My very own Mrs Doyle

Seven weeks (and a bit) in and counting on the no fritter challenge. That means there is only 5 and a half weeks to go. So far I have bought nothing and spent nothing. This means my overdraft/credit card/MA loan are all decreasing. I hope that I will be on target to pay everything off by the end of the year.

To date the weather has been an enormous help in preventing shop browsing and therefore reducing temptation. Sadly the effects of this have probably been counterbalanced by more blog viewing and magazine consumption. I have been building mental pictures of a new wardrobe in my head. However I do feel able to resist temptation and have felt strangely liberated from the cycle of consumption.

I feel my adherence to the no fritter challenge will be helped by participating in The Small Fabric of my Life's Spring capsule wardrobe challenge, although I am hoping the weather gets warmer in March.

But in the midst of keeping going, my very own Mrs Doyle appeared in the form of Mrs Fab of Looking Fab in Your Forties. She hilariously commented 'go on treat yourself' in reference to my MA award. It was a real 'go on, go on'! I will not be breaking my resolve to treat myself of anything, although I did polish off very easily the champagne left over from Sunday (that's how frugal we are being these days!).

Avast Mrs Fab, oh go on then...I might be tempted to treat myself to a great pair of shoes for my graduation in July. I fancy skipping in Westminster in these....

Last week, UK Grazia did a hilarious little piece about unanswered questions in SATC: The Movie. My favourite was why had Harry become almost mute, followed by why did Stamford and Anthony kiss at New Year’s Eve?

The one question they didn’t ask was why hadn’t Carrie got herself a pair of glasses if she couldn’t see without them? Now, it was a sweet scene of her in bed borrowing Big’s pair but surely a successful forty something girl would have her own.

There is a fashion for frames and many a person has taken to pretending their need glasses for a geek chic look. WendyB of Wendy Brandes Jewelry posted a gorgeous cat like pair she’s sourced for someone.

Upon further investigation into this matter I worked out why Carrie hadn’t gotten around to buying a pair – it would eat into her shoe budget. The cost of investing in glasses that look good is enormous. You need a few pairs for working with different outfits. Then there is the awful fact of do you suit glasses. Now I do not. I have proven this on several occasions to hoots of derision. I suit a nice pair of sunnies but put me in spectacles and well geek chic it ain’t.

Luckily I don’t need to wear a pair yet but I’m undertaking forward planning now and have realised that in order to preserve the shoe budget, still look ok and be able to see, it’s got to be contact lenses. So, to help Carrie and myself I’ve sourced a useful site called lensshopper.com. It does all the work and has a host of information I hadn’t even thought about – like contacts with UVA and UVB protection!

I know lots of you will have views on contacts but in short I’m too vain to look bad in glasses and I don’t have Patricia Field on speed dial to make me look good if I did wear them. I’ve added a new column to my spreadsheet to budget for contacts and if I don’t call upon the services of LensShopper in the next 12 months, I’ll be buying those Manolo’s I’ve been eying up ever since seeing the movie.