn't feel like I was doing anything terribly aerobic. I came to the conclusion that I would start looking for a treadmill when I went to thrift stores and such. But it would have to be a similar one to the gym's for me to plop down any money for it.

Well, on Saturday, the Chick and I went to a local one so she could find some jeans she might like. And there it was. Waiting for me. It has the speeds, the inclines, the choice of programs, even a pulse finder. It even folds up if we like. Which was good for getting in the Kia but probably won't be used now unless we have to move it.

It was $125 which was a smidge more than I had planned. But it also looked fairly newish. The old man who helped me with it said that it had looked new when it arrived. I believed him because he said it in the midst of complaining about kids crawling all over everything (there were some lovely footprints across the walking part). He also said they end up throwing out most of the treadmills and such, which surprised me, because of kids playing on them.

The Chick and I got it home and set it up. And it has had daily use since then. Hubby looked up the model and found that they sell for about $800. So I guess I got a good deal. But I won't have decided until I see that we continue using it. Then it will be a great deal.

However I suppose even if it becomes a glorified coat hanger (it better not though!), at least I didn't pay $800 for it.