How to get husband not to think the gym is a waist of money?

It depends what you want the gym for. If it is to lose weight, then calorie counting by using your BMR (basic metabolic rate) and TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) would be effective enough by itself. If you would like to go as a hobby/do something for yourself/get back into for your mental wellbeing (I find it helps with stress), then I would say go for it if - after doing a household budget- it really is something you can afford as there are other alternative for doing exercise on the cheap.

Honestly if it's for your physical and mental wellbeing you shouldn't have to convince anyone of its worth. I'm a student fulltime and my fiancée supports us. If something is possibly within reason and good for me or her then we discuss it. During our discussion we cover what exactly it is we want, the relative cost of it, and, most importantly, we explain why we want it. I explain to her because she's the one paying for it and she explains to me if she wants something because she respects my opinion even though I bring in no money currently.

For example, I get depressed often in the summer something terrible and would love to have a Fitbit to monitor my activity and HR so I can actually see what I'm doing when my depression blindsides me leaving me lethargic and laying in bed. My fiancée and I live pretty paycheck to paycheck since I'm not working but she occasionally gets bonuses. So I asked her if for an early birthday gift (birthday is in October) if I could have a Fitbit blaze so I can see my daily activity and not just gym activity to help me battle my depression. She asked why not a cheaper version and I explained to her all the reviews about the blaze I read and how I felt it was a good fit on top of the HR monitor, sleep monitoring, and dependent GPS which were important to me. Today she called me from work after thinking about it and told me she'd like to go get me my early birthday gift today.

I believe with explaining the full interest and intent is important. Almost as important as keeping with something you agreed about and basically this is an agreement. You're saying to your spouse "hey I want to go to the gym - will you help me and I will go?" so then the spouse agreeing requires you to keep to the gym. If you don't think you can keep with it then don't ask because that risks trust on these sorts of issues between you and your spouse. Good luck and have fun at the gym!

You can lose a lot without the gym..... I agree with your husband. Sorry. I suppose you can fill the house with with gym equipment until he says save money, go get a gym membership!

lithezebra wrote: »

I am very sorry that you're in this situation. Are you your husband's caretaker? If it were me, I would need the exercise for stress relief, and some time to myself, not only for physical health. I wish you the very best.

So much this... How is it only his money? :huh:

Sending prayers of healing...
I would just tell him this is something you need to be healthy and help him fight. You could also try setting up a home routine as a trial to prove you will stick to the gym plan.