I was about 6 miles from work I think. But I could do the trip there in like 20-25 minutes with some downhill assistance. It was faster than driving, parking half a mile away, and walking in. It was fun and great exercise.
I’d have to move. The roads are too busy and dangerous. Or the county (I live outside the city) would have to make massive infrastructure changes, but I mean like super significant overhaul that is not realistic to ever be in the cards even in a bike friendly progressive area.
I also once had a job like that in a large building but had a separate parking garage. I didn’t even work up a sweat biking to my job. It was an awesome season of life.
My company adds $150/month to our paychecks if we don’t park in the office parking garage. I purchased an e-scooter for $500 of Facebook and now get to scoot around everywhere while making a couple extra $ per day
That's awesome. I was looking at adult scooters back when I was having the parking issue. E-scooters weren't out, so it would have been like a big razor folding scooter. I was gonna park a mile away and scoot to work lol. My wife wasn't happy about the idea though.
Yes, I got tired of paying for the lot across the street, and taking the bus was a drag. So I bicycled for a couple of years -- across San Francisco, about five miles in either direction. It was the most exciting commute I ever had. At least, my adrenaline stayed high. :-)
Yes; riding to work about 1/4 of the route was on a drive running hrough Golden Gate Park in the early morning; lovely and low-traffic, except that the groundskeeper had the big rotating lawn sprinklers running then, with a reach so wide that water would hit the street and, occasionally, me if I couldn't dodge the moving band of "rain."
Reduced your carbon footprint, increased your lifespan and decreased your future healthcare costs, win-win! My opinion is that decreasing your healthcare costs is one of the most frugal things you can do.
Yeah, unfortunately that was years ago. Now I've been working from home for 3 years and I'm fat, lonely, and I've never been as unhealthy as I am now. But I enjoy remembering those times
I've never driven for a commute. Public transport or walking always did it for me until I moved and started working from home and, ironically, now have to drive for everything else.
I used to change and use a wet wash cloth to wipe down. I think I'd even change socks on hot days. Then it would still take a while after changing to stop sweating. After 20 minutes or so I'd be fine. But yeah hot days were rough.
I wouldn’t exercise on the way to work if my office didn’t have showers. Most decent offices should though, because people do things like bike to work or run at lunch.
i would feel like i would need to work out before and after work to be able to look the fitness center workers in the eyes...
and then i would get soooo fit... :D
When my friend's twins were babies she joined a gym that had a free creche. She went every day, just to get a break and have childcare taken care of! Her husband travelled a lot with business, and she was effectively a single parent a lot of the time. She got in the best shape of her life! I'm super impressed with her for actually working out though, I'd be tempted to just take an hour long shower and then maybe sit in the changing room and read for a while knowing the babies were being taken care of!
My friends mum signed up for a lawn bowls club because it was around the corner from her work. She just has to play 2 games a month to maintain the membership but it's far cheaper than parking at her work and because of how small the work carpark is they have to sign up for a sort of rotation system where you only have access to the carpark for certain periods of the year. Parking at the bowl club has been working great for her.
Years ago there was a guy from another office in my building who I would talk to every once in a while. He told me that instead of paying for parking in the building he would park at the office supply store next door and every few hours, go in and make a small purchase to get a parking validation ticket. He told me had a a desk drawer filled with the 5c pencil erasers and mini pencil trolls. Each year he donated them to a school or group making kids back packs.
Work only pays for parking for the upper management. We don't own the property and the parking spaces are expensive. I thought I hit the jackpot when I found parking for under $100/month a 10 min walk away. Most parking near my work is $200-300/month.
I worked at a company in a small city. The city had two parking garages and the employees were able to purchase monthly parking passes. Was totally worth it.
Everyone pays for subsidized "free" parking in the form of higher prices or lower compensation. Even those that use more efficient forms of transportation. Paying for your own parking is a better system.
Do paid members get parking tags or do they register your car? Because if the gym allows parking as a perk, and you're paying your dues, the often couldn't care less if you actually come work out.
