I have applied the principle of "don't buy a gym membership" to most of my hobbies and things, what are your experiences?

Hello! I have this little theory that you should never sign yourself to a gym, and in general to most forms of hobbies that require any sort of membership or contract. <br><br>I have a decent forms, I have applied this to several things like: <br><br>* I have never had a gym membership, I either buy a membership of 10-20 classes and then I have no contract to stick to. <br>* I never had a phone contract, I always buy a pay-per-minute contract. <br>* I have never had a Netlix, I buy a movie ticket or borrow from libraries. <br>* I never bought a car that would require an automatic payment, I saved money and bought my cars in cash. <br>* I have never had a Spotify membership, I bought an mp3 player as a kid and always bought albums in cash, I love them a lot and I know how much it means to an artist when you support them by buying their albums. <br>* Of course I have to have an internet contract, but I make sure that I can, at any point, stop it and move to another company if I want to. <br><br>I believe that my productivity is so much higher because I don't have to go to the gym or feel forced to go to the gym because I have a large automatic payment coming out of my account. <br>I get to go, because I have specifically signed up for 10 classes and I don't have to sign up for more if I don't want to. <br><br>I also like the idea of not being a prisoner of the automatic payments, I feel like I get to keep more of my autonomy and freedom if I can only commit to a certain amount of time. I like borrowing things, because then I have to give them back and so I have to make sure I have enough time to read a book, watch a movie or do something else before I have to give it back. <br><br>How do you feel about this? What are your experiences? <br><br>**tl;dr:** I don't sign long-term contracts and memberships. I apply this to most of my hobbies and things, and it has made me very happy and more productive. I borrow books and movies from libraries, and leave out most of the things that require a membership. <br><br>**Edit:** Wow, I did not expect this to blow up as much as it has. Thank you to everyone who has commented, both the positive and negative comments. <br><br>To answer some questions, I don't really know what the costs are for the gym or for Spotify/Netflix, as it varies a lot from country to country and I also got my mp3 player and Spotify premium when Spotify was quite new, but I think it was around $10/month. <br>I have never been to a country where I could not buy a pay-by-minute contract, I don't know if they exist and if it's illegal to sell them. <br>I have never had a car loan, I have always saved money and bought a car in cash. <br><br>To clarify, I did sign a 1-year apartment contract, but that's it. I don't have a phon contract, car loan or anything like that. <br>I could literally live on cash and cards if I wanted to, without any need to ever access a bank at all. <br>I have a 24-hour bank card, I can withdraw cash from any cash machine at any time and then buy whatever I need with large bills. <br><br>Thank you for sharing your experiences, some of you have made me realise that maybe I have been too hard on the idea of memberships. <br>I am going to think about it, and maybe I will sign up for a gym membership soon. <br>Thank you for all the awards, but especially thank you for the good conversation :)