Those little impulse buys cost a girl £1,000 a year
By Daily Mail Reporter
The average woman shopper spends at least £1,000 a year on impulse buys, a poll has discovered.
And if that seems a rather hefty bill for just a few unplanned treats, it’s merely the tip of the iceberg.
A tenth regularly spend £2,500 a year on seemingly irresistible items which ‘caught their eye’ while wandering through the local shopping centre.
Almost every shopping trip ends with an unplanned purchase of some sort, from shoes to DVDs and make-up, the poll suggests.
Two out of three women admit they regularly stray from planned purchases and come home with at least one or more items they hadn’t budgeted for.
Shoes were the most common impulse purchase, followed by DVDs, magazines and clothes.
Household decorations and books were also high on the list.
Seven out of ten women said they had returned from the shops with a pair of ‘impulse’ shoes in the past 12 months.
Five out of ten admitted clothes were their biggest impulse weakness.
A spokesman for OnePoll, which carried out the survey of 2,000 women and their shopping habits, said: ‘It seems millions of women can’t help themselves when they hit the shops.’
Sales were a prime time for impulse buys, with three out of five women admitting they couldn’t help but pick up something extra if it was cheap, he added.
A third confessed to buying something unplanned in a sale just so that they could say they had snared a bargain.
Four out of five women admitted buying items in sales which they would never have considered at full price.
The study also found women are far more likely to make an impulse purchase if they were accompanied by friends, who appear to act as ‘enablers’ to an impulse shopping fix.
Mothers were also ideal partners in crime, it emerged.
Colleagues were also named and shamed as the perfect companions for an impulsive shopping trip.
Unsurprisingly, nine out of ten women said they would not dare to make an impulse purchase if they were out with their other halves.
MY THOUGHTS
think of how much money could have been saved without impulse buying. what's worse, i think, is the lack of space and disorder those impulse buys bring into our lives. you don't really need to them. so they would just take space somewhere. and when you finally decide you want to dispose - even that becomes cumbersome.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Beautiful shoes can stop divorce
Manolo Blahnik's marriage saving shoes
By Bang, 24/09/2010
Legendary footwear designer Manolo Blahnik claims his shoes can stop couples from getting divorced.
Manolo Blahnik believes his shoes stop divorces. The legendary designer - whose creations have been worn by the likes of Sarah Jessica Parker, Victoria Beckham and Kate Moss - says his footwear have saved couples from marital problems because men love seeing their partners in high heels. He said: 'The male reaction to heels is half normal and half perversion, but some men tell me I've saved their marriage. The first thing men look at are a woman's legs, and there is nothing more flattering than high heels.' Despite his shoes being popular with lots of stars, Manolo insists the world of celebrity doesn't interest him. He said: 'It's not the vulgarity of it - vulgarity's ok and bad taste is ok too, sometimes - although when all those football people buy your shoes...Really I'm not interested in all that. 'Princess Diana was special. She wore my shoes with such grace and had a luminosity I've only seen matched by Julie Christie. Maybe Kate Moss has something of that too, now, because she's funny as well as being beautiful, but really the whole celebrity phenomenon is only of importance because it makes you money.'
MY THOUGHTS
really!!! well, high heels do make your legs look longer. you feel sexier and probably exudes a very appealing aura as a result. if shoes can stop divorce then you should go barefoot if you want to lose your husband.
By Bang, 24/09/2010
Legendary footwear designer Manolo Blahnik claims his shoes can stop couples from getting divorced.
Manolo Blahnik believes his shoes stop divorces. The legendary designer - whose creations have been worn by the likes of Sarah Jessica Parker, Victoria Beckham and Kate Moss - says his footwear have saved couples from marital problems because men love seeing their partners in high heels. He said: 'The male reaction to heels is half normal and half perversion, but some men tell me I've saved their marriage. The first thing men look at are a woman's legs, and there is nothing more flattering than high heels.' Despite his shoes being popular with lots of stars, Manolo insists the world of celebrity doesn't interest him. He said: 'It's not the vulgarity of it - vulgarity's ok and bad taste is ok too, sometimes - although when all those football people buy your shoes...Really I'm not interested in all that. 'Princess Diana was special. She wore my shoes with such grace and had a luminosity I've only seen matched by Julie Christie. Maybe Kate Moss has something of that too, now, because she's funny as well as being beautiful, but really the whole celebrity phenomenon is only of importance because it makes you money.'
