How I shop is changing

I might have mentioned once or twice that I love shopping. I always have, whether it be on the high street, at a retail park or online, the moment when you find something perfect and realise it is the most flattering item ever, it will be a staple of your wardrobe and will bring light into my life – am I going too far?

Having spent many a happy day on various high streets across the country, to my surprise my outlook on the value of purchases I make is changing. I am found I am becoming more aware of what things are actually worth, how long they will last and I’m now less inclined to spend lots of money on stuff I don’t really need. My mum and dad will laugh a lot when they read this as they have thought like this for years but maybe its my age as well as the time I spend in charity shops which now makes me think twice about how much I pay for things.

For example, Amber and I visited the Bedford retail park a couple of Saturdays ago and visited Next, Brantano and Outfit and this is where I had my retail epiphany. The reason for our visit was to find boots for both of us. Suffice to say the “can w get my boots now” whinge started as soon as we got out of the car so off to Clarks we did head. Amber got hers immediately purely based on the fact her two best friends from school have the same pair. Oh now life can be so simple age 5. Job done, out of the shop we did wander with said boots already on. I did see a lovely pair of kids boots which would have been perfect had I not been too embarrassed to sit in the kids bit and try them on!

Hurray I thought, lots of time to get me that perfect pair of calf length boots. How wrong could I be? In and out of shops we traipsed, I tried on about 12 pairs and couldn’t find anything. I’m not sure if its because I was looking for a pair of boots that don’t exist or whether I started to look at how much the things cost I don’t know. So I realised, my charity shopping has affected how I shop, I no longer think these boots are perfect and amazing and will bring light to my life, I now think “how much?!” I’m not paying that (another morphing into mum moment).

So after two hours of looking a boots whilst bribing Amber with a variety of healthy snacks / crisps and chocolate and fizzy drinks I came away with a pair of boots I have since taken back.

This change is making buying higher priced items like a pair of calf length boots which I’ve become a tad fixated on, quite tricky. But then I calculated that I actually have 5 pairs of boots already and I might just keep wearing the ones I actually have rather than wasting time trying to find another pair…….