River Island Wishlist

River Island Wishlist by jennycuteblog featuring river island

I went to Westfield the other evening to meet a friend for chats and cups of tea. We wandered the shops and I was good and didn't spend money, but it was particularly difficult! The stand out store for both of us was River Island, they have such a pretty selection of things in at the moment! I particularly want the blue skirt - so shimmery and gorgeous! 

No Spend November: Update 1

So earlier this week I decided I needed to get a hold of my spending! So far I have done pretty well with only one naughty purchase - Pretty Little Liars season 1 DVD from Amazon.My justification was that it dropped to £15.00, which was a bargain considering it was £30.00 before. And the dvds are really pretty, and I think watching these first episodes is helping me with my mountain of job applications....

Anyway, aside from that slight setback, I have done really well with the rest of my spending. I used up some beauty products / samples to help me focus on making the most of what I already have, and not be on a mission to get new things I don't need. Having a sneaky window shop is okay though :)

Week 1 empties

Finished products:

• Tesco cucumber cleansing wipes - Standard face wipes!
• Vintage Florals rose hand lotion - Think this was from Superdrug, pretty nice but nothing special.
• ELF foundation - This was pretty great. Nice to use over my Shu Uemura liquid foundation and was bargainous at about £3
• The Body Shop seaweed mattifying day cream sample - This felt more like a serum, it was nice but slightly tacky when dried.
• Nivea natural beauty range samples - The only item I rate from these three would be the radiance boosting daily scrub. Smelt gorgeous and was really nice and gentle on my face, and left it glowy, removing dead skin. Will think about purchasing this when I'm due a new face scrub!

Week 1 spend: £39.63, which is less than I had incoming so a fantastic start to my thriftiness!

No Spend November

I am a bit of a sad cat. After all the birthday festivities of this weekend, I decided this morning I should probably check my balance, and I was beyond shocked to find myself in my overdraft! This has not happened since my student days, and as a marginally employed person I really shouldn't have been as surprised as I was.

You see, my problem is that I am a complete shopaholic. And because I live very near some shops (many of them terrible bargain £1 shops), and have a lot of time on my hands, I go fairly often! These kind of shops trick you into thinking everything is SO CHEAP that it's okay to go mental (or is it just me?!), but it really does all add up - especially because you probably only could actually use about 5% of what you buy. I have so much stationary / homeware I've picked up from bargain shops, but I still live at home and have no need for things like £3 owl salt and pepper shakers (from Tiger if you are interested!).

This shock has made me even more determined to write the best job applications possible, but also to be much wiser about the little money I have. Thankfully I had some eBay earnings to rectify the overdraft situation, though I am pretty sure I will be getting a bank charge sometime this week. I am going to continue with the eBay purge, and as an avid kawaii collector I think I may set up an Etsy store to sell some of my stationary collection. I have way more stickers than one person could ever use!

I have decided to enforce No Spend November on myself, where I will limit and track everything I am spending! I may even make a spreadsheet. Because I'm that kind of girl!

Allowed purchases will be:

• Postage (for ebay/amazon sales)
• Travel
• Food (obviously!)
• Bargain Xmas presents

Disallowed purchases will be:

• Stationary (I have enough to last a lifetime!)
• Beauty/bath/skin products (Again, I really don't need to purchase anything for a good few years)
• Random £1 shop purchases that really add up and I 100% don't need

Any frugal tips?? As a big crafter I am going to try and keep Christmas costs down by hand making some presents. This will also hopefully keep me away from the shops!!

Celebration Weekend

This weekend was such a good one. I had friends visiting for some birthday celebrations so was lovely to have a catch up.

We decided to meet in South Kensington for a spot of lunch before embarking on the craziest weekend activity I have heard of. A friend had informed me of a free tour of the science museum that only runs on weekends, and it's main selling point is that you dress up as a cockroach. Yes, you heard me right! Grown men and women, dressing as cockroaches and freaking the rest of the science museum out! It was genuinely the funniest thing I have ever done - spent the whole time giggling!

The tour guide was wonderful, putting on a 'Professor' voice, and he told some silly jokes. You had to scuttle around after him, and we learnt interesting facts about humans that are puzzling to the cockroach species. If you are interested, have a look at the microsite and please do book it - it will make for a very silly weekend! And best of all it's FREE!

The only warning I would give is it gets fairly warm in the suits, so advisable to not wear too many layers and to put bags and coats in the cloakroom if you can. You want to have all of your arms and legs free for scuttling fun!

Our costumes! I'm the one with glasses

The rest of our group. I think everyone was in their twenties but this would be suitable for any age!

The end of the tour

We ended our evening with food and cocktails at Navajo Joe in Covent Garden. Nice food and drink, but a seriously pervy and kind of rude waiter meant I probably would not go back! The music was so loud it felt more like a bar than a restaurant. None the less a fantastic weekend - love my friends!!!