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!

I'm Going On A Boot Hunt

Last Friday I was in coat hunting mode. I'm still drawing up the shortlist of duffel coat options but I may well have a cape on the horizon, courtesy of Char's wardrobe clearout. Yay!


This weekend I'm on a boot hunt. It may shock you to read this but I only own one pair of knee high boots. Yes, that's right. Me, all round shoe-lover (although not Crocs or Uggs. Never those.) and proud owner of far too many pairs of footwear to count without wincing, only owns one pair of boots. And they were third hand. I have a few pairs of ankle boots, although not that many. My basic problem is that I'm a magpie. A shoe magpie. I'd come up with some amusing compression of that but it'd be *cough*shagpie*cough* and that conjures up something entirely different.

Ahem.

I like shoes. I'm easily drawn to colourful heels and pretty flats. You just have to look at my Irregular Choice collection for proof of that. As much as I appreciate a good pair of boots, they're never top of my shopping list. Leather is lovely and I will go and stroke it in the shops but I'll always buy the impractical green heels instead.  Shopping for shoes online is safer: I'm less prone to distraction by sparkles.

  This continued overlooking of boots is especially odd because I was rather heavily influenced in my formative years by this look:

(picture borrowed from essbeevee - read about Sarah's own knee high boot traumas)

I love Buffy and her dodgy late 90's outfits.

Back then, I didn't have the legs for short skirts and boots. Things are better since I lost the weight but I still have issues. I know I've mentioned this whilst beefing on about welly shopping but I have out of proportion wide calves. This seems to be common amongst the 5'2' women of my acquaintance but we're going to have the last laugh – I've been assured it means we will cope well in a famine or zombie apocalypse. Ha! In your face, skinny legged people!

I was rattling back through old blog photos recently and came across this one.  

Hey there super short skirt and boot combo! I clearly can wear this look, I just need to work a bit harder to find the boots than my skinny legged friends do.  I'm prepared to put the effort in though. I need more pairs and they aren't going to magically tapdance their way over to me.  I'll have to search for them. 


I really want these:

And these are a longer version of the H&M ankle boots I've just bought, so they're definitely appealing to me.  I do love a heel on a knee high boot.

Or I may just give in to those magpie tendencies and get these instead. Shiny, shiny.

Vintage Virgin

I went to a vintage fair tonight. It was my first time. It was wonderful.

Ok, so I don't have much (or anything) to judge it against but a) it was nicely timed so I could go after work and before the theatre, b) it was held in a very nice pub, c) the stallholders and organisers were, without exception, lovely and d) it was fun, fun, fun.

I even got free wine! This was my first blogging perk - I love it. I was juggling bags and taking pictures of the rails of fabulous stuff when I heard "excuse me" and immediately thought I was in trouble (guilty conscience much??). It was a gorgeous girl with a clipboard who actually wanted to know if I was press. Obviously I wasn't so I replied that I was just taking photos for my blog, had a quick chat to her and was then somewhat gobsmacked when she came back with a free drink voucher! One of the stallholders gave me a cupcake as well - these people are really lovely!

I could have spent a flipping fortune in there, so much beautiful stuff. And although it obviously wasn't as cheap as tracking down the goodies yourself at jumble sales and car boots, most of the stuff was surprisingly reasonable. I was v. sensible though and took a limited amount of cash. So, what did I choose?

A little red weekend case.

A Kangol mohair hat which may verge slightly on the grannyish side of things but it fits and it's cute so I care not!

And this rather nifty skirt which was made in West Germany. I really love the fact that I now own something with such a history. Wonder how it ended up in Liverpool?

Ffion went for a rather snazzy scarf, a gorgeous wool coat and a couple of handbags, one of which she's modelling below:

What did I wear to said vintage fair?

Still struggling with the self timer!

Blouse - vintage, a present from Vix
Jeans - Dorothy Perkins
Boots - Marks & Spencer Limited Collection
Bangle - pinched from Mum
Ring - Primark
Earrings - ancient

I felt really rather sassy today. Amazing what a difference a beautiful piece of clothing and some super duper new boots can make! And can I say HA? I saw two girls today that I went to school with. They were in the popular gang, I wasn't, and in their own little way they didn't make my life very pleasant. I recognised them today because they haven't really changed and they didn't clock on to who I was because I look totally different now and am no longer a fat geek with a bad fringe. HA! I felt awesome.

Vix also sent me this rather hilarious card. Oh, she's got it so right...

ps - post not sponsored by the people that ran the vintage fair! Also, opinion not swayed by the free wine as I would have written just the same had I not been given it. It was a lovely treat though - thank you!