On a recent trip to Canberra I thought we would go to the Canberra Outlet Centre and try to find some t-shirts that actually fit me. This was a bit of a mistake on my part because it involved dragging The Other Half around a lot of stores which created frustration on his behalf on my behalf, if that makes any sense. I was annoyed that I was not finding anything and he was annoyed that I was annoyed.

After trying countless womens departments which were all an epic fail – the sleeves are far too short – I decided to try a few menswear places and we ended up in Factorie, a store I had never been in before in my lifetime but it reminded me a lot of Cotton On and I discovered later they are a part of the same company. I found a few t-shirts that looked like the sleeves would be an ok length and more importantly the material was not too thin, plus they were quite long even in the medium size, so I tried them on.

I wasn’t sure whether the length of time we’d already spent looking had worn me down to a nub but I thought these would do for around the house, so I bought two for $25. The next day I wore one of them and fell in love, so I went to the website where I discovered I could get a whole lot of them for $4.95 each. Free shipping was $50 so I splurged and bought 10 t-shirts – one being $9.95 to take me over the $50.

I do not know on what planet some of these can be considered menswear. The curved tail tee is super long on me, ending up somewhere mid-thigh. The colours are mostly pastel shades. They are very soft and comfortable and perfect for around the house. I’ve got enough to last the summer now and a couple of them are good enough to wear out if necessary.

This was the most expensive of my order online buys – the shaded angle t-shirt for $9.95

I will be keeping an eye on their clearance section because I saw these gorgeous tie dyed tees in store and while I do not want to pay $24.95 for them, I will be happy to pay under $10 for them at a later time.

When I read about No Buy July over at Almost Posh I thought I would get on board and see whether I could go an entire month without buying any clothes, jewelry, accessories or shoes at all. I’m not going to lie and say it has been easy, and I have had to resist temptation many times. But when I decide to do something, I JUST DO IT, folks. Here are the things I likely would have bought, if not for No Buy July.

This top is incredibly me. If you looked Snoskred up in the dictionary, there is a photo of this top. I mean, red leopard print, need I say more?

The price was excellent, and it sold out before the end of the Cordelia St show. I did not buy it.

I had been eyeing off this similar top which is in clearance for a while now, waiting for the price to go down again, but it is sold out in my size.. Sometimes the Fashion Gods have other plans. ;) If you want to check out TVSN clearance I recommend using the drop down box and choosing lowest to highest price.

As a result of all my hard work weight loss wise, none of my rings fit me anymore. Even one that used to fit on my pinky finger only now does not fit on my largest finger. I will have to bite the bullet and get them resized soon. This ring tempts me because I love Drusy and it reminds me of my mystic topaz triangle ring.

A huge temptation for me this month was the gorgeous jewelry of Katherine Kelly Lang. Yes, Brooke from The Bold and The Beautiful has a fashion and jewelry side business. Unfortunately I did not take any photos at the time and once it is sold out it is taken off the TVSN website, so here is a screenshot of a page from the July shoppers guide.

I saw this denim jacket in person when passing by a Rockmans earlier in the month. It is definitely on my to-buy list, this colour is one of my favourites. And I could have had it for $20. But, NOPE.

I need a pin like this for a multitude of reasons, mainly in order to close cardigans stylishly. This one from Noni B is now on my wishlist, I had been looking for a little while and not finding anything.

Noni B also had a clearance sale and these tops had been on my want list for a while. I felt like $20 was good value. But they did not get ordered and shipped to me, because No Buy July.

I also avoided my favourite little boutique in town which happened to be having a huge sale this month. I might head in to check out what is left over. I was tempted by socks at Costco but I was determined to stick it out and not buy them.

Happy moments, I made it through the month of July without buying any clothes, jewelry, accessories or shoes.

For the past couple of years I was using a very cute meal planning and shopping list set. At the start of 2017, I went to print out a set for this upcoming year and could not find the file on my computer. I went to the blog I got it from originally and that blog had vanished. The file could no longer be found on the internet. And thus it was time to create something ourselves.

However, we decided to take one giant leap into the computer age and create a shopping spreadsheet. You have no idea how much time this saves me – and how many times it has saved me from arriving home without the items I need. And today we are providing you with a spreadsheet you can modify and use for yourselves.

When I would write the Aldi shopping list down on paper, I would mentally walk around the store in my head so that the items on the list appeared in the order I will find them in the shop. They have not changed the layout in our Aldi for many years so this is easy to do. Some of you will have the exact same layout as we do.

It is not quite so easy for Coles because they are forever moving things. The amount of items I buy from there is constantly decreasing – they are now removing a lot of the items we like from the shelves. In recent weeks, my favorite blueberry scented rubbish bags, peanut butter powder, and now BEERENBERG tomato sauce have vanished entirely. I do envision a day when we do not go there at all. There have been weeks where we only bought Manning Valley eggs.

