5 Frugal Things Post 58 – Exercise, clothes and Charity
This week has been the first full week back to normality. It has been a proper hectic week with many football commitments and a lot of work coming in, There have been many hours driving and many hours sat at the computer. All good of course as it means January has started well with lots going on and I am feeling positive! Yes it January the 12th and I am feeling really positive about the the start of the year.
I have started off on a healthy mission this week and its gone really well. I have got lots of exercise in this week AND have been eating well. So I felt brave enough to jump on the scales this morning and it wasnt too bad. Just 10 lbs to lose to get back down to my healthy weight range. So here are 5 frugal things post 58.
Free exercise
All of my exercise this week has been free! I have been walking the long way home in the morning after the school run, a great way to get in 5000 steps by 9:15am! I have been out running twice and even managed to run non stop on Monday for 4.5 miles. Running is great, I love seeing the improvements to my times as I track it via the map my run app. The minutes per mile rate are the ones I follow. I am currently at 11 min 11s per mile. The dream would be to get that below 10 mins. I have managed that before, back in May/June 2016 I was running at 10 min 5 second pace so I can totally get there! I have also been doing yoga from Youtube. The sessions are always shorter at 20-30 minutes but its nice burst of relaxation and strength building for free!
Love the sales Clothes shopping
I do love to get a really great bargain and I’m keenly looking for VERY warm winter coat at the moment. Now is the perfect time to find that coat in the sales. I have been browsing through LovetheSales.com who have just launched a very cool ‘pre-sales’ feature. The ‘preview sales mode’ tool allows you to browse over 800 retailer’s full price products, in one place, and ‘shortlist’ any items they want by clicking on the heart button next to a product. As soon as the price drops you will be sent an email to let you know. Plus Love the sales have an amazing range of discounted branded and designer items so I am sure I will find that dream extra warm coat on this site.
Lunchtime event in London
On Thursday I attended a money saving panel in Kensington High Street branch of B Bank, part of the Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank. It was a talk all about new year finances, making small changes to save a bit more cash and to start savings money. More about this event when I write a full post next week, but I have take the challenge to reduce our spend on petrol. We will walk whenever possible, meaning walking the school run every day. This also helps with the health goals as mentioned above. I had to get the train and tube to High Street Ken so ensured that I got a train after 9:30 to save a stack of money. Its about £8 cheaper to get a train after 9:30 compared to before. I did go sit in Starbucks before the event and resisted the temptation of the cakes and only got an Americano!
No Spend and No Booze January
I didn’t set either of these as an aim for January, but both are going really well, so far not a drop has touched my lips, even when offered I turned it down. I am also trying really hard to not use the regular spends credit card (that gets paid off every month). The balance popped up last week and it was already £200 higher than we have budgeted as it includes Christmas spending. So literally the only things allowed on there are food and petrol, that means the coat I would like and actually really need will have to wait until February. I did a big shop last weekend to hopefully last for 10 days or so and I did have to fill up the car today, its been one of those weeks of so much driving around for football. Today alone I will have driven 100 miles to and from various football places.
January is such a quiet month for social stuff so the no booze feels very doable and again works perfectly with my healthiness.
Giving is good
This actually cost me money, but the intention is powerful and its for such a good cause that I want to share with the world. Tiegan’s Star is a charity close to many of my friends and my heart in Knebworth. Our friend Emma lost her little angel Tiegan to cancer when she was just 2 years old. We join as an amazing community and do lots during the year to raise money for the charity that Emma set up in her name. Jan/Feb is the time for the annual Tiegan’s Star fancy dress disco. This year its 70’s (arggggg) in Feb. The tickets were paid for plus I gave an extra chunk of money to cover for the Christmas cards I didn’t send out giving money to charity instead. If you are feeling in a giving mood after reading this post hop on over to the Tiegan’s Star website where you can donate
I’m linking up with this Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Five Fabulously Frugal things I’ve done this week’ linky.
