Whilst it sounds like a lot of money the gym did serve it’s purpose with me shedding 45 pounds helping to get my weight down to a more reasonable level.

There was no fad dieting, no extreme workouts and no personal trainer. Instead I built my fitness levels up slowly, making working out part of my regular routine and slowly the weight came off.  In many ways this approach is similar to Millionaire Adventure where I am gradually increasing my wealth, changing my spending habits and without the aid of paying for any financial advisors.

I’m not however going back to my lazy ways and I’m determined not to put the weight back on. From now on I will be looking for free (or at least cheap) ways of staying fit with plenty of bike rides planned, including a quick tour around the Isle of Wight next week.

Giving up the gym this month and switching to other forms of free exercise means I’ll save £218.75 over the rest of the year, which gives my Millionaire Adventure total a nice little boost.

I’d love to hear your suggestions for how I can keep fit for free. You can leave your suggestions using the comment form below.

Selecting a new provider was easy as O2 were offering me a years free broadband as one of their existing mobile customers. Their offer was perfect as it was four times faster than my current package with Pipex and most importantly for me had no download limits.

In theory switching should simply be a case of informing your current provider you want to leave and asking for a MAC key which you provide to your new supplier. However, Pipex simply ignored my first request, the second failed as they were updating their systems and the third attempt finally generated a MAC code some 3 weeks later.

Once I had the MAC code setting up my new account with O2 was easy and within days I was enjoying the benefits of free broadband at speeds of upto 8 Mbps.

Far less easy was ending the relationship with Pipex. They insisted that I should continue paying for another 30 days as that was their cancellation terms and started the cancellation clock from my 3rd attempt to cancel.

After many phone calls and unanswered emails they have finally agreed not to charge me for this cancellation period, which just goes to prove sometimes you have to be firm with these companies and stand your ground to avoid them taking advantage of you.

Switching broadband provider may have proved time consuming but over the next 12 months it will save me £140.64 so it was worth it in the end.

In a saturated market such as mobile phones loyalty is very valuable to the providers so when I called O2 today to tell them I was thinking of switching to Vodafone it was to be expected that they would try and offer me an improved deal to retain my custom.

For years I had remained on a £10 per month deal which included unlimited free text messages and 50 off-peak minutes per day. This was great but as my mobile phone usage changed I found that the peak calls I was making were costing me around £5 per month in addition to my line rental.

So a couple of months ago I called O2 and asked them to switch my tariff to one that included 200 anytime minutes and 200 free text messages for £15 per month which had the added bonus of 1MB free browsing allowance each month. This was on a rolling 30 day contract which gave me time to search around for an even better deal.

This search led me to a deal with Vodafone which basically offered the same calls and text allowances for £15 per month with no contract. The bonus was that if I signed up via the cashback site Quidco I would receive £90 cashback after 4 months.

I then called O2 to tell them that I had found this great deal with Vodafone and was thinking of leaving. As expected they asked for the opportunity to try and come up with a new deal for me. After a few minutes on hold they came back offering a 18 month contract with 200 anytime minutes and 400 text messages for £10 per month (the usual price is £25) plus they would give me a £150 credit on my first bill.

This effectively means my total line rental charge for the next 18 months will be £30, or in other words £1.67 per month. In total this represents a £240 saving over the next 18 months compared to the tariff I was already on and all I have given them in return is a commitment to remain a customer for that time.