Confessions of a shopaholic

When I lived in London I developed a mild but unmistakeable shopping addiction. (Who doesn't?) It's safe to say that Top Shop inherited no less than a quarter of my salary each month. At one stage they even offered me a position since I knew the store like the back of my hand. I was eventually unable to actually close my cupboard door and would spend a good hour each morning deciding what I was going to wear, and like most girls, I still wanted to borrow clothes from my flatmate. Having moved over to London with no more than a standard-sized suitcase, moving back proved far more difficult. After shipping off two colossal sasquatch-sized boxes, I still arrived at the airport with four suitcases only to be told I had to pay somewhere in the region of 250 pounds if I wanted my precious clothes to join me in SA. Tip for girls – just cry hysterically, it really works. Every time. 

Once back in amazing Cape Town I decided to put a sturdy end to my shopaholicism. It wasn't too difficult since I deem it totally impossible to find a decent piece of clothing in South Africa – something that isn't three seasons old and made from pathetic fabric hastily stitched together into something that is desolated after one wash (you know who you are... *YDE. Cough!*). And if you do happen to stumble across something nice, you need to take out a loan just to walk into the shop.

Anyway, so back to present day. I have since been two years clean, aside from the odd must-have essentials (ie leggings, a few summer dresses, some heels, one or two tops, underwear, cardigans... Oh you know, the basics). But this month, a month when I really needed to save considering I'm moving into my pimpin' bachelor pad in May, I suddenly liked FOUR things at once! Shit. I think I went into some sort of catatonic trance because before I knew it I was shying away guiltily from V&A clutching a myriad shopping bags, cursing my credit card and scaring away fellow pedestrians.

I love my new tops and have had many a good comment. But I don't love the current state of my credit card account and I must now suffer the consequences of my actions. So have had to come up with some ways to save cash each day so that I can pay off my debt before the month is up:

• Have one less bottle of Champagne on my evenings out

That should do it.