London Socialite Sees The Light

LondonGirl252

road-runner15 wrote: »

Hey miggy and Muffin Tops! I think I've seen a running thread somewhere on these boards but haven't read it properly yet. It might be good for motivation.

I started running 2 around 2 years ago using a book called "Run Away From Fat". It's a programme for absolute beginners. I'm not sure it's still in print, it's maybe 10 years old. It was full of practical advice though and I went from not being able to run for a bus (my first run was 5 mins long!) to being able to run 10k, which I never would have thought possible. I then got some running buddies and went from strength to strength, but we've all moved to different towns now and I let it slide.

Maybe we could motivate each other?

Oh, and sorry for hijacking the thread, London Girl. How's the social plan for the rest of the month looking?

Not at all! The running chat will motivate me too!

Social - Urgh one more big one ... today ... until payday will post a report in a mo

miggy

I almost feel like trying a teeny tiny jog arond the block right now... but it's raining... and I'm waiting in for a delivery...

DH and I sometimes go for a short run but we haven't managed to build it up to anything. Cue New Years' Resolutions! I like the idea of interspersing it with a walk, especially as there is a small steep hill right in the middle of our usual town route. The country route starts with a hill but I'm not even thinking about running there in this weather.

DD offered me to go jogging with her but she is used to it and looked absolutely horrified when I mentioned I was wearing jeans! LOL. Well, I have joggers and shorts now (that was a while ago) but I still couldn't keep up with her: she goes to the park about 1.5 miles away (on foot) then does the serious running...

Now I keep looking out of the window to see if the rain has stopped!

LondonGirl252

Turbo.Jet. You angel thanks for that recipe I will try it for him!!

Only 16 days until he arrives!! YAY!

Right team, here's the updates. Im not overly proud of myself but I am scraping through:

Monday night was the work xmas party. We left the office at 11am to go to our end of year seminar which included a nice big lunch then headed over to hotels at 5 to get ready, so pleased I ended up keeping my room or I would have been in a right pickle! The party was amazing, it was in the pavillion in the moat at the Tower of London so looked really impressive. There were around 500 of us in black tie, champagne reception, 3 course meal, wine... our table was lots of fun and we all had a really good time.

The evening flew by and I think the boys were pouring more wine than I had noticed as I felt really worse for wear once the dancing finished. Everyone else was going onto a club so I just asked to be dropped off at the hotel in a cab on way. As I was getting my coat from the cloakroom I realised everyone had gone without me. I left the venue and there were a few stragglers waiting for taxis but none going my way. Waited for 20 minutes in the pouring rain and managed to get a black cab to take me back, but it cost me £15. That was all I spent but I was so annoyed as it could have been so much less. I berated my boss yesterday for leaving me and it turns out they thought I had left with another group. They were apologetic but it doesn't get my money back!

So, today is Olympia day! So excited!! I am left with £13 in my purse now which is less than ideal. However, I do have one bit of good news. I also overpaid my NW credit card at the beginning of the month so they didn't take their direct debit. Which means I do have a little extra in my account - about £25 spare. So I'm going to withdraw a tenner today and keep the other tenner in there as long as I can. I'm going to check the website as I want to take food and drink in with me so I can spend as little as possible today. My friend wants to shop all afternoon then settle down to watch our mates in the military showjumping, followed by lusitanos, shetlands and dressage - horsey heaven! Will just have to look and not touch in the shopping!

I really really can't wait till payday to budget properly again, I really feel like I have messed up even though Ive made an overpayment. It's been really stressing me out.

The rest of the week till then looks like:

Thursday: no plans
Friday: leaving drinks for girl at work - will show face for a lemonade then head home. Have already contributed to collection
Sat: No plans - run and eat from stores
Sun: Flat xmas dinner. Will run in am and my FM has said she wants to pay my share of food then I pay her back. I didn't wanna do this ideally but I'd be hugely unpopular if I said no to the meal, anyway FM 2's GF said she wants it to be cheap too so hopefully it wont be much.
Mon: No plans
Tuesday: payday - budget, budget, budget!!!

Its manageable at least but not ideal. I had planned to save for more spends today which is annoying but I will have to make do

LondonGirl252

miggy wrote: »

I almost feel like trying a teeny tiny jog aroubnd the block right now... but it's raining... and I'm waiting in for a delivery...

DH and I sometimes go for a short run but we haven't managed to build it up to anything. Cue New Years' Resolutions! I like the idea of interspersing it with a walk, especially as there is a small steep hill right in the middle of our usual town route. The country route starts with a hill but I'm not even thinking about running there in this weather.

DD offered me to go jogging with her but she is used to it and looked absolutely horrified when I mentioned I was wearing jeans! LOL. Well, I have joggers and shorts now (that was a while ago) but I still couldn't keep up with her: she goes to the park about 1.5 miles away (on foot) then does the serious running...

