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My friend recently spent five days with us at our vacation home. At some point our conversation turned to his work situation. He’s an independent IT systems rollout contractor in his early sixties, based in London, with years of experience and a large network of industry contacts. The trouble right now is a prolonged downturn in the market, and contracts have been few and far between for the last fifteen months.
As a result, he’s been burning through his cash buffer faster than the occasional job can replenish it. Fifteen months in, it’s not yet a crisis, but it’s starting to worry him. He’s been thinking about cutting back on his lifestyle spending. At one point during our chat he started throwing out figures, different expenses, what he might scale back.
Then he said his gym membership was non-negotiable, which gave me pause. I pushed back, telling him that $275 a month for a high-end gym was silly money, and that it was the obvious thing to cut. His response reminded me how differently we each weigh what counts as “essential.”
Work has dried up, and he’s a single guy whose close friends have either passed away or moved far from London. The gym is what gives his day structure. He gets up early, swims a hundred lengths, spends time in the sauna, and relaxes on the facility’s artificial beach. It’s his daily dose of social contact and it keeps his mental wellbeing intact.
He’s been a member for years. He knows the regulars, and he knows the staff. To him, it’s not a luxury. It’s essential to his overall wellbeing.
It got me thinking about my own red line: membership fees for a couple of racket sports clubs. On paper they look easy to cut, but they keep me fit and they keep me connected to a regular group of people and a sport I love. I’m not sure I could give up one membership, let alone both.
What about you? Is there something in your budget that most people would call optional, but you consider a red line you’d struggle to cut? What is it, and why does it matter so much to you?
I see a lot of value in “essential” activities. For my wife and I it is two YMCA branches, a community center and a senior center (twice) every week in search of boot camps, yoga classes, cardios, pilates and zumba (even though we don’t share all of them) and weight training. Each morning is as busy as it used to be as when I was working.
Prior to this I try to do six mile bike and a three mile walk each morning before the day gets started.
I used to visit a hematologist /professor at one time who recently passed away. After looking at what I do he said, “you know, when I came to work at Baylor my supervisor used to tell me to be careful, as we are blessed with only so many heartbeats.”
In my experience what is essential is purely subjective and purely personal.
I’ve mentioned these folks before, so I apologize if anyone recalls the post. They were business clients who had lost the shop and were going through bankruptcy. They didn’t have enough money to pay me in a lump sum. They also had two dogs, one of which was a Newfoundland, who could eat them out of house and home. They loved those dogs. I get it.
i take Aqua aerobics in a lap pool and a yoga type class in a warm water pool, I’d cut back food before giving up either! They are important exercise and social opportunities for me.
I have several items that fall into the “Self-Care/Wellness” category:
I started getting the massages when I developed “cranky” shoulders (recurrent bouts of frozen shoulder). At first I just had upper-body work but now do full body. My shoulders are OK at the moment, but I consider it maintenance.
I probably could manage without the Pilates classes if I had to cut back; they do have Pilates classes on the Peloton platform that I already pay for. But I like the studio and I like having an instructor with “eyes on” my form.
As for the pedicures, yes, I like my toes to look nice given that I live in California and spend about 10 months per year in sandals. But a nice pedicure is good for your overall foot health, too. My husband joins me for pedicures but not for toe polish!