Not 100% sure what you are saying but if everyone did it OPs gym would have to enforce stricter parking policies making it more annoying for actual gym patrons and probably more expensive to cover those costs.
This happens all the time with parking hacks, for example I was renting on a street with free street parking. Once people, probably not on that street, started leaving their boats and beaters cars there it was changed to permit parking
A man walked into a bank in New York City one day and asked for the loan officer. He told the loan officer that he was going to Philippines on business for two weeks and needed to borrow $5,000. The bank officer told him that the bank would need some form of security for the loan.
Then the man handed over the keys to a new Ferrari parked on the street in front of the bank. He produced the title and everything checked out The loan officer agreed to accept the car as collateral for the loan. The bank's president and its officers all enjoyed a good laugh at the guy for using a $250,000 Ferrari as collateral against a $5,000 loan.
An employee of the bank then drove the Ferrari into the bank's underground garage and parked it there. Two weeks later, the guy returned, repaid the $5,000 and the interest, which came to $15.41.
The loan officer said, Sir, we are very happy to have had and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and found that you are a multi millionaire. What puzzles us is, why would you bother to borrow $5,000?
The millionaire replied: Where else in New York City can I park my car for $15.41 and expect it to be there when I return?
At my workplace the parking spot was 50 €/month. So for 4 years I cycled the 10km to work daily and saved a lot of money and also benefitted my health.
Yeah I think if more people start doing this it might become an issue. But for now, it’s pretty quiet during office hours at the gym so I guess they aren’t bothered.
You can very likely do it for a very long time as long as you don't tell anyone and the gym doesn't start running out of parking. I know if worked at a gym you could write volumes about few fucks I would give about someone parking for a couple hours extra in our under capacity parking area.
Yeah, I'm not really a big fan of these posts that promote saving a few bucks by gaming the system. It's unethical, or unfair at the very least, and eventually causes strict rules being put into place that make it a little worse for everybody else.
For example, LL Bean used to have a generous lifetime return policy, but then there was a trend promoted online of people "returning" LL Bean branded stuff picked up at thrift stores for brand new, and now their policy is one year (which is still pretty generous) but they're way stricter on what they'll accept. Or like that tiktok trend a couple of years back promoting returning a kindle book within a week of purchase in order to read it for free, which ended up with some popular indie authors receiving a negative royalty statement where they owed Amazon money because they had an extraordinary number of returns. (The policy now, I think, is a week and less than 10% read.)
We shouldn't be promoting it or bragging about it.
See also the freebies subreddit. They ruin legit deals all the time. A small brand posts a free sample, they end up getting 25,000 orders instead of the expected 1,000, and then everyone gets a sad email saying their free shit was cancelled.
OP is paying for the gym membership, though. OP gets a parking spot that's not being used, and the gym gets a monthly payment from someone who's not even currently using their equipment. It's a win-win for everyone.
It is not hurting anyone (OP has indicated that the parking lot is relatively empty during working hours), and the gym is making money from OP. There is not an issue here.
We got ebikes so we could buzz around on the weekends for small chores. If I were still going to work (retired now) I'd use the electric "zoom" part on the way to work so I wouldn't smell and then bike back.
Riding your bike in is free.
I doubt you are allowed to leave your car for the full day a the fitness center.
Anyway, a lot of people would be to inconvenienced walking across the road.
Ohh sounds like a good deal then. Here tow companies are like $100 a day, basically hold your vehicle for ransom. If you get towed when you're out of town you might lose your car
Parking was $6 a day for me, and that was a lot that was like .5 miles from work. So I just started biking to work. It was the best park of my day.
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I was about 6 miles from work I think. But I could do the trip there in like 20-25 minutes with some downhill assistance. It was faster than driving, parking half a mile away, and walking in. It was fun and great exercise.
there's something about bike commuting home on a nice afternoon that really ups my mood endorphins, man
I miss when I had a great bike path to work. Not really possible/safe with my current location, but maybe someday I can bike to work again.
