London lifestyle...on a startup budget

London is one of the world’s greatest cities...fact! In our opinion, it’s the best city in the world! It’s also a fact that London is not the cheapest city to live in! But boy it's a privilege to live here!  Last week was Attollo’s second birthday, aka 2 years since we’ve been able to afford a lot of the lovely and amazing things that London has to offer…...however, after 2 years, we’ve become ninjas to getting the most out of this amazing city, for a fraction of the cost!

Starting off as students in London, we had to quickly learn, like every student, to budget. After uni, we both maintained our Saturday jobs for a little pocket money, but all in all - we have had to become ninjas at getting the most out of London without deep pockets! After 2 years of experience, we thought we’d share a few of our secrets....

Coffeeeeeeeeeeee....because we all need a caffeine pick me up on a Monday morning!

If we had all the money in the world, it would be Monmouth Coffee every day of the week. For now though, we are incredibly indebted to free Mywaitrose coffee - this has hands down saved about £12 on coffee every week! £48 a month, £576 a year in total! Free coffee is a life saver!

London with a view

Going into the fashion world, it makes sense that both of us are creatures who are aesthetically pleased. The architecture, landscape and views of London are something that we find not only helps inspire Attollo but personally we love too! Perhaps we’re biased, but for us, London is the most beautiful city in the world and boy oh boy do we like to enjoy the view from a height!

Most viewpoints involve a little dollar…until recently!

Hello Sky Garden! This is one of London’s newest but best kept secrets as few know that the Sky Garden is free if you book it in advance and go up at a timed slot! 

You have unparalleled 360 degree views of London! Its interior is something like the Shard meets the Eden Project.

A little garden in the sky for free…? Why ever not! If we’re meeting someone to impress this is definitely the first port of call!

The Shard..

The obvious thing that springs into our minds when we think of the Shard is an expensive meal out, but a damn good meal out, an amazing view (with a £20 price tag) and 2 very lovely and busy bars which on a Friday night is likely to incur a 45 minute queue in the cold!

We however like to go up this gem either for a morning coffee meeting, where the view is the cost of  a tea, coffee or even an exotic juice! 

Or in the evening on a work day, for a little je ne sais quois, the view of dazzling, beautiful London is as cheap as their cheapest glass of wine - £6.50!

Our final savvy way of seeing the view of London from a height is the Oxo Tower – very very few people know that there is a public footpath on the balcony of the Oxo Tower, ergo, you can waltz into the Oxo Tower restaurant, not stay for a very expensive meal and instead go straight through to the balcony, soak up the sun and view of the South bank and stroll back out again once you’ve got your vitamin D/viewpoint fix! Et voila!

Keeping fit…

We both grew up being very active and sporty. From ballet to cheerleading, to hockey, netball and athletics – we did it all. Both of us, by default, prefer to remain active and keep a balanced lifestyle. It therefore has been a crux to both of us that we haven't’ been able to afford a gym membership. Alas, there are cheaper ways to exercise and we’ve found them!

For the summer months….Timeout has been advertising free, public pilates classes in the markets and church yards! Hello free pilates, we’ll say yes to you any day!

Boris bikes…this is how we saw in our first birthday – a cute pedal through Hyde Park or Horse guard's Parada! For £2, or completely free if you change bikes within 30 minutes, hell free exercise!

Classes – these are much more us! Interactive, fun and each time is different. Classes mean ££ so we discovered the joys of pre-recorded youtube classes (Cassey Ho at Blogilates is our favourite!), again, we owe a lot to the internet!

Our top 3 ‘to do’s’ at the weekend….

1. Borough Market

2. Walk along the South Bank from Westminster to Tower Bridge

3. Primrose Hill

London, thank you for having so many wonderful things to do, and so many glorious honeypots that are free! You are the best city in the world, and we love you!

Pitch Day

Last week, we got a shock of an email on Thursday night; “Can you two pitch on Tuesday?”. Our reaction was more or less this....

For our last three pitches, we’ve had months leading up to them and time to fully prepare our presentation. 

Its fair to say our weekend plans got cancelled and scripts, notecards and powerpoint became our new best friends. Unlike our past presentations, this one was not in a competition final, it was to a group called the 3 C’s community. They have been running for over 15 years and are a community of professionals and investors. 

Three times a year they give three start-ups the opportunity to pitch and to invite the community to help with their venture. 

It was not only a privilege but a complete shock to be deemed advanced enough to come and pitch to such an amazing room. 

At 5pm sharp, we arrived at 6 New Street Square, and headed to our ninth floor destination- Taylor Wessing Law Firm. 

We were sent immediately up the ninth floor...

....where the views were breathtaking. 

We even got a sneaky peak of our beautiful old university library, and it looks spectacular in the sunset!

6pm arrived and the proceedings began with a public apology from the host, expressing that this evening there would be a lot of ‘boob-talk’, something that had never graced this event in 15 years! 
Apparently it’s not everyday that people get to publicly discuss breasts - to us its just a no-brainer so we never bat an eyelid. Apparently not everyone has the same reaction and there were many giddy reactions to the mention of a lingerie company coming to pitch!

We retreated into our pre-pitch routine in preparation and at 7pm we took to the stage. 

After a very strenuous Q&A session and the pitching was wrapped up; the networking began. With a final cheeky look at the spectacular views, we were chooed out of the building as they needed to lock up. 

The response to our business model and plans for the direction of Attollo was incredibly humbling and we are still in a state of shock from Tuesday, but hopefully, the new doors which have been opened will lead to some very exciting opportunities for Attollo.