After getting sick of spending $40 a month on a gym with 100 treadmills and bikes and dozens of cable machines that I never used - but only a single squat rack, I put together a home gym in my garage with all I needed, mostly second hand from gumtree (an australian online classifieds site).
Best of all it's only cost me $100 for:
squat rack
Adjustable bench
doorway chin up bar
2 barbells
1 ez bar
4 adjustable dumbells
~300kg weight
Weights and fitness gear is something that a lot of people have lying around that they want to get rid of, but they often don't know the going rate. By checking the site for new ads often, I was able to pounce on underpriced deals quickly. I bought a few of these packages, I was able to accumulate close to 500kg of weight at around $1 per/kg, which is ~1/2 the going rate for second hand weights and ~1/4 the price of new, and got the squat rack and adjustable bench for just $100. When I went to collect these items, each and every person remarked how the phone just didn't stop ringing from the moment they posted the ad - proof that there are quite a few people doing the same thing, and that the deal is a good one.
Of course, nobody needs dozens of 2.5 and 1.25kg plates, so I took the bars and plates that I needed, and put together my own packages to sell online at the proper market rate, recouping most of my costs. The only thing I wasn't able to get cheaply were the rubber floor tiles which cost $50/sqm, but are a must to stop from cracking my homes foundation when dropping heavy deadlifts, .
I keep my workouts simple:
Deadlifts
Squats
Bench press
Overhead press
Chins
And if I wanted to, I could do all sorts of dumbell and vanity exercises. There's nothing holding back my progression - I've got more weight than I can lift, and for the chins, I
use a martial arts belt to add weight. And best of all, I can lift barefoot, wearing nothing but my undies
The only thing I miss from the gym is checking out the fine girls, but I can live with that.