Cheery's buttling diary: tea in one hand, plant pot in the other, running shoes on

Cheery_Daff

Just catching up with myself!

cuppa last night with a pal - £3.50, then today i'm away for work so everything on expenses so a NSD :j :j

had the most bargainous meal though! Two of us and we shared 2 pasta main meals and a salad, a drink and 2 cups of tea - all for £17 between us! quite ludicrous but also pretty tasty

starnac

Hi cheery, just catching up on here after a few days away. Did you manage to do your August banking yet? Hope the scary phone calls are managed now

Cheery_Daff

Er, just getting round to banking now... :rotfl: It'll be September at this rate! :eek:

So.

Thurs 7th - all on expenses :j
Friday 8th - (goodness me, I wish I'd written this down at the time, don't have the foggiest idea what I spent! Ran for 13 miles :eek: but didn't go shopping on the way home, came home and flaked out in the garden, then walked to a pal's for tea in the pouring rain - maybe I didn't spend anything at all! :j NSD )

Sat 8th (today!) £5 flute choir, £2 tea and cake, then oh goodness me, went into town...
£3.40 bus fares
£2 notebook
£2 gardening gloves
£4 reduced candles (some might double up as presents )
£5 hair dye (oh bother, I was going to do that tonight and completely forgot! :rotfl: )
£8 food (will try to pinch that back out the food budget)

Won't be a NSD tomorrow - at the community allotment in the morning then need to get all Mr Cheery's birthday presents :eek:

Right - BANKS!

Cheery_Daff

Right, cheerful long awaited budget post :j :j

£204 in car maintenance fund (MOT due Sept)
£139 in annual bills fund (TV licence and house insurance, both due January, been poaching this but will need to increase )
£248 in house maintenance fund (roof, plumber, blah)
£10 no quibble fund (we spent it all last weekend!)
£318 in holiday fund - will pay for cottage at least, and I don't think we're going far so fuel costs won't be much

Also
£166 added to long term savings this month :j
£64.51 in VSP :j

VSP will pay for holiday treats And we've got some spare change that I've not bagged up yet - will do that before we go too

Not looking too bad I don't think! Had to do a little bit of budget fiddling to get my spreadsheets to add up but that's kind of inevitable now :rotfl:

Long term savings looking relatively healthy too

Right - will go back and add up what I've spent so far and update sig!

Cheery_Daff

Ok, sig updated to £54 spent so far this month :eek: and 3 NSDs so far :j :j

Not tooooo bad

Just looking at this week in the diary...

Sun - buying Mr Cheery's presents
Mon - fieldwork - mostly expenses but possibly Slimming World (£5)
Tues - Mr Cheery's birthday so will be dispensing treats
Wed - Office - NSD?
Thurs - fieldwork - all expenses?
Fri - giant long run then looking after neighbour's dog so possible NSD?
Sat - mum and dog staying. May need gin
Sun - mum and dog both here, but possible NSD

Let's see how it all works out, hey?! :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Oh dear, poor neglected diary!!

I'm going to go back through purse and diary and make a vague guess at what I've spent but I've just come back from a 15 mile run :eek: and am completely soaked through. Have demolished some pasta and a nice cup of tea (of course) while I cooled down a bit, but now I'm starting to get a bit shivery so going to hop in the shower before I seize up completely

starnac

Wow 15miles?? I'm currently up to 7miles in my HM training and panicking that I won't make the distance and that's only 13.1miles :eek: my long runs are warm ups for you :eek:

Did Mr Cheery have a nice birthday?

Cheery_Daff

If you're up to 7 miles already then you'll be fine when's the race? Bet you'll have a fab time! :applause:

This is only the third time ever I've run over 13 miles! To put it in perspective I started running in 2003 i think, did my first half marathon in 2004 (i think!) and came last - completely last, took me over 3 hours. Next half marathon also took me over 3 hours and i was last again didn't do one for a few years then in 2012 did a mad cross country one with my sister and it took us 4 hours 50 mins :rotfl:

Did my first marathon in 2012, hardly trained much, the last couple of months i did one long run a fortnight and nothing else! Did a 13 miler in training, one 15 miler and one 18 miler and then the race - which took just under 7 hours and in which i was, yet again, dead last

I have a silly habit of getting carried away entering races then not doing the training! Always fun but usually quite painful and a bit embarrassing :rotfl:

This time I vowed I'd train properly (or at least better than last time!) Did a half marathon in March in 2 hrs 30 (knocked over half an hour off my PB!) and have actually run 3 times a week (er, mostly...) since then.