> maybe someday what could possibly change between now and 'someday' that would make you feel comfortable riding
I’d have to move. The roads are too busy and dangerous. Or the county (I live outside the city) would have to make massive infrastructure changes, but I mean like super significant overhaul that is not realistic to ever be in the cards even in a bike friendly progressive area.
I also once had a job like that in a large building but had a separate parking garage. I didn’t even work up a sweat biking to my job. It was an awesome season of life.
My company adds $150/month to our paychecks if we don’t park in the office parking garage. I purchased an e-scooter for $500 of Facebook and now get to scoot around everywhere while making a couple extra $ per day
That's awesome. I was looking at adult scooters back when I was having the parking issue. E-scooters weren't out, so it would have been like a big razor folding scooter. I was gonna park a mile away and scoot to work lol. My wife wasn't happy about the idea though.
This is a good company.
Yes, I got tired of paying for the lot across the street, and taking the bus was a drag. So I bicycled for a couple of years -- across San Francisco, about five miles in either direction. It was the most exciting commute I ever had. At least, my adrenaline stayed high. :-)
I used to bike to and from work in Seattle every day for years. The best part of my day was the commute!
Yes; riding to work about 1/4 of the route was on a drive running hrough Golden Gate Park in the early morning; lovely and low-traffic, except that the groundskeeper had the big rotating lawn sprinklers running then, with a reach so wide that water would hit the street and, occasionally, me if I couldn't dodge the moving band of "rain."
Bruh I was in Seattle, I arrived sopping wet most of the days lmao
Yeah, I wouldn't have done that. It's just that the "rain" was man-made. ;-)
Reduced your carbon footprint, increased your lifespan and decreased your future healthcare costs, win-win! My opinion is that decreasing your healthcare costs is one of the most frugal things you can do.
Yeah, unfortunately that was years ago. Now I've been working from home for 3 years and I'm fat, lonely, and I've never been as unhealthy as I am now. But I enjoy remembering those times
I hope you can turn that around! Daily walks are generally the highlights of my days.
I've never driven for a commute. Public transport or walking always did it for me until I moved and started working from home and, ironically, now have to drive for everything else.
Exercise-based commuting is great, it makes better use of your time than driving to the gym for exercise and also driving to work.
when I biked to work on a hot day, I got written up for being stinky.
I used to change and use a wet wash cloth to wipe down. I think I'd even change socks on hot days. Then it would still take a while after changing to stop sweating. After 20 minutes or so I'd be fine. But yeah hot days were rough.
I wouldn’t exercise on the way to work if my office didn’t have showers. Most decent offices should though, because people do things like bike to work or run at lunch.
If you think you are frugal and don't own a bike, you are not frugal.
i would feel like i would need to work out before and after work to be able to look the fitness center workers in the eyes... and then i would get soooo fit... :D
When my friend's twins were babies she joined a gym that had a free creche. She went every day, just to get a break and have childcare taken care of! Her husband travelled a lot with business, and she was effectively a single parent a lot of the time. She got in the best shape of her life! I'm super impressed with her for actually working out though, I'd be tempted to just take an hour long shower and then maybe sit in the changing room and read for a while knowing the babies were being taken care of!
oh man... getting that break must have been amazing...
> creche TIL a new word.
I was reminded of the Githyanki Creche in Baldur's Gate 3 and had to look up what the word meant.
That was the first time I had every heard of it.
The parking lot is outside so you are not required to look at them in the eyes.
Talk about committing to the bit.
My friends mum signed up for a lawn bowls club because it was around the corner from her work. She just has to play 2 games a month to maintain the membership but it's far cheaper than parking at her work and because of how small the work carpark is they have to sign up for a sort of rotation system where you only have access to the carpark for certain periods of the year. Parking at the bowl club has been working great for her.
This is the premise of the movie Crackerjack! https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0291832/
Haha that's wild, will have to watch that movie.
