September Shopping

Ola readers! How have you been? It's been a bit quiet on the shopping front this month - student loans are still a week or so away and I've been focusing on getting rid of lots of my old stuff on eBay rather than buying. With graduation looming in less than 12 months (eek!) I'm making an even keener effort to put some of my wages aside each month and watch the spends on things I don't really need. Sorry justeat.com, no more saturday night fun for you.

Still, I did make a few purchases this month - little treats or things that I actually could justify as needing!

Collection 2000 Nail Varnishes and Make Up Bag, Poundland - £3 for three lots of each colour, £1 for the make-up bag

One of my favourite things about being at a uni so far away from home means that I don't get to see my parents and brother that often. Wait, I'm not being heartless, stick with me. It means that when I do go home on visits, I get to spend some proper quality time with them and appreciate the time we have together. One of the things I miss most when I'm away is shopping with my mum. We're both savvy shoppers and invariably end up going to town and then coming home four hours later empty handed, but it's the looking and the laughing at how tacky lots of modern clothes are that I love. Luckily on our latest trip, Poundland yielded some true bargains. As we all know, my nail varnish addiction is well and truly alive, so I was thrilled to find some Collecton 2000 bottles (my favourite brand!) in lovely shades of brown ('All That Jazz') pink ('Milkshake') and Grey ('Angel Wings'). Each colour came in a pack of three, so mum and I bought a pack of each colour and split them. 9 varnishes for £3 - can't complain!

Mum also treated me to this satin russian doll make-up bag, which is super roomy for only £1. My old cherry print bag was looking a bit stained and sad so I was desperately in need of a new one. I'm not that big of a make up wearer compared to most girls my age, but I do love a good mascara, eyeliner and of course nail varnish, so it made sense that I had somewhere nice and girly to keep all my bits and bobs. 

Granny Cardigan, Matalan, £22 (£9.20 for me with student discount and a Matalan voucher- winnng!)

Anyone who follows matalan on twitter will know that they do something called #fashionfriday, where they give away £10 vouchers to their followers who come up with the best way of spending the money instore. I was lucky enough to win one a few weeks back for my summery festival suggestion of their adorable gingham cropped trousers and an ice cream coloured vest. Sadly for me, the beautiful summery weather has taken a bit of a dive, so rather than buy my suggested outfit I put the £10 towards a well needed autumn cardi. With four shades to choose from, I went for this lovely faun which goes perfectly with dresses or jeans. Don't expect me to be taking it off any time soon!

Rimmel 60 Seconds Varnish in Lilac, B&M Bargains, £1

I know what you're thinking - another bloody nail varnish! Still, I have been searching for a lilac one for ages and now my pastel collection is complete, I feel I can give it a bit of a rest. What can I say, I love varnish - painting my nail is one of the my favourite therapeutic things to do and it's a great way to modernise an old outfit.

Filofax Diary Pages, WH Smiths, £5.50

A pretty boring way to spend £5.50, but much needed. My friend Georgie bought me a beautiful Filofax when I started University and I decided that the start of third year was the time to do it. Now I've got all my lectures, work hours, gigs, journalism deadlines and little note-to-selfs all safely and neatly jotted down in one place, and I've got to admit, I love feeling this organised. 

Dresses, £5 total, Huddersfield Market

These were a little but naughty, but hey, freshers week is coming up and as it's my last I'm determined to go out. This means party dresses! Anybody who lives in Huddersfield knows that the go to place for bargains is the market, and my favourite stall is the one that sells the most amazing old or damaged Arcadia stock at next to nothing. Both of these dresses are Topshop (the Aztec was originally £30 in store, the mustard £46), but I got them for just £4 and £1 each! The mustard maxi dress was £4 but only has a really tiny rip in the strap, nothing I couldn't easily stitch up. Despite being a really summery dress I think it'll look lovely this winter with warm leggings underneath, a jumper and some boots. The Aztec dress was £1 due to a broken zip, but considering that it won't cost me more than a fiver to buy a replacement I think it has to win as best bargain of my blog so far! It looks really cute worn as a pinafore over a band tee with converse - ideal for lectures or a casual night out.

What have you been buying recently?

My first mini bargain haul - the pastel edition!

Hello team! Hope you're all well. I've had a bit of a stressy couple of weeks what with a broken laptop and various other bits and pieces not going to plan, but, determined not to let it get me down, I thought I'd cheer myself up with a bit of retail therapy, pastel style! In typical Jenessa style, the whole lot happened over a period of about 10 days and only added up to just over a tenner but I still feel a teeny bit guilty. Still, on to the bargains!

Sally Hansen and Revlon Nail Varnishes

These were £1 pound each from poundworld. I normally favour rimmel or collection 2000 nail varnishes as a rule, but after hearing that you could get branded varnishes in poundland of all places, I thought I'd give some others a go. It always disgusts me how expensive nail varnish is! The colours were a bit hit and miss instore, lots of crackle varnishes and ugly reds, but after scouring a few branches of poundland and poundworld I settled on these two. The Sally Hansen 'sea' coloured mint was a bit runny but after three coats that were easy to apply thanks to the super wide brush, they came out a really sophisticated shade that was summery but not too in your face. Sadly I think I might have applied it a little too thick as it started to peel round the edges two days later, but I shall have another go. The 'electric' yellow from Revlon was a lot better - two coats and you could see it glowing from the other side of the room! the high pigment is great, especially for a yellow shade - I don't want my nail to just look like they've gone mouldy! I'm very happy with it and looking forward to wearing it with...

Juju Hello Jellies for TopShop

I'm normally pretty good at resisting the Topshop summer sale, but these were crying out to me at the lowly price of £5! With the british summer all over the place(heatwave one second, thunder the next), i figured a waterproof sandal was the way to go. Costing me only £6.50 after opting for the instore click and collect option and using student discount, they are a great happy medium between a cheap sandal and the more expensive traditional juju gladiators which I love but would almost certainly never wear. Plus look at the colours, they're so happy! the jury is still out on how comfy they are but I am very impressed at the speed of TopShop's instore delivery - i ordered these friday afternoon and picked them up at my local topshop branch at 3pm the very next day. I just wish I was going on holiday now...

Papaya Mint Short Sleeved Sweater 

 This was a little ebay bargain at only £3, including postage. Clearly tired of how long it takes me to choose outfits in the morning, my boyfriend pointed out recently that it'd probably do me good to get some more plain things to work my love of patterns around. Wise boy eh? I actually tried one of these super-soft knits on in Matalan about 6 months ago and loved it, but never actually got round to buying it, so I'm very glad it popped up online! With it's gentle hue it's a very versatile piece, although it's going to need a run through the wash as it still smells a bit smokey from its previous owner. Still, that's what you get with ebay isn't it? I'm looking forward to pairing it with jeans, a white undershirt and ankle boots come uni in autumn. Back on the hunt for the lavender version.

And last but not least...

Vintage Pink St Michaels Skirt 

For anyone that hasn't been to Huddersfield, it's worth it if only for the sunday market. I've recently discovered a new favourite stall that sells amazing granny chic at ridiculous prices - my friend charlotte got an incredible satchel for a pound that upon reflection, i probably should have nabbed first! Still, on our last visit i saw this skirt peeking out and thought it was perfectly twee - even better when I spotted the label of my favourite vintage brand, St Michaels,closely followed by a label that said £2. The elastic band means it fits perfectly worn at both waist and hips and has a great demure length that should see it last me all the way through summer and autumn.

Not a bad haul for £11.50! Have you bought any bargains recently?