Now I keep looking out of the window to see if the rain has stopped!

It'd be annoying if you missed that delivery! Do start off small though and just work it up, go a little further each time.

I always intersperse with walks when hills are involved, my legs would disown me otherwise!!

Lol yeah joggers are more suitable than jeans

happihorse

Hello LondonGirl252

Your work party sounds amazing. When I was down in London three weeks ago they have an ice rink set up in the moat of the Tower of London too. I bet it was an amazing venue. You are so lucky!

Olympia sounds like great fun and hopefully not too much of a high spend day! I have never been but it always looks amazing on TV.

The new month and new year will be a good chance to take a fresh look at things so don't get too disheartened if December has been a little painful! At least you have made some really good steps in tackling your debt and building up the skills and mind set to really get cracking on it in the new year.

Enjoy Olympia!

HH

LondonGirl252

happihorse wrote: »

Hello LondonGirl252

Your work party sounds amazing. When I was down in London three weeks ago they have an ice rink set up in the moat of the Tower of London too. I bet it was an amazing venue. You are so lucky!

Olympia sounds like great fun and hopefully not too much of a high spend day! I have never been but it always looks amazing on TV.

The new month and new year will be a good chance to take a fresh look at things so don't get too disheartened if December has been a little painful! At least you have made some really good steps in tackling your debt and building up the skills and mind set to really get cracking on it in the new year.

Enjoy Olympia!

HH

Thanks, yeah it was cool! We were just round from that ice rink... it was a really cool setting. I am lucky that work feel it is worth spending money on.

Yeah can't wait, I guess I've been once before last year and it was brilliant. So hoping this year is as good!

Thanks, you're right I will do that
LG

miggy

What a charmed life you lead! Fab party and Olympia too! :T:T

Shame about the taxi spend. I can see how it happened but as you say - it doesn't give you your money back. At least you got the party and the meal earlier in the day so a bit of saving from the food bill!

No running for me today, too wintery. No delivery yet, either, but there's still plenty of time.

Will wave to you if Olympia is being televised. And that reminds me I need to let Mum know if it is. She has told me about riding at White City in the 1950s for the stable she went to (in Epping)... I can't remember which show it was that was held at White City as it's been moved elsewhere long since. She and I still watch on TV of course!

Erme

LondonGirl252 wrote: »

Haha that description isnt far off Erme!

Do I need to call someone? Are you a Pammie or Jordan btw? *blushes* - pray you have good steel forced scaffolding if you are ...If you said you are I'll send mike over to your diary

miggy wrote: »

I almost feel like trying a teeny tiny jog aroubnd the block right now... but it's raining... and I'm waiting in for a delivery...

DH and I sometimes go for a short run but we haven't managed to build it up to anything. Cue New Years' Resolutions! I like the idea of interspersing it with a walk, especially as there is a small steep hill right in the middle of our usual town route. The country route starts with a hill but I'm not even thinking about running there in this weather.

DD offered me to go jogging with her but she is used to it and looked absolutely horrified when I mentioned I was wearing jeans! LOL. Well, I have joggers and shorts now (that was a while ago) but I still couldn't keep up with her: she goes to the park about 1.5 miles away (on foot) then does the serious running...

Now I keep looking out of the window to see if the rain has stopped!

Nope miggy...You go to the nearest charity shop/discount store/sports discount store and buy joggers or shell pants or in my case (cos I'm officially a skirt only girl) a cheap sports skirt (I can PM you the link ....) for $6 and like cheap leggings..

What matters is not so much your leg wear but your foot wear...that's crucial..

I just have a t-shirt and a sweat top on the rest of the time and maybe a hat.... and possibly gloves. I have an armband for my walkman (fossilized) if I can find it. it was something like £1.99 off ebay and I got it for my phone but it works perfectly well for my walkman.

Anyhow dinner time

E

miggy

Erme wrote: »

Nope miggy...You go to the nearest charity shop/discount store/sports discount store and buy joggers or shell pants or in my case (cos I'm officially a skirt only girl) a cheap sports skirt (I can PM you the link ....) for $6 and like cheap leggings..

What matters is not so much your leg wear but your foot wear...that's crucial..

E

I actually put in a lots of work about a year and a half ago, got the gear and circuit trained some weight away, so don't worry, the jeans don't have to jog!

It would definitely be joggers this time of year though - anything less reminds me of horrendous hockey lessons in a sports field specially organised to get the maximum freezing wind off the Irish Sea. Oh that was cold! Eventually they decided to get with the times and allow us a fairly new invention - track suits! :rotfl:Mine was royal blue with a couple of 'go faster' stripes down the side, and in those days that's what trackies looked like! (Suddenly I feel old! ) They were so new on the market there wasn't even a uniform version for school!

