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Blog reader Sarah Jane recently commented on the cost of all the various ingredients I use and therefore, should anyone be on a budget, what I would recommend as my top budget buys.

I thought this was an excellent question. I have blogged about living on a budget, and some of the ways I try and save money, particularly on grocery shopping. When I did my big budget challenge I wrote this post on what I learned around saving money on groceries. I also recently re listed my grocery staples (in light of becoming veggie) and how I would try and ‘shop smart’ to get the best value.

From what I eat and buy it might not seem like I stick to much of a budget but I do try! I do give myself quite a generous budget for food shopping – some people buy CD’s, some people go out every weekend for a drink, some people buy designer clothes, I buy healthy food!

I tend to have two separate budgets when it comes to my food: my main food / household shopping budget which I use to buy all mine and James usual staples. When I’m buying the more expensive and unusual stuff (that tends to be bought online or from a health food store) then I use money from my own personal spending budget.

I think in terms of sticking to a budget and buying ‘health foods’ the key thing to remember is that they are not essential to having a healthy diet! The most important foods are fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, whole grains etc. I know that even some of these things can be expensive but buying dried beans instead of tinned, plain brown rice, wholemeal pasta and pearl barley and whatever fruits and vegetables are on special offer could potentially save a lot of money – believe me I have given this a lot of thought. Should me or James be out of work and on a serious budget then that would be the plan.

I see ‘health foods’ as fun additions to my diet that add variety and take things to the next level. I think if you are on a tight budget but want to experiment with some more unusual health foods then you should look for items that are going to give you the most bang for your buck i.e. that taste great, have a wide range of health benefits and can be used in a multitude of ways. With that in mind here’s a few of my top budget buys:

Nutritional yeast –

Can be added to salads, pasta, stews and mixed into various sauces for cheesy taste. Its full of B vitamins, plus a big tub of flakes isn’t too expensive and should last you a while.

Raw cacao powder –

Offers similar benefits to cacao nibs but can be used in more ways – blended with avocado and agave to make raw chocolate cups, added to smoothies, used to make raw chocolate, mixed with non dairy or dairy milk to make chocolate milk etc. Its also full of antioxidants and more importantly its bloody chocolate!

Agave syrup –

I use agave syrup in my coffee, porridge, when making various desserts such as tofu puddings, chocolate avocado cups etc. Its around £2.50 - £3 depending on where you buy it, for 250mls which seems to last me a good while – unless I’m using it in a baking recipe I usually just have a teaspoon at a time.

Coconut oil –

I love coconut oil, great for stir fries and roasting as it is better than other oils for cooking at high temperatures. Can be combined with the agave and cacao to make raw chocolate and can even be added to smoothies for healthy fats!

A protein powder –

I’ve used protein powders in my diet for ages now and I love them. The range of varieties and flavours out there is great. See my everything I know about protein powders for more info. They can be added to smoothies, used to make protein pancakes and protein cakes or even protein ice cream. My personal favourite brands are Sun Warrior and Spiru-tein, neither of which are cheap, but for me, I feel they are worth it! There are plenty of much more affordable brands out there too: Holland and Barrat sell a chocolate and strawberry flavour Soya Protein Powder which may be quite highly processed but if used as an occasional addition to your diet to add some extra protein and variety its a good buy.

Of course, what might work better for you depends on your own tastes and lifestyle. See my unusual ingredients posts one and two for more ideas. I would just start by trying out a couple of items that sound good to you and taking it from there.

What are your top budget health food buys?

Can you believe it is now December? This has been such an unexpectedly awesome month! I certainly met my goal of having fun :-) I did completely fail with my aim of sorting out my bedroom and living room decor, never mind it does look ok as it is, and pretty festive right now:

I got some star lights for hanging round our bed frame for Christmas, I think they look so pretty :-)

Great things from this month:

• I enjoyed a brilliant Bonfire Night
• I had a great time as a punk at my best friends 30th Birthday Party
• Enjoyed the Durham Lumiere Festival
• Kicked off Secret Santa (so excited!)
• Completed another two assignments for my course – I only have the final one to go!
• Worked out according to my training plan and enjoyed my set back week
• Was chosen to be a healthy hero for Healthy Magazine!
• Had my Apple Pie Green Smoothie recipe chosen to be included in Kris Carr’s e recipe book!
• Started to make plans for delivering healthy living programmes in the community at some point next year
• Got my allotment!