MY THOUGHTS
really!!! well, high heels do make your legs look longer. you feel sexier and probably exudes a very appealing aura as a result. if shoes can stop divorce then you should go barefoot if you want to lose your husband.
the mystery of 100 shoes
The mystery of a ruined Snowdonia cottage's 100 shoes
24 September 2010 Last updated at 05:58 GMT
No-one had lived in the stone cottage for around 100 years
Workers restoring a 300-year-old ruined cottage in Snowdonia have dug up a mystery under its fireplace.
Almost 100 single shoes were discovered at Gelli Iago, a home which has been uninhabited for more than 50 years.
The National Trust, which acquired the property after 1998's Save Snowdon campaign, is appealing to the public for an answer to the mystery.
"Why would someone keep these single shoes and hide them under a fireplace?" said the trust's Rhys Evans.
The discovery was made by contractors working to save the cottage's external walls and chimney stack.
The shoes are thought to date from the Victorian period.
"We're baffled by this strange discovery," said Mr Evans, the trust's manager for Snowdonia.
"We know the house was probably built sometime during the 17th Century and that it is one of the oldest buildings remaining in Nant Gwynant," he said. "But very little is known about who lived here over the centuries."
'Symbolic presence'
One explanation the trust is looking at is the "concealed shoes" phenomenon - an ancient and superstitious practice aimed at guarding a house against bad luck. It was thought that a worn shoe was a manifestation of a person as it retained the shape of the foot, the trust explained. It therefore had a certain power to guard against perceived evil forces.
"No one knows what became of the other shoe but it has been speculated that one was placed in fire (the hearth or chimney) and the other in water (a river or lake), said a spokesman. Rhys Evans
National Trust
"Perhaps there was also some reassurance of the symbolic presence of their ancestors, especially if placed in the centre of the home under the hearth." More than 1,000 recorded concealed shoes discoveries have been made in the UK, the earliest dating back to the 14th Century.
If the Gelli Iago shoes were proved to have been concealed, then it would represent the largest hoard to have been found in the UK, said the trust.
Another theory is that the shoes could merely be old stock hoarded by a cobbler.
MY THOUGHTS
go to the link so you can watch the video. it's really mind-boggling. why would they keep 100 pieces of shoes? and where's the other half of the pair?
24 September 2010 Last updated at 05:58 GMT
No-one had lived in the stone cottage for around 100 years
Workers restoring a 300-year-old ruined cottage in Snowdonia have dug up a mystery under its fireplace.
Almost 100 single shoes were discovered at Gelli Iago, a home which has been uninhabited for more than 50 years.
The National Trust, which acquired the property after 1998's Save Snowdon campaign, is appealing to the public for an answer to the mystery.
"Why would someone keep these single shoes and hide them under a fireplace?" said the trust's Rhys Evans.
The discovery was made by contractors working to save the cottage's external walls and chimney stack.
The shoes are thought to date from the Victorian period.
"We're baffled by this strange discovery," said Mr Evans, the trust's manager for Snowdonia.
"We know the house was probably built sometime during the 17th Century and that it is one of the oldest buildings remaining in Nant Gwynant," he said. "But very little is known about who lived here over the centuries."
'Symbolic presence'
One explanation the trust is looking at is the "concealed shoes" phenomenon - an ancient and superstitious practice aimed at guarding a house against bad luck. It was thought that a worn shoe was a manifestation of a person as it retained the shape of the foot, the trust explained. It therefore had a certain power to guard against perceived evil forces.
"No one knows what became of the other shoe but it has been speculated that one was placed in fire (the hearth or chimney) and the other in water (a river or lake), said a spokesman. Rhys Evans
National Trust
"Perhaps there was also some reassurance of the symbolic presence of their ancestors, especially if placed in the centre of the home under the hearth." More than 1,000 recorded concealed shoes discoveries have been made in the UK, the earliest dating back to the 14th Century.
