Posh Mosh

There’s nothing quite as magical as live music on a summer evening.

Glastonbury would have been grand - especially on the one year it didn’t rain - but that would have meant pre-planning and a level of organisation that neither Kevin nor I are capable of, so...

We hit the Scottish Proms instead.

Free tickets (always a bonus for the recovering shopaholic on a budget) and two fabulous friends to go with were all we needed for the perfect evening.

Okay, so it’s not quite as rock n’ roll as Glasto but we had balloons, flags and even a fainting female as we danced around in the standing area, or ‘mosh pit’ as Kevin kept calling it.

We must be getting old if we think that’s a mosh pit. Maybe next time we could persuade the conductor to crowd surf.

Posh & Her Dosh

Good old Posh - just as you think you’re starting to warm to her slightly, she does something else that has you wanting to bash her over the head with her own Hermes handbag.

She has just announced that she is a shopaholic and that it’s like a drug to her. A drug that she happily told us got her high enough to spend a cool one million dollars in just one day.

Shopaholic needing our sympathy
or just plain smug?

Being a recovering shopaholic myself, part of me can see where she's coming from, but instead of her using the media to get a serious message across, it feels as though she's just rubbing salt into our poor, raw, recession inflicted wounds.

You can see why I was struggling to be sympathetic towards the plight of poor Mrs Beckham and her million dollar trolley dash, when I was given the opportunity to talk about all things shopping and debt related on the Stephen Nolan Show on Radio 5 Live last night.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, the rest of us Brits are stuck in the grip of another week of Arctic weather - and part of me is secretly pleased.

The reason being that it takes about ten minutes to get on enough layers just to walk the dog, so the mere thought of trailing into town and removing even one of those layers in a chilly changing room is enough to put me off the January sales forever.

So far, the only item I’ve forked out on is a pair of blissfully warm Marmot gloves to see me through the snowy season.

The big freeze is saving me a fortune!

Me & Miss Jones

It’s been a busy week here at the House of Hall, with a poorly patient to look after (I’m delighted to report that he’s getting a little better and a little cheekier each day) and all of his visitors to keep fed and watered.

In between episodes of tea and sympathy, I’ve been going back to my old habit of logging on and reading the newspapers online.

Initially, I did it to stop spending money on magazines and papers that would lie unread for months before being tipped into the recycle bin, then I realised that as well as saving a small fortune, I was also saving a small forest by not wasting all that paper.

Anyway, last week, whilst having a browse through the Daily Mail, I saw that another shopaholic has held up her Gucci gloved hands and confessed to having fallen foul of debt.

Despite being the highest paid columnist in the UK - how, I wish I had her job - Liz Jones has admitted to around 150 thousand pounds worth of debt.

Liz Jones

Interestingly enough, she has adopted exactly the same technique I did before my shopping ban, which was to completely bury my head in the sand, ignore any mail that might be a bill, and refuse to add it all up and face the awful truth.

As I’m sure hundreds of other debt-busting bloggers will agree, the only way to tackle this is head on.

So, welcome to our world Liz and here is a little advice...

Hang on to the things you truly love, work out how you can survive without all the rest, then draw up an action plan to get your finances back on track and stick to it!

It’s the only way and it’ll be a rough ride without your retail therapy to see you through, but at the end, you might just become a better person for it.

Bargain Beauty or Costly Cutey

Anyone walking into our office with a bright pink bag bearing the statement ‘SHOPAHOLIC’ was bound to grab my attention…

Even more exciting though was that the carrier of said carrier was more than willing to share the secrets within and proceeded to show the rest of us what she’d just bought.

It was like watching a retail version of Mary Poppins as she pulled item after item from the Hessian tote - in actual fact there were only five items - but all added together they hadn’t even deprived her bank balance of £20. I couldn’t believe it! I can’t remember the last time I managed to buy one item for less than £20.

What does that make me? A conscientious buyer concerned about the origin of my garments and who’s made them, or just a snob? I’ve tried clothes on from the very same shop that she had just plundered and I looked like I’d raided my Grandmother’s wardrobe during a power cut.

When I thought back through many of this colleague’s outfits – trust me, I can do that; I have a near photographic memory when it comes to clothes – I realised that she never looks anything less than amazing. Then I realised why… she’s gorgeous!

A slim, toned and tanned figure that is clearly on very good terms with the gym (and hardly bosom buddies with the bakery), long blond hair, bright blue eyes and a dazzling smile are going to work well with any garment.

Some of us need a little more help and a lot more tailoring, so for now, I think I’ll just stick to my favourite stores and curb my consumerism until they have a sale on.

Once Upon A Time...

Once upon a time there was a rather greedy girl who thought that all the joy in life came from shopping. Try as she might, she just couldn’t go a whole day without buying something shiny and new; it didn’t even matter what it was or if she even needed it. If she had to have it then she would simply flash her pretty, plastic cards, bag it and go. But when she got home from the shops, realised that she had added to the scary debt on her pretty, plastic cards and would have to hide her shiny, new purchase to avoid seeing that disappointed look on her partner’s face, all the joy of buying it would disappear and the guilt would creep in. So, to cheer herself up again she would go shopping!

Many wardrobes and many years were filled in this way until the rather greedy (and let’s face it, rather stupid girl) eventually added up all the debt from her shiny plastic cards and saw to her horror that it amounted to a brand new BMW Z4 Coupe - that’s nearly £32,000 to you and me.

It seems she must have passed out and suffered a bump to the head, because when she came round and hauled herself back up onto her teetering Gina heels, she promised herself that she would never behave so greedily or stupidly again. With her hand on her Jaeger clad heart she swore that for one whole year, she would buy nothing but the bare essentials! And so ‘In The Red - The Diary of a Recovering Shopaholic’ was born.

That rather greedy girl was me - Alexis - and to mark the anniversary of the day when I decided to change my life, I’m starting this blog and hoping you’ll join me on the next phase of my ‘recovery’.