Secondhand Jewllery. Where's The Value?

When I had money to burn and shopping for designer luxury was my only purpose, dropping a few grand on a Tiffany watch was never a problem but when I was starving, a few years later, I discovered something that became a massive problem. " What do you mean my Tiffany watch is only worth £100 quid" I said to the greedy secondhand dealer, ready to offer me a fraction of what I paid for it new, only one year earlier.
When I found myself starving and broke in LA, I had to sell all my collected designer trinkets, in order to keep afloat and was horrified by the inequity in selling my stuff, when my back was up against the wall.

So where is the value in that?

You cannot eat a Tiffany watch when you are starving, so buying something expensive when you cannot afford it, just to look like someone, is not only stupid but also a shock when you find out what it is really worth. You never know when the tide will change and sweep you out to sea, in other words, losing your job, sudden illness or unexpected financial problems, so saving your money, even if you think your comfortable, is critical for a rainy day.

A budget lifestyle is all about living within your means, debt free with a nest egg, just in case things change and little desire to buy stuff you might want but don't need. What is the point in buying clothes that don't fit and never will or a flash fast car, you cannot afford to put on the road or a lavish ballgown when you have no ball to go to, leaving you stuck with stuff that has not changed your actual life.

I still love clothes and still love shopping, who doesn't but these days I follow the mantra, buy new and the jokes on you because I got savvy, cured my self of status anxiety and now buy secondhand or recycled clothes, given up to charity by shopaholic women.

Who cares and who in reality knows whether what you are wearing is new or secondhand because style is unique and how you wear it with confidence is the key to pulling it off, as well as saving you a tidy fortune in the process. One mans trash is another mans treasure, so no matter how broke you are, there is always a way to get the look you desire for less and if you get into swapping clothes with friends and family, you get a brand new look without spending a single penny.

Stop shopping and start swapping if you are struggling and don't just swap clothes, try DVDs, household goods like cookers, hoovers, TV's, even books and CD's, making use of stuff you don't want anymore but someone else might need.

We Are What We Eat.

Its hard to imagine the UK is in a recession when so many people are over eating, over weight and over spending. Poverty and obesity is an oxymoron, surly. So what has happened and why are we spending money we don,t have, on food we don't need, that makes us sick?

When I was rich and successful I would eat out all the time in the some of best restaurants in the World, never batting an eyelid at the cost because it was usually worth every penny, or so I thought at the time. The portions were always very small and well balanced, a blessing when it came to keeping my figure trim but in reality looking back, it made me useless when thinking about cooking for myself. Freshly prepared food made from scratch with the best ingredients and cooked by a genius chef, is of course the ideal but not everyone can afford such luxury, as I soon discovered when I lost all my money and found myself at the mercy of a supermarket price war.

Living on a weekly budget for food shopping is not easy so I was tempted at the start of my budget lifestyle journey to take myself off to my local supermarket and stock up on cheap, over processed bargains, like 12 iced donuts for a pound. Of course this was really stupid because not only did I put on weight quickly, I also recognised I was not feeling so great, sluggish and often very tired. Having spent my whole life taking care of the way I looked because I was suffering from Status Anxiety, caring far to much about what others thought, it was really disturbing to be not only broke but also getting fat. After my near death experience which lead me to enlightenment, I made the choice to become a vegetarian and never really being interested in cooking myself, found coming up with new food ideas quite hard, even for a knowledgeable bright person like me.

I began looking into what I was actually eating to discover if convenient cheap food was a false economy when it came to my health and I was seriously shocked and very disturbed at my findings. First I made a trip to my GP to have some blood tests done to check the general state of my health before I began my research and was surprised to be told although I was generally very healthy, my cholesterol levels had shot up dramatically. The British Heart Foundation estimates that seven in ten adults are affected by high cholesterol and are at risk of stroke or heart attacks.

This was enough of a kick up the bottom to get me really thinking about using my limited budget to get the maximum essential vitamins and nutrients my body clearly needed to get back in top form. Being poor did not mean I had to be unhealthy. I had about £20 a week for my weekly food budget which is not very much so I had to really get creative and think for myself. I found my local market was the best place to buy fresh fruit and vegetables, late in the day, at rock bottom prices and would come home loaded with avocados, spinach, broccoli, courgettes, nuts, seeds, potatoes, apricots, bananas and oranges. I gave up salt and sugar, chocolate and cakes, crisps and alcohol and began making amazing home made dishes from a cook book I found in a Charity shop. I would then freeze daily portions of this great food and I was set for the week, leaving me plenty of free time to go for long country walks in the fresh air.

I noticed I was less likely to make a compulsive junk food purchase if I had a grocery list with me when I did visit the supermarket for other household necessities.

Within 6 weeks I was back to my fabulous healthy thin self and the doctor after another blood test confirmed my cholesterol levels were back down to normal, proving we are what we eat.