I’ve continued trying to balance out my eating and be more intuitive. I’ve generally been pretty good but I have had a couple of over eating episodes on an evening again. As always, I’m trying not to beat myself up on it but it is a habit I’m really trying to address, not because of issues relating to weight gain or size, but because I feel so crap physically and mentally when it happens. I’m working on accepting that having a snacky evening sometimes is completely normal! I have loads of thoughts on weight maintenance and the scales and what not but I think I need at least one wordy post for all of that!

In December I’d like to…

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• Continue the good run I seem to be on at the moment and enjoy everything Christmas has to offer!
• Not feel guilty when I enjoy extra / richer foods
• Continue to workout fairly consistently
• Enjoy some really delicious seasonal food!
• Get my head around the whole allotment thing and have a plan of action ready for next year
• Start writing up a plan of action for my community healthy living programmes
• Finish my Diet and Nutrition course!

The course work and action plans for the allotment and community stuff are going to take some work but if I’m going to achieve what I want I need to be super duper organised!

The Big Budget Challenge – how I did and what I’ve learned

See this post for the rules and guidelines I set myself for the last two months. I’ll be honest, I think I did ok but not brilliant. I managed to clear a credit card and generally feel like I’ve taken control of my finances. I did go over my grocery budget, however I feel like I’ve completely changed the way I shop for food. I also feel like I’ve developed lots of good habits that I’m hoping are going to stick and make me more frugal in the future:

• Cooking beans from scratch – I had never cooked beans from scratch and doing the Big Budget Challenge prompted me to try. Its so easy I’m pretty sure this is a habit I’ll be keeping up!
• Sold stuff on eBay – This was a great way to get a little income out of un worn clothing. I need to get into a habit of having regular clear outs .
• I changed my skin care routine – instead of using expensive face wipes I now use face cloths and Lush Ultrabland cleanser which is cheaper and more environmentally friendly. I also started using coconut oil as a night moisturiser
• I got back into the habit of shopping at multiple stores – Lidl, Aldi and Green Grocers which has an awesome discount!
• I reminded myself of what my grocery staples are.
• I started to make sure I prioritise the ‘extras’ that I like to buy, especially more expensive health foods, and realised that I really don’t need as many as I thought!
• Started checking out budget themed websites and blogs for inspiration and making good use of discount codes and online deals
• Put my name down on the allotment list and got my plot!
• Started making my own raw nut butter – best discovery ever!

I think that doing the challenge has given me the reality check I needed and it made me realise how truly blessed I am for all that I have in my life outside of materialistic things. It made me see that I simply could not continue spending money the way I had been. I think the fact that I’ve gone over my grocery budget each time means that realistically I need to increase it a little, but even then I will still be saving over £50 what I was spending before I set the challenge.

Due to the job scare we had with James in the middle of the challenge I think I can safely say that the challenge doesn’t end here for me. That just proved how tough times are right now, and James is still only on contracted work so we need to be prepared for the worse case scenario. Overall I’m so happy that I set myself this challenge and big thanks to everyone who has read and commented on all my posts!

Huge thanks also to everyone that took part in the challenge. It really meant so much to me that I wasn’t in it alone and I think we have all learned so much by doing it. Three big cheers to all my Big Budgeters and their round up posts!

