Sneaky Gyms and Bad Insurance Advice

I've been a member of a gym (notice I didn't say, 'been going to'...) since November of last year. Pathetically the best I could do (on a good week) was getting there with my BIL once a week. Since the weather turned nice, and Vin brought my road bike from Taiwan, I'd been going cycling instead. It seemed much easier to just hop on and go for an hour than driving to the gym. But then mid-September came along and I got so busy with house-hunting and all that goes along with that that neither the bike nor the gym got any use. So, basically since July I haven't set foot in the gym. I'd been paying $52 a month (horrifying, I know) for many months just waiting until November when my membership expired and I could be done with it.

November came along and I thought that I was done my membership and the payments would stop coming out of my account.

Not so.

The sneaky gym withdrew for the month of November and December and were on their way to withdrawing every month from here on out. It seems that even though your membership agreement of 1 year expires you have to actually go there in person and cancel your membership in order for them to get their grubby little paws out of your account. But it will take them 30 days to do it. Thus, if your payment comes out on the 3rd and you cancel on the 8th then you will have another payment withdrawn on the 3rd on the following month. Which is exactly what happened in my case.

I'm sure this is common practice for many gyms, but it doesn't make it any less shameful and money-hungry.

But on a happier note: I'm 10 pounds lighter now (YES, I am, all you people that just said to themselves, 'REALLY...?') than when I was going (and I use that term loosely) to the gym. Go figure.


Annnnnnd, last week Vin and I had a meeting with my life insurance gal. I wanted to put Vin down as the beneficiary on my life insurance, and get him hooked up with some life insurance of his own. Our childcare provider (aka Grandma) had a change in plan so she couldn't watch the kids for us, sooooo along they came. I'd packed a bag with snacks and crayons and such so I figured they'd be ok if the meeting wasn't too long. Well, the meeting was too long and Atticus pooped his underwear (I forgot to bring a change of undies and pants, and stinkily, a bag to put the soiled ones in), and Dillon did a number in his own drawers. Coffee was spilled all over the table and carpet (kids couldn't be blamed, though), snacks were strewn about the room, and every window was covered in handprints and mouth marks. Atticus had to wear one of Dillon's diapers and no pants (it was -22 degrees), so there he was running around that table in a too-small diaper, a stinky shirt, and no pants.

After all was said, and especially DONE, we just changed the value of my plan and added Vin's name. Once he gets his Sask driver's license we'll go back and get him signed up. But what I found interesting is that the things the insurance girl was saying - buy PERMANENT insurance, put life insurance on your children - are actually things I totally disagree with. I didn't do either, but at the time only because we were going to wait until our financial situation steadies out in the new year. When I got home I did a lot of research and found that all the reasons for NOT doing what she recommended made a lot of sense to me. I think our meeting in January will be very interesting (she is staunchly opposed to TERM insurance), but I'm kind of eager to have that talk with her.