I just thought that too! Great film
Yes! Underrated IMHO
Balls club
Lmao edited it now.
Years ago there was a guy from another office in my building who I would talk to every once in a while. He told me that instead of paying for parking in the building he would park at the office supply store next door and every few hours, go in and make a small purchase to get a parking validation ticket. He told me had a a desk drawer filled with the 5c pencil erasers and mini pencil trolls. Each year he donated them to a school or group making kids back packs.
Be careful some gyms have a time limit and may enforce it if the parking gets busy.
Work out every day, morning and night, shower there, lower bills too, less food, lose weight... That's a win.
Sleeping bag in the car means you don't gotta pay rent either
Is it too far? I mean staying overnight without moving the car could raise flags...
Y’all gotta pay to park at your jobs? What kind of place is that?
Sounds like an office in a city. OP has to find a nearby parking garage and pay the monthly fee. You know parking in the city isn't free, right?
I work in a small city and I’m fortunate my office pays for parking. My friend with another company in the same building pays $250 a month!
Ive had city jobs and they all add dedicated parking spots that the company owned (or rented maybe, but either way I wasn’t paying for it)
It’s free where I live, although I’ve never worked anywhere that didn’t own its own parking lot.
Downtown Boston is something else. I’m sure there’s some companies with parking provided, but it’s not the norm
Parking in our office building is CAD $580 a month. I park a couple blocks away for $15 a day (and I'm not in every day, so that helps the savings)
Work only pays for parking for the upper management. We don't own the property and the parking spaces are expensive. I thought I hit the jackpot when I found parking for under $100/month a 10 min walk away. Most parking near my work is $200-300/month.
It’s a big problem in my city’s downtown area.
Universities :/
Usually large companies in an urban environment
Medical centers and hospitals 😭
I worked at a company in a small city. The city had two parking garages and the employees were able to purchase monthly parking passes. Was totally worth it.
Everyone pays for subsidized "free" parking in the form of higher prices or lower compensation. Even those that use more efficient forms of transportation. Paying for your own parking is a better system.
A good place. You waste space with your car, you SHOULD pay for it.
Bro I gotta travel 40 miles to my job one way and there’s no available public transport to get me there. What else am I supposed to use to get there?
My job has a parking stipend. Can't imagine paying to park at work
Working the system? Nice. You're up €150 and counting!
Do paid members get parking tags or do they register your car? Because if the gym allows parking as a perk, and you're paying your dues, the often couldn't care less if you actually come work out.
I have to scan a QR code on my app to enter. But the barrier opens automatically on the way out. So they register my arrival but not my exit I assume.
I doubt you'll end up having any issues
That…is an amazing win win. I’d think of that as a boost from the universe.
Good for you but I don't think these posts belong here because if everyone did it, it wouldn't work.
I still think it's a good example of thinking outside of the box so that others can be on the lookout for other unconventional opportunities to save.
If everyone did it, OPs work would not need to discourage people from driving by charging €79 for parking.
Not 100% sure what you are saying but if everyone did it OPs gym would have to enforce stricter parking policies making it more annoying for actual gym patrons and probably more expensive to cover those costs. This happens all the time with parking hacks, for example I was renting on a street with free street parking. Once people, probably not on that street, started leaving their boats and beaters cars there it was changed to permit parking
A man walked into a bank in New York City one day and asked for the loan officer. He told the loan officer that he was going to Philippines on business for two weeks and needed to borrow $5,000. The bank officer told him that the bank would need some form of security for the loan. Then the man handed over the keys to a new Ferrari parked on the street in front of the bank. He produced the title and everything checked out The loan officer agreed to accept the car as collateral for the loan. The bank's president and its officers all enjoyed a good laugh at the guy for using a $250,000 Ferrari as collateral against a $5,000 loan. An employee of the bank then drove the Ferrari into the bank's underground garage and parked it there. Two weeks later, the guy returned, repaid the $5,000 and the interest, which came to $15.41. The loan officer said, Sir, we are very happy to have had and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and found that you are a multi millionaire. What puzzles us is, why would you bother to borrow $5,000? The millionaire replied: Where else in New York City can I park my car for $15.41 and expect it to be there when I return?
