I'm cheap and I like it!

I have a love/hate relationship with running, as I suspect most runners do. There are days where I have good runs and I love running. Then, there are days where I have a horrible run or just don't want to run at all. Those are the days I hate running and vow to never run again. Naturally, a nice day comes along and I find myself back out on the road getting in a few miles.

This summer I've been running quite a bit. Actually, I haven't run this much since my old college soccer days. Although, I'm not doing any type of speed work or sprints and I don't miss those workouts one bit!

One of the main reasons I love running is because it's such a cheap activity. Really, all you need is a pair of decent pair of sneakers and a good sports bra (ladies- we know what happens when you don't have a good sports bra. It isn't pretty.). Thrown on any pair of shorts and a t-shirt and you're good to go. That's really all you need.

The hubs has a fantastic phrase that he says for just about everything, "It (whatever we're talking about) is like anything in life- you can spend as much money on it as you want." That phrase definitely works for running. You can take my cheap approach and not spend very much money on running. Or, you can go the way of many other people and spend a ton of money. Top of the line shoes, expensive clothes, specialty socks, heart rate monitor, Camel Pack, Ipod or other musical device, GPS enabled watch, etc. Yeah, those things cost a pretty penny.

I normally don't wear a watch when I run. Yeah, some people think I'm crazy and I'm okay with that. Over the weekend I went for a run with my best friend and I had to laugh at her watch. My friend is a tiny lady and she had on this massive Garmin Forerunner 405 on her little wrist. Honestly, the sight of it made me laugh. Then, my friend told me she spent $350 on her watch and heart rate monitor contraption.



My jaw hit the floor. Seriously, that's more expensive than my dressy watch. Sure, the 405 is GPS enabled and can do a whole host of other activities, but that's still an expensive watch. Granted, it was nice that her watch beeped at us when we finished another mile and that allowed me not to ask every minute, "are we done yet?" I just couldn't imagine spending that much money on a watch. Especially, when there are so many free resources available to track how far you've run (www.mapmyrun.com is my personal favorite).

Peer pressure got the best of me and I felt like I should be running with a watch. At least that way I could roughly figure out how long my runs are taking me and that might be helpful for running with a running partner. Me being me couldn't justify buying some fancy watch, so I went out and bought a $10 digital watch from Target. Yeah, it's water resistant and everything. I basically use it as a stop watch and then plug my times into my favorite running website when I get home. Sure, my watch doesn't compute all of that information for me and I don't get accurate splits, but it's good enough for me. At this point in my novice running career I don't need much to keep me happy.

So go ahead, call me cheap. I won't mind.

What do you do to save money on your hobbies? I'm sure everyone has a few tricks of the trade up their sleeves.