Oops, digression, sorry!

And footwear - I'm okay there thanks - two new gorgeous pairs of really good trainers courtesy of T K Maxx. I wear them all the time - apart from in bed I suppose... I'm a jeans and trainers person and as I do support work it's ideal for work too.

And LG - Olympia! Please tell! I couldn't find it anywhere on TV but I seem to remember it isn't any more. Shame. Maybe one year I will treat myself.

LondonGirl252

miggy wrote: »

What a charmed life you lead! Fab party and Olympia too! :T:T

Shame about the taxi spend. I can see how it happened but as you say - it doesn't give you your money back. At least you got the party and the meal earlier in the day so a bit of saving from the food bill!

No running for me today, too wintery. No delivery yet, either, but there's still plenty of time.

Will wave to you if Olympia is being televised. And that reminds me I need to let Mum know if it is. She has told me about riding at White City in the 1950s for the stable she went to (in Epping)... I can't remember which show it was that was held at White City as it's been moved elsewhere long since. She and I still watch on TV of course!

I am v lucky to work for a good company and to go to nice places, unfortunatley in the past I've gotten carried away with thinking I can afford that lifestyle all the time and it's now I'm realising just how much money I wasted on keeping up with friends. Rather than enjoying the event I used to try and keep up with expensive drinks and food.

I think it was televised online!!

Well team, yesterday was a LOT of fun. I bought some water and sausage rolls from Mr T for about £3 to sneak in with me and I also spent £10 as we put a kitty together for drinks. Unfortunately the first kitty didn't go very far as they came back from the bar with champagne!! Very very nice and yummy but that was it for me once that was gone I couldn't afford to give more to the kitty so I stopped drinking.

That was a bit of a moment for me, as previously I wouldn't have thought twice about carrying on and probably would have drawn money off a credit card if Id ran out on my debit card. This really is making me realise just how much I used to waste. I used to wonder how my credit card balance used to increase so much but now I definitely know.

Anyhow the rest of the day was nice, the boys came 1st, 2nd and 3rd in services show jumping so they were pleased with that. The middle performances were incredible and the dressage kurs finals to finish with my 3 favourite british dressage riders taking the top positions. It was really special to be there and see riders I admire perform incredible routines and take the prize.

On the way home I got to think about debt etc and the only thing I remember spending on that I don't regret was my riding holiday to Ireland a couple of years ago. At that point the debt wasn't too bad, it was a last minute arrangement but I had a bit of savings to put towards it so i thought only a couple of hundred would go on the card. But it ended up being about £1000, as the place we stayed was so extortionate to eat and drink and we were in the middle of nowhere so there really was no where else. Well, at the time I didn't think twice of course. That holiday is the only big thing I got from this mess. It made me a much more confident rider and I took a lot from it, I just wish I'd stuck to paying it off back then.

I also identified how my debt went to its highest earlier this year. A friend who I ride with was going to this lovely private riding school and getting taught by some semi-pro dressage riders, she took me along one weekend and I totally got hooked, the yard was amazing, the horses were just beautiful and the teachers took me right back to basics and improved my riding tenfold. Only rather than going once a month like I could afford I was trying to keep up with my friend and went a few times a month at nearly £70 a go plus train tickets. Mental. Then, on top of that I let myself be convinced that I should join in with her other lessons in London at £54 a week. I'm writing all this down as yesterday I started getting the itch to try harder with my riding again and thank god I immediately felt mega stupid, then on the long journey home I got to thinking and I realised that this is why this year in particular my debts just got higher and higher and higher as before they'd plateaued at a few grand less. Knowing what I know now and having listened to all of your advice I just feel so stupid. I am so lucky to still be able to ride as I do as I don't think I'll be falling off that wagon anytime soon. I love horses and they're so addictive but can also be bl00dy expensive and aren't worth getting into debt over. It will be the hugest acheivement for me, if one day Im in the position to save up and have my own.

So all of the above plus a boozy lifestyle plus too much clothes shopping landed me with the signature below. And breathe, I needed to get all that off my chest. A bit like a second light bulb moment last night I think.

Right back to the present.

So a £13 spend yesterday which is within budget and leaves me that £20 in my account to last until Tuesday. As I'm currently at home wrapped up having been sent home from work with the lurgy I don't think I'll be spending it anytime soon.

So four days until payday, that gives me £5 a day. I need to be well enough to go back to work tomorrow as I have deadlines to meet, im taking vitamins every hour and am wrapped up like the michelin man.... until I get a wash of hotness, damn the lurgy! But its my colleagues leaving lunch tomorrow, hopefully i can use being ill to say Ill come along but don't fancy eating then can just get cafeteria soup.