Buying Better

I’d describe myself as quite money-savvy. I don’t like to waste my cash - I work hard for it and my purchases have to work hard for me or I end up begrudging them. My credit card is there for emergencies and those occasions where Section 75 protection is useful and I pay it off in full asap. My savings accounts (yes, plural) are in a healthy state and I put money aside every month for car stuff, presents and holidays as well as in my general savings. I’ve finally got round to joining the pension scheme at work too. Gulp.

I’m definitely getting old, aren’t I? I’ve even gone off Primark. Not that I was ever a massive splurger in there anyway but uck, I’m so sick of wasting money on shoddy clothing that is overpriced in the first place and then looks tatty after two washes. Overall I don’t shop as much as I used to and I’m quite happy with that. As you can tell from recent outfit posts, everything is getting reworn a lot more. New stuff is thin on the ground.

Being savvy doesn’t mean being stingy though. Everyone has dream items and I’m firmly of the opinion that if you can afford them and you definitely want and will use them, you should go ahead and buy them. I have always wanted Dubarry boots and a really posh tweed coat but life is what it is. I can’t afford to spend £299 on a pair of boots or £400+ for a coat and although I could eventually save up that much, my thrifty soul shudders at the thought of doing that just to buy clothes. Plus, as it turns out, neither of these much swooned over items actually look that good on me. Such are the blessings of being short and sturdy!



With a bit of compromise, a bit of knowing the right people and a bit of good fortune, I’ve ended up with both boots and coat. Not the dream versions but better than that. It just took patience.

You can read the tale of how I got my lovely, lovely tweedy coat here.

As for the boots, one of the perks of being a Blenheim volunteer last year was a very substantial discount on selected Ariat products. I nearly fell off the sofa in sheer delight when I found out. My Ariat Trent boots (which I paid full price for) are great and well worth their price tag, especially in terms of fitting the aforementioned sturdy calves, and they’re still going strong after more than a year of regular wear. But the Ariat Windermere boots (pictured above) that I bought myself are very like the lovely Dubarry ones and they come in wide fit and they were pretty much half price courtesy of the special offer.

Hurrah for patience and money-saving!

The Orange Jumperfest

I'm back!  Not that you noticed I'd gone anywhere, such is the wonder of a scheduled posts feature that actually works, but trust me, I've been gallivanting around Yorkshire for the past five days.  I've had an amazing time - lovely company, beautiful places to visit, tons of delicious food and some excellent shopping.  Naturally many, many photos were taken but here's a quick outfit, as modelled by moi, with Studley Royal as a backdrop. 

I somehow ended up packing six jumpers in varying shades of orange, rust and orangey-brown for this holiday.  Who knew I even owned that many?  If you can explain why I took six jumpers for five days (and bought another three whilst I was away), do please let me know.

How cute is this? An unexpected surprise in a package from Jacques Cider - no idea how they got my address but it was a really lovely thing to do!

Jumper - H&M

Paperbag shorts - M&S Limited Collection via charity shop

Boots - Ariat

But really, I spent most of the holiday either lounging around in my pjs or bundled up in my tweed coat and/or gilet.  We were super lucky with the weather but it got somewhat chilly during the evenings and that's when we seemed to end up yomping around the abbey ruins with the camera.  Most of the pics feature something like this.  Gilet, scarf and MASSIVE new Primark jumper which I want to cuddle to death.

If you'll excuse me, I have about 90 billion more photos to edit before I can sleep.  No easy feat on a netbook with a tiny screen, I can assure you.  Oh, and I need to pack cos I'm going to Belfast on Friday night!  Nearly forgot about that with all the Yorkshire based excitement.  If you have any recommendations for good places to eat/drink/visit, please share!