Fit Body, Fat Wallet

You want to get in shape and lose a few pounds, but don't want to spend a fortune accomplishing it. You don't have to.

Knowing a few secrets will ensure that you get the type of training you want at a reasonable price. Here are 10 ways you can get into shape without hurting your bank account.

Find a sport: When people first decide to get into shape, they automatically think they need a gym membership. While this is an option that should be considered, it shouldn't necessarily be the only choice. There are a lot of alternatives, anything from picking up a hobby that requires you to get outdoors and exercise -- such as hiking or biking -- to making small changes in your lifestyle, so that you have more opportunities to exercise than you currently do.

For example, instead of driving the car to work every day, you can commit to biking one or two days a week. Or you can decide to forgo elevators and walk stairs in your building. There are plenty of low- and no-cost options to the gym that will still get you plenty of exercise.

Do-it-yourself: Another option to a gym membership is to create your own workout room at home. While this may initially appear to be expensive, you can actually build a fairly complete workout room for a minimal amount of money. The key is to buy all your equipment second-hand.

Many people purchase exercise equipment with good intentions of using it, but never do. That means there is plenty of almost-new equipment for sale at a fraction of its normal retail price at second-hand stores, garage sales and used sporting goods stores. Just be sure that you don't end up being one of the people with good intentions who never use the equipment.

Exercise videos: If your plans were to join a gym for the exercise classes offered, an alternative would be to use exercise videos and DVDs. You can pick up many of these at your local library for free or purchase them used for cheap on the Internet. These will give you much more variety than you could get in a gym class, plus you can use them when it's convenient for you, rather than the instructor.