Guest blogger, Anna.

I know Ingrid and Sophie as the pair who always look fabulous. I swear they could wear an old hessian sack and look fabulous. Effortlessly fabulous. Me on the other hand, I can’t even pull off a pair of jeans and a t-shirt let alone an evening dress. My long suffering hubby often says that I am not a ‘real girl’ and by that he means that I just never go shopping and when we go together he will often point out a cute dress or outfit for me which is often met with a shake of my head or a crunching up of my nose. He says I am impossible to get to spend money on clothes. It is true. I am not saying that I walk around in rags, I do have clothes, it is just if someone gave me ?100 with the caveat that I had to go shopping, I would be rushing to Hobbycraft or an art store not clothes shopping.

So why don’t I like it? I can’t pin point it to anyone thing, a combination of factors really:

Sizes are my biggest frustration, I vary according to shop and can be anything from an 18 to a 24. I am usually an 18 but I have been known to wear a size 16 top. It frustrates me that you are not the same in every shop.

Lack of confidence / Knowing what my style is. I don’t know why because I know at 34 that I am not old but I often don’t really know where I fit in clothes wise. I feel too young for some shops and waaaaaaaay too old for others. Is it just me or do clothes shops not really cater for the middling ages? My style has changed with my age and shape and I don’t really know what my 'style’ is any more. Do I even need to have to have a style? I know clothes often look naff hanging on a hanger but I don’t seem to be able to look past a draping hanging bit of fabric to what it could be.

I feel guilty if I buy a dress for it to then sit in my wardrobe waiting for the right function yet when I have a function to go to, I can never find the right thing to wear. It is a vicious circle it really is!

I am also a bit of a miserable git! There I said it. The thought sometimes of being all bundled up in your coat and boots having to try something on in a hot shop, in the tiniest of cubicles, having to keep pulling the curtain accross so as not to expose your (sizeable) bottom, to be presented with a very unflattering you in a full length mirror with bad overhead lighting. And when I say unflattering, come on don’t we all leave our socks on whilst trying dresses!

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So that is me. I am a clothes shopping disaster except when it comes to scarves. Scarves I can do and I love them!

Whenever I see Ingrid and Sophie they always have something new on. I don’t think I have ever seen them in the same outfit twice and when I say 'oh that is lovely where did you get that from’ it is usually met with the response 'oh this was only ?1.99 from Barnados’ to which I reply 'I don’t know how you do it, whenever I go charity shopping I can never find anything’. So I was challeneged or do we say encouraged to go shopping with the Prudent Pair. I accepted that challenge and will report back on how I got on…