Jemma @ Celery and Cupcakes

Alissa @ Not Just Apples

Sarah @ Every Day’s a Picnic

December Sponsors

Big thanks to my current sponsors Sarah @ Every Day’s a Picnic and Cat @ Knitting Running Eating for being long term blogger sponsors. Thanks again to iHerb, Goodness Direct and Viva Pure for supporting me and offering up some fab discounts and giveaways over the last year! I’m not accepting any new sponsors for December but hopefully I’ll be back next year with plenty of new bloggers, new brands and great giveaways!

As always if this is something your interested in check out my sponsorship page for more details!

How was November for you? Do you have any goals for December? Have you got your Christmas decorations up yet? I’ve just put my little Christmas tree up and I’m feeling so excited!

Hi thrifty chicks, how’s it going? I’ve had yet another good week on my Big Budget Challenge trying to save as much money as possible!

This week I’ve managed to bag a couple of good bargains:

I popped into Wilkinsons at the weekend and found these ‘green’ cleaning products, a multi use spray and some laundry liquid. I always prefer to use green / eco friendly cleaning products when I can, however they tend to be very expensive. I got the cleaning spray for 97p and the concentrated laundry liquid for £1.97. I sometimes forget how good Wilkos can be for getting stuff on the cheap!

I also finally got some muesli!

My best friend had told me this was on offer in Asda so I went to take a look. It was £2.00 for this box, which may seem like a lot, but anyone who has tried Dorset Cereals products will know how delicious and high quality they are. I decided that I would rather spend a little more on quality and ration it out, than spend little on a less tasty brand!

In Aldi I found this pack of Twinings Peppermint Teas:

This box of 25 tea bags in a variety of minty blends was just 99p. I thought it would be ideal to keep at work as I’m on a total peppermint tea kick at the moment.

I also decided to spend some of my ‘pocket’ money budget on the new Florence and the Machine album. James did a quick web search and found that the cheapest place to get the deluxe edition was CD WOW for £10.99

I love Florence, and I hardly ever buy actual CD’s, so this is a nice little treat for me!

I used more of my ‘pocket’ money budget to buy some cheap and cheerful full length black sweat pants from Asda. Now that its getting colder I really needed some long length pants to wear in the gym, as all my existing gym wear is cropped. I got these for just £5, the fabric seems ok and I like the cut of them to so they should be good for bog standard gym workouts – I still prefer proper tights / leggings for running.

I’m also extremely excited as I’ve put my name down for an allotment!

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There is a big allotment site right next to where we live managed by an Allotment Association and I thought I might as well get on the list. At this moment I have no idea how long it might take to get one but they are due an AGM soon when allotments tend to come up so fingers crossed. I’d been inspired by Alissa’s amazing allotment picnic!

Other Big Budgeters joining in so far:

Sarah @ Every Day’s a Picnic, check out this weeks update, and a very funny pic of Mr November…

Deise Gal @ Witty Blog Name Pending… check out her huge shopping haul from Northern Ireland!

Jemma @ Celery and Cupcakes – check out her budget busting Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry

True Penny @ Cool Beans – check out her October update

Danielle @ Love Life Eat Laugh

Alissa @ Not Just Apples, check out her recent money saving adventures!

Sarah @ Sweet Potato Sarah

Sharon@ Bit of the good stuff – check out her most recent update here

Emma @ Coming up easy

Al @ Al’s Food and Fitness

Eleanor @ Eating like a horse – check out her update and excellent budgeting tips!

Maria @ Running Cupcake

Ffion@ Chocolate and Raspberries who is joining in with the challenge this week – check out her post and show her some support!

If your sticking to a budget right now how’s it going? What’s the best bargain you’ve bagged recently? Do you have an allotment or grow your own fruit and veg?

Over the last few months my spending has been going through the roof. This has mainly been spending on clothes and I have been using the excuse of losing weight and having no clothes that fit to justify my spending. To be honest, most of this spending was justified and losing weight to fit into fab new clothes was one of my main motivations for losing weight in the first place so I feel like I deserved to treat myself!

However, now the time has come to try and start to reign things in a bit. I'm setting myself a challenge: for the months of July, August and September spending is OUT. With the exception of planned holidays and special days like my birthday which have already been budgeted for, I won't be buying any more new clothes, accessories, DVD's, books, stuff for the house, nights out and I will be sticking to a stricter food budget.