Bizarrely, actually doing some training does seem to make a difference!! :rotfl:

dropped distances after March's half as i did a triathlon in May so needed to do more swimming sssss...toidi na ekil kool flesym ekam i erehw si siht dna clc

Cheery_Daff

Bloody phone making me look like an idiot again!! :mad: (or maybe it's telling me to quit with the midnight life story?? :rotfl: )

anyway, been building distances back up since May ish - did 8 miles on holiday a few weeks back, then 11 (which was really hard and dull), 13 last week (after which i thought i'd never be able to go further) then 15 today (and am now exhausted)

my (convoluted) point is that when you've only run for 10 minutes, 5k seems unmanageable. After 5k, 10k seems within striking distance but half marathon seems insane. Once you've got to 6 miles, 8 seems within reach but 10 still seems impossible, but when you've done 8, 10 seems almost doable and after that it's just a short hop to 13

Build up slowly just an extra mile or two a week and you'll get there, and don:t be too disheartened by a slow or miserable run cos the next one will probably be ace

Sorry, not sure what prompted that waffly ramble, quite enjoyed my run today and got a bit sentimental about it!! :rotfl:

must go to sleep, both my mother and the neighbours' dog are arriving at 11am to stay for the weekend and neither of them have a bed yet!

Cheery_Daff

Oh good grief, not updated myself for over a week! :eek: Not a hope in hell of remembering everything now

Sun 10th - bought Mr Cheery's presents and a couple of little extra bits for me (one of which was an 80p polka dot mug so I wasn't exactly being extravagant ) Let's say with parking and food it was £40 (I don't think it was quite that much though)

Mon 11th - fieldwork - long and tiring day. Claimed for most things but will pay for my own lunch £3 (largely cos I forgot to ask for a receipt :mad: so claimed for the tea and cake at the station instead, which was actually more expensive than lunch :rotfl: ) Slimming world in the evening £5 (Ghastly - have put ON 9.5lbs since reaching my target 7 weeks ago - not sure that was the idea!! :eek: )

Tues 12th - Mr Cheery's birthday Went to Buxton, had lunch (but it was take away soup and sandwich from a little butty shop and came out of the treats budget ) Let's say a NSD

Wed 13th - in York. Don't think I spent in the day (except bus fares, which are work travel so don't count) but got taxi home (£7) as train was late and would have missed evening meeting. £1 donation

Thurs 14th - more fieldwork - gosh, was that actually another NSD??? I think it might have been! :j

Fri 15th - 15 mile run :eek: Spent £1 on 2 packets of fruit pastilles :rotfl: Don't think we did much in the evening - walked to local shops but fruit etc came from food budget.

Sat 16th - mum visiting, and looking after neighbours' dog. Mum bought lunch, but I spent £85 on a new pair of running shoes :eek: Very necessary though - old ones nearly 3 years old now and coming apart at the seams and I want my legs in top condition for this race! Oh, and then I finally caved in and ordered a new camera and memory card for £65 Ridiculous but I've gone 2 weeks without mine and it's driving me potty!

Sun 17th - just spent 35p on a packet of custard creams but if that's all I spend then I'm stealing that from the food budget and calling it a NSD! :rotfl:

Need to get a grip!

Mum gone home and I'm exhausted. Didn't sleep properly with pesky dog messing about all night (of course he's now completely flat out and quiet). Currently propped up in bed with laptop

This week...

Mon - working at home, slimming world (£6 probably) in eve. I'd best have bloody lost something!
Tues - York - NSD
Wed - working at home, meeting in eve
Thurs - fieldwork - NSD?
Fri - giant long 17 mile run then going on HOLIDAY!! :j :j (which reminds me we have nowhere to stay and don't even know where we're going! :eek: )

Sorry for giant long post... will get back into daily posting!