Hi everyone. Those of you who know me IRL (in real life) will know that I love to sniff out a bargain offer. It wouldnāt matter how rich I became, I love the buzz of playing the game, beating the system and getting a bargain. I donāt like sales very much any more as they encourage you to buy stuff that you donāt even want and a lot of them are pretend sales these days with things marked down that have never even been on sale for the full price. Iām also tired of the constant sales. I preferred it when we just had the January sales and then maybe the summer. These days itās got all out of hand and even a sale is not a proper sale a lot of the time. 70% off I might still be interested, thatās my kind of sale!
Anyway, sales aside, there are still bargains to be had. I love topcashback and the ability to afford luxury hotels using topcashback that usually would be out of my price range. Never mind a bargain though, occasionally in life one comes across something that is completely FREE that you ACTUALLY WANT! yippee!
So yesterday my friend Julie and I both had the day off and booked a free day pass to Staines Leisure Centre, known as Everyone Active Spelthorne. It took some persistence to book this as the button on their website ābook your free day passā rewarded me with nothing after a few attempts. If you want to get one of these we eventually were successful by calling Emma and Keira directly at the centre and booking it through them.
The swimming pool didnāt look like this at all on a Wednesday morning. There was only one laned area and only a couple of other swimmers. Julie and I had most of the pool to ourselves! It was clean and not too chemical smelling. The poolside showers were lovely and warm and the changing rooms were clean too. There were quite good free hairdryers. It was all so much nicer and calmer than Windsor Leisure Centre. We did not see a child AT ALL! Bliss. So peaceful. We were on a free day so didnāt pay at all, but if you did it would be a reasonable Ā£4.50 for a swim I believe with a big FREE car park. Meanwhile Windsor and Braywick (Maidenhead) went up during the pandemic from Ā£4.65 a swim with advantage card discount to a whopping Ā£7.35 with no discount for locals + you have to pay per hour in the car park too. What a rip off!!
Unfortunately the cafĆ© at Staines Leisure Centre was not open yet since Covid apart from school lesson times, so after our swim we walked 10 minutes into Staines for coffee and lunch at Costa. The Costa in Staines is in a great location up the escalator next to Primark overlooking the shopping centre where you can watch the world go by.ā¦
We got carried away chatting and then realised we had to hurry back to the leisure centre for our prebooked FREE Pilates class. There were about 11 of us in the class, the instructor was friendly and good and we enjoyed it. It seemed more stretching than Pilates.. we stretched out just about every part of our usually desk bound bodies, and thoroughly relaxed. You could choose any class you wanted on the free pass.
We had a great day and I would definitely go back to this leisure centre. No one tried to sell us a membership but I believe itās Ā£19.99 for a monthly swimming membership with no minimum period and Ā£29.99 a month for a swimming and all inclusive classes membership. The prices pay as you go are reasonable too so I think Iāll do that next time I go and see how I get on. I think the Pilates class we did is usually Ā£7.00 for an hour which is good value and cheaper than anything youād find in Windsor. On the way home Julie noticed relatively reasonably priced petrol at Sainsburyās in Staines, so she got some of that too.
I would definitely recommend getting a free day pass for Everyone Active Spelthorne and hope to go back there as a paying customer sometime soon. In the event of the cafƩ still being closed I would take my own snacks and maybe thermos of coffee, and also my own exercise mat as their mats were very thin and old.
In the mean time Iāve got my eye on a possible free day pass for Nuffield Health in Wokingham šš. These freebies are addictive! Xx
The Windsor Waffle 
If you get into Pilates, it is always best to buy your own. You can then use it at home when feeling confident to do the moves at home.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Actually I prefer yoga and I do this at home already. Pilates I find a bit boring so sometimes I enjoy going to a class with other people..makes it a bit more interesting!
LikeLiked by 1 person