By completing this challenge I aim to -

• Save money (to pay off some of my credit card)
• Be more environmentally friendly (by not throwing so much away, re using and recycling)
• Get more creative (having less money will force me to be more creative with what I have)

The Rules -

• No new clothes or accessories
• No new DVD's, CD's or books
• No new things for the flat
• No nights out
• Maximum of one magazine a month
• Stick to my grocery budget
• No other unnecessary spending  

Exceptions -

• £50 a month pocket money budget - but this can only be spent on second hand / vintage clothes, materials for making / customising things, essential toiletries, my one magazine a month, and gifts for others. 
• Planned holidays (I have a week off in July and August) and special days (i.e. my birthday). These will have their own budget and anything can be bought (including clothes etc) but MUST be within the budget I've set. 
• Paint, DIY and gardening materials from mine and the Hubby's joint budget (as we are planning on doing a few things around the flat)
• The wedding and engagement parties I have been invited to

To help me cope during the challenge I will be -

• Using my local library for books
• Making and customising things myself
• Checking out ebay and charity shops for second hand and vintage clothes
• Lending clothes and accessories from my Sister and friends
• Having nights in rather than nights out
• Reading websites and blogs instead of magazines and newspapers

I wanted to do this on the blog as I know that writing the blog keeps me very focused. Hopefully you will all find this challenge an interesting read!

During the three months I'll be researching money saving tips and ideas for healthy living and staying stylish, posting any money saving projects I do and at the end of the challenge will be a giveaway!

My first tasks this weekend will be reviewing my existing wardrobe so I'm making sure I'm getting the best out of the clothes and accessories I have, and doing a stock check of my kitchen cupboards to see what I can use up.

What are your top money saving tips? Do you have any advice or ideas to help me stick to my challenge?

I've also ordered all the things that I had on my wish list to get before the challenge started. I'm working late again tonight :-( so I'll do a double post of my eats and exercise tomorrow. Nearly the weekend though, yey!

Hello everyone, can’t believe its Monday again already! Today was the first day of my new training plan so I hit the gym first thing to do 20 minutes of cardio intervals followed by my 3 x 3 resistance exercises focusing on legs. Considering the DOMS from yesterdays run had started to kick in I did quite well. I did replace my last set with extra stretching to try and ease my muscles.

Breakfast was oh so delicious! Porridge made with oats, chia seeds and water mixed with a little rice milk and chocolate whey, then topped with some fresh blueberries and a crumbled Apple, Blueberry and Cinnamon Protein Muffin.



Fabulous!

Lunch was a repeat of Saturdays salad, I just enjoyed it so much I had to make it again! It contained little gem lettuce, spinach, beetroot, garden peas, soya nuts, carrot, cucumber, yellow pepper and a sliced goats cheese babybel. I made the same dressing too – lemon juice, garlic infused olive oil and dried oregano.



I followed my salad with some strawberries and raspberries.



Mid afternoon I snacked on some cucumber and red pepper sticks with spicy lentil dip.



I ate my dinner at work as I decided to pull a late one (need that over time cash). I had a bowl of Pea, Broccoli and Mint soup with a wholemeal rice cake.



I picked the hubby up and we went and visited his sister before returning home and attacking this little bowl of chocolate avocado pudding that I whipped up at the weekend.



Having extremely ripe avocado is definitely the trick to getting this so smooth and glossy! I’ve also made a couple more frozen chocolate avocado cups with the rest of the mixture. I also ate this crunchy apple.



