Virtual shopping for the New Year

I'm going to have to start the new year with a new more effective budget drive. I had such a lot of lovely Christmas presents and also went a bit mad at the sales afterwards. On top of that my glasses broke before Christmas right after I did my back in, as if I wasn't feeling a bit low already.

You may notice that I wasn't a happy bunny on this day - in pain and with broken glasses.

By a strange co-incidence only a few days earlier I'd found that Net-a-Porter started to stock my very favourite designer glasses by Selima Optique. I usually get her wonderful frames from her many shops in New York. I know that sounds rather fancy, but I don't have a new pair every year by any stretch of imagination, and when in NYC I get at least two pairs which last me for years.

Since we haven't been to the other side of The Pond for ages, I was absolutely thrilled to see them online and immediately bought a pair of rather feline-looking frames.

But with the cost of the lenses, the whole purchase suddenly became astronomical. The only positive is that my eyesight has improved slightly in one direction, while deteriorating in another. Apparently it could have become worse in both, so I guess I'm lucky. Soon (after being a short-sighted bespectacled person for 30 years) I may only need reading glasses rather than bifocals. Oh, well, I can tell I'm boring you now.

In any case, with all this expense, including Christmas of course, I am on a definite shopping ban.

So what is a girl to do but indulge in some virtual shopping therapy?

I'll start with a sales dress which I know I would absolutely wear, and which is so much reduced it's madness I'm not buying it. But I stand firm (for now...)

The Shift Dress by Isabella Olivier - was £129.00 now £64.50

The next item of desire is a pair of jeans  - yes, that's right; to add to the umpteen pairs I already own. But this pair's special. Just look at them, how can I resist? They are high-wasted, they are Chloe, they are patchwork.

See by Chloe patchwork jeans Net-a-Porter at £235

Finally this bracelet would compliment all my previous purchases in the sales as well as the jeans - what the heck  - I could wear this with anything. A must-have investment piece surely. And a snip at the price?

Philippe Audibert gold-plated cuff Net-a-Porter at £105

Pray that I will hold firm. It was so much easier in the old days before the Interweb. All you needed to do was to keep away from the shops and reduce exposure to fashion magazines (Though I've had Vogue subscription for ages which always made me come a cropper). Oh well..

PS. Something strange is happening with the fonts. Apologies.