Guess what happens when you take away the items I want, Coles? No, I do not buy your down down version. In many cases I try out the down down version at Aldi, which usually happens to be cheaper and better than yours anyway. For items I am not willing to compromise on, like Beerenberg tomato sauce, I go elsewhere and I buy in bulk when I do that. At least two other places stock Beerenberg locally, so I will buy it there. Less money in the Coles till. Whoops, Coles!

I am not a spreadsheet star but The Other Half is. Magically he created a spreadsheet that only prints the items I need with a number next to them on the final version. So how does this work?

Step 1 – I go in to the spreadsheet and save it with today’s date, so I do not screw up the original and I don’t have to remove all the numbers I added later..

Step 2 – I enter in how many of each item we need to buy. For things like vegetables I usually just put a 1 if we need it because I know how much I will need to get of each item.

Step 3 – I click on the print tab at the bottom which takes me to a new screen where only the items with a number appear.

Step 4 – I check over the list and make sure it is correct, then we print it out double sided – Aldi one side, Coles the other.

We are creatures of habit here in this house, so the things we tend to buy are usually the same each fortnight.

Here you can grab your very own all set up, empty and ready to customise Shopping List Empty – The Other Half has put in some notes for you about how it works. If you want my version which includes all the things we regularly buy, you can grab that here – Snoskred Shopping List. You can also grab Libre Office which is like Microsoft Office only completely free here – that is the program we use for all word processing and spreadsheets.

Happy shopping!

TK Maxx arrived in Australia in late April 2017 after buying out Trade Secret. Slowly the 35 Trade Secret stores have been rebranding across to TK Maxx and there are now stores in NSW, VIC, ACT and QLD. When visiting Oahu in 2013 I was lucky enough to visit the US version of this store – they are known as TJ Maxx over there. We got some seriously discounted Samsonite luggage and I found a gorgeous dress there.

Shopping at TK Maxx is not for the faint of heart. It is not the kind of place you can go into for a quick visit. You need to have time on your hands – plus a heck of a lot of patience – to wade through the racks of fashion. Almost everything is jumbled together into “sizes” but you cannot always rely that the other shoppers have put back items into the correct place. They also do have some areas where identical items which they have in a quantity and variety of sizes of that same item are placed.

On my first visit to our “local” store, I had a goal in mind which was to find some warmer leggings to wear around the house. I was surprised to find workout leggings with a thin fleecy inside layer and they have done the job perfectly. I also ended up with a couple of scarves and a gorgeous sparkly sequinned beanie.

There is usually some Michael Kors to be found, but the way TK Maxx buys you can never be sure what is going to arrive in the store. I have seen all kinds of brands there in my three visits so far and many of the brands are ones I did not know before but on research they are popular brands in both the US and UK – with the brands I know being things like Christian Siriano, French Connection, Rag and Bone, Cynthia Rowley and I even spotted the occasional Australian brand like Philosophy. At the moment there seems to be a large amount of Ivanka Trump and I expect we will see more of it as less and less people are buying that brand worldwide.

However ladies clothes and shoes are not the only thing to be found at TK Maxx. They also have kids and mens shoes and clothing. They have a great section of socks and underwear. They have a beauty section with marked down hand wash, creams, soaps, etc. They have plenty of accessories – everything from scarves and beanies to handbags to luggage and travel accessories. They have a range of food items, candles, reed diffusers, picture frames, bedding, scatter cushions and even some furniture items.

I loved that green plush velvet bench there. It is my Mother’s favourite colour and if it is there on a return visit I may have to seriously consider buying it for her.

On my first trip here they had some chromed feet statues on marble bases. I thought they were kinda cool and funky and had never seen anything like it before. I did initially mock them somewhat but they grew on me and I did consider buying them. On the way there for my second visit I said if they were still there I was going to seriously consider them but of course they were all gone.

I thought about this smoky grey crystal candle holder. The photo does not do it justice at all and it is quite large which you don’t really get from the photo either.. I also found this bathroom set below to be pretty funky and very reasonably priced considering it is four pieces. Especially when the only other example I can find on the web is selling for $130USD+ on Ebay.

As it says on the wall in one of the shots above – if you love it grab it now, once it’s gone it’s gone. I had hoped to pick up some more of the Kyodan herringbone running leggings I found but they were all completely gone. I was not surprised because they are amazing and can double as “normal” leggings.

I love visiting TK Maxx and browsing through the racks but it is a good hours drive away. Thankfully we love to drive in the new car enjoying the music, plus it is near to friends who just built a house, so The Other Half can drop me to wander while he goes and “helps”. I envision trips at least once a month. However I will not always be buying anything – I came home empty handed on my most recent trip.

This is probably the only kind of spider I could happily handle.

The Long Sleeve Dressy Shirt Hem Sequin Knit is back on sale again at Rockmans for $29.99 as well as many other items. They sent me an SMS this afternoon to let me know nothing was over $40 and the website crashed for a couple of hours as a result..

The jackets are especially good value, many of them selling for $50-60 off RRP and one or two for nearly $90 off..

I might have to head into the local store and pick up a couple of these which are half price and a useful wardrobe item at $9.99.

No idea how long it will last. :)