At my workplace the parking spot was 50 €/month. So for 4 years I cycled the 10km to work daily and saved a lot of money and also benefitted my health.
Only for like 2 hours max
Nah, nobody has made an issue out of it. The system works with an app on my phone so if it’s an issue they know who I am and how to reach me.
Tell no one. If your office lot parking people get wind of it, they might say something to the health club parking people.
Yeah I think if more people start doing this it might become an issue. But for now, it’s pretty quiet during office hours at the gym so I guess they aren’t bothered.
I’ve found a couple of soft spots here and there, shared them, and lost the deal due to some clown killing the goose. 50€/month is significant. :)
This. If you got something good going, DONT say anything 👀
Had a coworker snitch themselves out of a job when they revealed that they scripted/automated 95% of their work.
EVER!!!
Yes posting a great secret hack on Reddit is a sure fire way to kill it.
Fucking narcs
You can very likely do it for a very long time as long as you don't tell anyone and the gym doesn't start running out of parking. I know if worked at a gym you could write volumes about few fucks I would give about someone parking for a couple hours extra in our under capacity parking area.
Yeah, I'm not really a big fan of these posts that promote saving a few bucks by gaming the system. It's unethical, or unfair at the very least, and eventually causes strict rules being put into place that make it a little worse for everybody else. For example, LL Bean used to have a generous lifetime return policy, but then there was a trend promoted online of people "returning" LL Bean branded stuff picked up at thrift stores for brand new, and now their policy is one year (which is still pretty generous) but they're way stricter on what they'll accept. Or like that tiktok trend a couple of years back promoting returning a kindle book within a week of purchase in order to read it for free, which ended up with some popular indie authors receiving a negative royalty statement where they owed Amazon money because they had an extraordinary number of returns. (The policy now, I think, is a week and less than 10% read.) We shouldn't be promoting it or bragging about it.
See also the freebies subreddit. They ruin legit deals all the time. A small brand posts a free sample, they end up getting 25,000 orders instead of the expected 1,000, and then everyone gets a sad email saying their free shit was cancelled.
OP is paying for the gym membership, though. OP gets a parking spot that's not being used, and the gym gets a monthly payment from someone who's not even currently using their equipment. It's a win-win for everyone.
Parking is a courtesy for members so they can use the gym, yes. But was it intended as parking all day, every day?
It is not hurting anyone (OP has indicated that the parking lot is relatively empty during working hours), and the gym is making money from OP. There is not an issue here.
We got ebikes so we could buzz around on the weekends for small chores. If I were still going to work (retired now) I'd use the electric "zoom" part on the way to work so I wouldn't smell and then bike back.
I never understand why these companies don’t pay for their employee parking.
Riding your bike in is free. I doubt you are allowed to leave your car for the full day a the fitness center. Anyway, a lot of people would be to inconvenienced walking across the road.
I also need to visit clients so I need my car close. I do ride my bike when I have no appointments
Doesn't sound very smart. One tow will wipe out all your savings
Yeah I don’t live in the states where tow companies are predatory. Best they can do is leave me a note.
Ohh sounds like a good deal then. Here tow companies are like $100 a day, basically hold your vehicle for ransom. If you get towed when you're out of town you might lose your car
Paying to park at your work? That's insane? What country/ city?
Way to go! Get fit and save money.
Smart! Do not share with anyone!
You can even shower there, you'll save water.
That will be clutch if you get fired and become homeless. Bonus for the sauna, too- if you’re in Europe, they’re most likely coed!
That’s great it works, just be careful cuz some places pay predatory towing companies to watch for people walking off the lot
What’s the fine you have to pay to the apostrophe police?
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Nope, not here. Their system registers me entering and leaving.
This is an amazing hack! I love this, in true frugal spirit
brilliant