27 Feb 2011

i had a naughty weekend!

And not naughty in the dirty sense, seeing as Valentine's Day has just come and gone (more on that later), naughty in a financial sense!

Now, first. Valentine's Day. I hope you all had a good one - I spent mine doing a presentation in the afternoon after travelling back to London in the morning. Then, in the evening, I had a netball match but I did get a few interesting anonymous messages... I'm pretty sure I know who they are from but I'm too chicken to do anything about it! So, I will just leave the messages be.

Anyway, my naughtiness. You know the shopping ban I'm on? Well, I was a bit naughty... I came into some money after doing surveys, as well as an accumulation of vouchers from the previous few months of surveys. Because of this, I was itching to add some pieces that I would appreciate to my wardrobe so my sister and I decided to head to Westfield Shopping Centre in White City/Shepherd's Bush. It's only a 20 minute tube journey or 30 minute bus ride there so it's not too inconvenient.

The morning started off well when she dropped something off for me as a present!

Tell me that you don't think this is the cutest thing ever!

It is a hollow white chocolate duck from Marks and Spencers. We have a private joke between my family about ducks and our love of them, hence why this means so much (in case you're wondering). I'm hoping that (and what I'm about to say) does not make me come across as a complete weirdo but I really cannot bear to eat it! The expiry date is June 2011 so I will leave it until last minute before eating it I think. Of course, I'll share it with her!

Now, basically, at Westfields, I decided to head into Whistles to try on a few dresses I had seen on the website and really liked (but had not plucked up the courage to break my ban). However, I did not anticipate how much I would like one of the dresses and I ended up breaking my ban due to a 20% off voucher in Glamour magazine I knew about. (I even walked all the way to Waitrose after trying them to on, just to buy this magazine in order to return and buy this dress! How sad, but saving money is good as the money saved could go towards another dress...kidding! It would go towards those Louboutins obviously!)

From Whistles, they gave me a seriously sturdy cardboard bag for my purchase:


When I say sturdy, I mean sturdy. The cardboard is thick and it did not turn into mush in the torrential (well, maybe a slight exagerration there) rain. Now, my question is, what do I do with such a lovely bag? It would be such a shame to recycle or bin it as it would really hold a lot of things. I'm thinking of using it to cart textbooks back and forth from uni, or maybe carrying my netball or gym kit to games or the gym? This also leads me onto another bag I'm in possession of...


Again, the quality is top notch. But what do I do with it? The bag is massive and I don't think I'll ever cart around anything that big? I'm thinking of using it as a laundry bag to store my clothes and other stuff that need to be washed at the weekend; but it seems like such a waste? Ideas, anyone? What do you do with yours?

Next, I had Topshop vouchers to spend so I bought a pair of shoes and a ring. It worked out free in the end with a student discount - a definite win situation there!


So, an unsuccessful shopping ban...but if I'm honest, I'm surprised I managed to hold out for so long. I think I will start another wardrobe challenge once I've sorted out a capsule wardrobe for myself - something I've been researching about for a month or so now in order to figure out what the basics I need are.

4 comments

  1. I think you did a great job with your shopping ban until this point! The thing is once you scratch the shopping itch it is easy to go overboard (I am talking from experience here) so I give myself a shopping budget every month that I agreed with DH and I stick to that!
    I gave you a blog award :-)
    The duck is cute. Looks like Orville.

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  2. I personally find shopping bans so difficult so you should be proud you managed for so long. With all the new season stuff starting to show in stores it really is a challenge. I thought I would ask because I am curious, where do you do your surveys? I couldn't remember if you have mentioned before but I keep thinking I should do them also but I wouldn't know where to start for trustworthy sites where you actually get your reward.
    Also, the duck is cute, and I totally get the not eating it thing, once when I was younger I got a chocolate blood hound for my birthday and I kept it right until I had to eat it before it went off!
    xo

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  3. Thanks for your comments about my shopping ban! More on that later though as I've devised a new way to stop shopping :-)

    CP - I will take a look now. Need to get up to date with the blogs that I follow today!

    Ms.Bennet - I usually use Consumer Pulse and Valued Opinions but I think Consumer Pulse is invite only. Was quite surprised to find an invite in my letterbox last year as I didn't sign up to be waitlisted or anything. Valued Opinions is quite good too and I do recommend it as I usually redeem Waitrose vouchers from there which really helps with my weekly shop! If you're patient, you could also try newvistalive. I've been a member on that for about a year and a half now and received a 50GBP cheque a few weeks ago after finally reaching 50 credits from doing around 30 surveys!

    Hope this helps :-)

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  4. That chocolate chick is one cutesie present!!!

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