If the Gelli Iago shoes were proved to have been concealed, then it would represent the largest hoard to have been found in the UK, said the trust.
Another theory is that the shoes could merely be old stock hoarded by a cobbler.
MY THOUGHTS
go to the link so you can watch the video. it's really mind-boggling. why would they keep 100 pieces of shoes? and where's the other half of the pair?
choosing from 4000 shoes
Selfridges' shoe hall: A girl can only have so many best friends
Hannah Pool spent an hour in Selfridges' new department, and still came out empty-handed
Hannah Pool guardian.co.uk, Friday 24 September 2010 20.59 BST Article history
The most impressive thing about Selfridges' new shoe hall – which opened this week, claiming to be the world's largest – is not the 4,000 shoes on display, the 35,000 square feet of dedicated shoe space, or the 55,000 pairs of shoes in stock at any one time. The most impressive thing is that after having spent nearly an hour in there, I came out empty handed.
To put this in context: underneath my bed there are three large plastic boxes full of shoes. I could probably wear a different pair every day for a month without any trouble, perhaps two months.
The problem, unexpectedly, is overabundance: a dazzling wealth of cheaper, high-street brands alongside four-figure famous names that, after a while, threatens to give you a migraine.
Made up of six "galleries" and 11 surrounding boutiques, the hall is almost obscenely vast. You don't have to be a shoe obsessive to be impressed by the scale of the operation, or the sheer front it takes to open such a paean to consumption in the middle of a global recession.
At the entrance are high street brands such as Topshop, Office and All Saints. A rainbow of Havaiana flipflops lines one wall. The place is so busy it's hard to see the shoes for the crowds.
As I try a pair of brown wedged boots at River Island, the assistant tells me she's serving three customers at once. It is enough to put a smirk on George Osborne's face.
Walk a little further and things go up a notch with Dune, Kurt Geiger, LK Bennett and the Tods "loft". Deeper still into the shoe vortex and the setting changes to softly lit velvet and glass. You are now in one of three designer rooms, where shoes by Stella McCartney, Chloe and Marc Jacobs are beautifully displayed in glass boxes or on top of alabaster plinths, and there is a nice rug on the floor. The seating is also better, with soft velvet banquettes as opposed to rubber stools – rich bums must need more cushioning. If you have the budget for designer shoes, but not the stomach for Bond Street sales assistants, this may be the place for you.
But it is in the 11 boutiques or "apartments" that line the galleries where the hardcore spending is being done. Each apartment houses a designer label such as Gucci, Chanel or Louboutin. It is here that I lose grip of reality for a few moments and ask to try on a pair of £945 snakeskin ankle boots. Thankfully, they didn't have my size.
MY THOUGHTS
i believe this girl completely. 4000 shoes on display? walking around in 35,000 ft. of shoe display? overwhelming!!! but it'll be good to try on that Loubotin. shoes in lass boxes. hmmmm.
Hannah Pool spent an hour in Selfridges' new department, and still came out empty-handed
Hannah Pool guardian.co.uk, Friday 24 September 2010 20.59 BST Article history
The most impressive thing about Selfridges' new shoe hall – which opened this week, claiming to be the world's largest – is not the 4,000 shoes on display, the 35,000 square feet of dedicated shoe space, or the 55,000 pairs of shoes in stock at any one time. The most impressive thing is that after having spent nearly an hour in there, I came out empty handed.
To put this in context: underneath my bed there are three large plastic boxes full of shoes. I could probably wear a different pair every day for a month without any trouble, perhaps two months.
The problem, unexpectedly, is overabundance: a dazzling wealth of cheaper, high-street brands alongside four-figure famous names that, after a while, threatens to give you a migraine.
Made up of six "galleries" and 11 surrounding boutiques, the hall is almost obscenely vast. You don't have to be a shoe obsessive to be impressed by the scale of the operation, or the sheer front it takes to open such a paean to consumption in the middle of a global recession.
At the entrance are high street brands such as Topshop, Office and All Saints. A rainbow of Havaiana flipflops lines one wall. The place is so busy it's hard to see the shoes for the crowds.
