Investing your time in physical activities is definitely a great idea. It is both fun and good for overall health. Today, I want to present different frugal activities and if you want to add some action to your lifestyle I’m pretty sure you will find there something that fits to you.

Walking

If you haven’t exercised for a long time, then walk is a way to go. You can develop your new habit beginning with this activity. Walking is free, nice and not so demanding for beginners. Take comfortable clothes and shoes and set a track across a nice park. I walk everyday 15 minutes to the office and back. In the morning, it is a great way to get some fresh air after night and when I finish hard day at the office, 15 minutes of walk helps me to release any unnecessary stresses and tensions.

Running

Running is one of my favorite workouts. Can help you burn fat and is much tougher than walking. Important thing is a good pair of shoes and if you don’t need any other gadgets for runners, you can find it great and cheap activity. If you want to begin running, the best place to get some basic knowledge is beginners guide to running on Zen Habits.

Swimming

I prefer to swim in pools, which is not so frugal option. But if there is a good, warm weather outside and a nice lake placed near your home, it is a possibility worth to consider. Swimming is a great workout for your whole body.

Team sports

Soccer, basketball, volleyball are all great sports you can enjoy with your friends and family. What I find great in team sports is a motivating boost coming from challenge. Everybody wants to be a winner.

Bodyweight exercises

Among most popular are different types of pushups, dips and squats. Everything is for free. The disadvantage is that it is easy to lose motivation. Repeating again and again same boring exercises can be dull. I think it is good option only for a certain period of time and to boost your motivation you can run a small challenge for yourself, like each day increasing the number of repetitions. How far will you go with pushups then?

Basic yoga

photo credit: angela7dreams

I know that probably a lot of you when think about yoga, immediately have an image of impossible to perform stretches and positions. But the basic yoga is something that everybody can perform. Give it a try, because there are a lot of benefits coming from this art. Flexibility, tension reduction, improvement of circulation, coordination… Buy or even better borrow a book, search for on-line tutorials, check for yoga TV shows and DVDs and start practicing.

These are my suggestions. Did I miss something?

Next week I will post a bunch of tips that will motivate you to regular exercising, so stay tuned.

Physical activities are both fun and good for your health. Among many advantages there are:

• increasing your life quality,
• releasing stress and anxiety,
• decreasing blood pressure,
• forging character,
• improving sleep,
• increasing stamina, immunity and your energy level.

This positive impact on your health will also directly increase your savings. According to The Physician and Sportsmedicine journal, $330 per year is the average cost in direct medical expenses per each physically inactive person.

As a bonus you may also get leaner and fitter. Investing time in physical activities looks like a very promising idea at almost no risk level (watch out for injuries).

photo credit: mikebaird

My favorite physical activities are:

• Martial Arts – I have kung fu classes twice a week with instructor and as much as possible I practise with my friends or alone.
• Weight Lifting at Gym – usually I do it four times a week
• Jogging.
• Swimming.

Currently I don’t perform jogging and swimming. Martial arts trainings give me quite enough cardio, but in future I would definitely love to enjoy also those two activities. I did a lot of swimming and running while I was at the University and I must admit they were giving me a great physical and mental boost.

What are your favorite physical activities?

Saving on gas and improving the fuel economy are definitely worth to consider, especially when gas prices are on the rise.

As there are already a lot of articles and posts around about this topic and I don’t want to repeat same ideas another time, I decided to prepare a list of useful links. These will definitely help you to improve your mileage and become a hypermiling master. Of course, many basic tips and ideas appear in multiple articles, but I’m sure that in every single one, you will find something unique and useful. In the end of my list, there are also links to my two posts concerning ‘car’ topic. Enjoy reading.

• U.S. Department of Energy gives tips about driving and car maintenance.
• J.D. presents 23 top tips for better fuel economy.
• Trent presents a gas station trick that puts money into pocket.
• David shows gas saving myths and real tips that work.
• There are 9 ways to save money on gas presented on SmartMoney.
• 10 more tips on saving on gas + free ebook on WiseBread.
• CNN Money exposed 4 gas saving myths.
• FiveCentNickel presents how to improve your gas mileage.
• Basic tips as well as some advanced tactics are presented at MyMoneyBlog.
• Read at Gather Little by Little how to become a hypermiler.
• Broke Grad Student refers to 9 simple ways to save on gas.
• Finally, I present how to utilize your time when stuck in traffic and I encourage you to optimize your routes.

If you have your own tips related to saving on gas, which are not mentioned in above articles, please share them in comments.

photo credit: Andy King

Stary Browar is an award-winning shopping, art and business centre in Poznan. It is located exactly on my 10 minutes way I everyday cover on foot, from my car to the office and back.

I love Stary Browar and I love shopping there. Most often I do quite unnecessary shopping. It is good for my pleasure, but not so good for my savings, and if you read my last post about saving money, you know that this idea is very important for me.

Almost everyday I pass near Stary Browar and it is very tempting to come in. And when I decide to come in, it is very likely that I will spend some money on not so necessary stuff. As I don’t want to buy unnecessary stuff five times per week (each time I cover my way to/from office), I had to coupe with this temptation.

Below is my short guide on how to restrain from unnecessary shopping. Try following steps:

Don’t take debit/credit cards and cash when you don’t need it.

This way you will not be able to buy anything. When I go to work, I need only some money for lunch and fruit. I don’t take more cash, so I know I will not spend it or lose it.

Visit shopping mall when you don’t carry any debit/credit cards or cash.

Sounds a little stupid. Connected with the previous one. The idea is to teach yourself that you can walk through the shopping centre/mall or market, watch exhibitions, products and in the end you don’t buy anything.

Visit shopping mall only to buy one necessary item.

You have some money with you and you go to the shopping mall. But you also know what you want to buy and this is something you really need. Buy only what you planned and then keep in mind the feeling connected with not buying anything at all, like I described in previous paragraph.

Allow yourself to buy something unnecessary.

When I started learning to control my shopping urge, I allowed myself to buy not so necessary item once per seven days. I scheduled one day of week for this. With time and practice, I’ve got better and better at controlling my buying temptations and I found myself not buying anything even when I had my inner permission to do so.

Avoid visiting and passing nearby shopping malls.

Simple and effective. But this one doesn’t work for me as Stary Browar is on my optimal route to work.

photo credit: ralphbijker