As I try a pair of brown wedged boots at River Island, the assistant tells me she's serving three customers at once. It is enough to put a smirk on George Osborne's face.
Walk a little further and things go up a notch with Dune, Kurt Geiger, LK Bennett and the Tods "loft". Deeper still into the shoe vortex and the setting changes to softly lit velvet and glass. You are now in one of three designer rooms, where shoes by Stella McCartney, Chloe and Marc Jacobs are beautifully displayed in glass boxes or on top of alabaster plinths, and there is a nice rug on the floor. The seating is also better, with soft velvet banquettes as opposed to rubber stools – rich bums must need more cushioning. If you have the budget for designer shoes, but not the stomach for Bond Street sales assistants, this may be the place for you.
But it is in the 11 boutiques or "apartments" that line the galleries where the hardcore spending is being done. Each apartment houses a designer label such as Gucci, Chanel or Louboutin. It is here that I lose grip of reality for a few moments and ask to try on a pair of £945 snakeskin ankle boots. Thankfully, they didn't have my size.
MY THOUGHTS
i believe this girl completely. 4000 shoes on display? walking around in 35,000 ft. of shoe display? overwhelming!!! but it'll be good to try on that Loubotin. shoes in lass boxes. hmmmm.
How to Dress Business Casual - Women
How to Dress Business Casual - Women
By an eHow Contributor
Women can often get away with a wider range of attire than men, because let's face it, guys can't wear skirts or dresses. The rule of thumb is to let comfort and professionalism guide you when you're dressing for business casual occasions.
1.1
Ask your human resources department for official guidelines. Business casual means different things at different companies. At a large corporation, it may mean slacks or a business skirt; at a smaller company, it may mean a cotton sweater and a floral skirt.
2.2
Before you go casual, check your daily planner to make sure you don't have any meetings that require formal business attire.
3.3
Select clean, wrinkle-free clothes.
4.4
Wear a good-quality blouse or knit shirt. Include a casual blazer or cardigan if appropriate.
5.5
Don pressed khakis or other slacks, or a dress or skirt. If a dress is sleeveless, wear a blazer or cardigan over it. Check your company's policy before you decide to wear jeans to work.
6.6
Wear shoes that are comfortable and appropriate for your outfit. Funky platform athletic shoes or strappy sandals might be formal enough for some companies; however, it's more typical to wear closed-toed leather shoes. Avoid worn-out shoes.
7.7
Keep the makeup light. Let your natural beauty shine through.
8.8
Accessorize with a silk scarf or classic bracelet to give your casual outfit a polished look.
MY THOUGHTS
i agree. it is best to ask HR. and Hr should be mindful of conditions in the work environment, the nature of work, the knid of business, etc.
By an eHow Contributor
Women can often get away with a wider range of attire than men, because let's face it, guys can't wear skirts or dresses. The rule of thumb is to let comfort and professionalism guide you when you're dressing for business casual occasions.
1.1
Ask your human resources department for official guidelines. Business casual means different things at different companies. At a large corporation, it may mean slacks or a business skirt; at a smaller company, it may mean a cotton sweater and a floral skirt.
2.2
Before you go casual, check your daily planner to make sure you don't have any meetings that require formal business attire.
3.3
Select clean, wrinkle-free clothes.
4.4
Wear a good-quality blouse or knit shirt. Include a casual blazer or cardigan if appropriate.
5.5
Don pressed khakis or other slacks, or a dress or skirt. If a dress is sleeveless, wear a blazer or cardigan over it. Check your company's policy before you decide to wear jeans to work.
6.6
Wear shoes that are comfortable and appropriate for your outfit. Funky platform athletic shoes or strappy sandals might be formal enough for some companies; however, it's more typical to wear closed-toed leather shoes. Avoid worn-out shoes.
7.7
Keep the makeup light. Let your natural beauty shine through.
8.8
Accessorize with a silk scarf or classic bracelet to give your casual outfit a polished look.
MY THOUGHTS
i agree. it is best to ask HR. and Hr should be mindful of conditions in the work environment, the nature of work, the knid of business, etc.
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