I’ve being spending some time today packing and posting my sold ebay items, I can’t believe that I’ve made £50! My mind is already ticking over what I can spend it on. I’m going to try and sort out another few items to list this weekend, I’m going to try and see if I can make £150 by the end of my Big Budget Challenge which I will then use to purchase some of my autumn / winter wish list items. It may seem a bit premature to be thinking of autumn / winter fashion but I’m trying to be more ‘strategic’ with my purchases this year! At the moment I am currently coveting:

Lace up heeled boots, like these from ASOS


Gold pendant like this one from Zoe and Morgan:


I’m also tempted to try out the maxi skirt trend (Warehouse):


Still not 100% sold on this yet though! I would also like to find a blouse / shirt that I can wear tucked into my belted tapered trousers like this vintage one I spotted on ebay:



Fingers crossed I’ll make more ebay money!

Still in shock that its already August! August is one of my favourite months though – its my birthday and my 2nd wedding anniversary! Well I’m going to head off, I see a large mug of Yogi Rose tea in my near future. Hope your weeks got off to a good start! x

 

Money saving adventures I have had this week include:

• Saving money on paying the entrance fee to the Fireworks display by watching it from the hill near our house instead!

• Getting a lot of very cheap organic veggies from the farmers market. I paid about £10 and got 4 kabocha squash, a large bag of broccoli, kale and rainbow chard.

• Made most of my own fancy dress costume for my best friends up coming 80’s themed 30th Birthday party. I had a lot of fun at the weekend getting creative. I can’t wait to show you all at the weekend!
• We went and did some shopping in Tesco at the weekend as I had a Club Card voucher and a voucher for 50p off some soya yoghurt. I was so proud of myself as I picked up several ‘impulse’ purchases but came to my senses and put them back before we got to the till :-)
• Picked up this random funky t-shirt from a charity shop for £1.25

Ok, I didn’t really need this but they were running a little promotion and I won a ticket for 25% off so really felt like I should get something, it is for charity after all and it makes a great ‘lazing round the house’ type top!

Other Big Budgeters joining in so far:

Sarah @ Every Day’s a Picnic

Deise Gal @ Witty Blog Name Pending

Jemma @ Celery and Cupcakes see her update and budget busting meals 6

True Penny @ Cool Beans

Danielle @ Love Life Eat Laugh

Alissa @ Not Just Apples – see this weeks update here

Sarah @ Sweet Potato Sarah

Sharon@ Bit of the good stuff

Emma @ Coming up easy

Al @ Al’s Food and Fitness

Eleanor @ Eating like a horse

Maria @ Running Cupcake – she’s been very organised for Christmas!

Ffion@ Chocolate and Raspberries

We don’t have long until the end of the challenge now everyone – those of you who haven’t posted an update why not let us know how you are getting on? 

Italian Quinoa with White Beans (vegan, makes two servings)

This is yet another fairly simple and cheap recipe that tastes so much better than the sum of its parts. I really love recipes like this that don’t have too many ingredients and are quick to prepare but still taste amazing. You could easily make this with whatever grain or bean you fancy and just by changing up the seasoning you could give it a different twist such as hot chilli powder for Mexican, curry powder for Indian, cumin for Moroccan etc.

• 1/2 cup of dry quinoa
• 1 can or 1 cup of cooked white beans – either cannellini or haricot beans
• 1 clove of garlic
• 2 courgettes, chopped
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup of tomato passata or 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1/3 cup of olives, sliced
• 1/2 tsp of Italian seasoning
• Fresh basil to serve

Begin by cooking the quinoa in 1 cup of water or veg stock until fluffy (about 10 – 15 minutes) while the quinoa is cooking crush the garlic and chop the courgettes. Gentle fry the garlic over a medium heat then add the courgettes and stir fry until slightly tender but still with a bit of crunch. Add the white beans, cooked quinoa, tomatoes, olives and seasoning. Simmer for a further 5 minutes until warmed through and serve with a generous sprinkling of fresh  basil.

I served mine with some nutritional yeast on top and alongside my usual mountain of steamed greens – kale and broccoli. This is also a handy meal to make when your cooking for a veggie / vegan and an omni together as you can just make as directed leaving the beans out, then split the mixture at the end and add the cooked beans in one portion and then add cooked chicken, mince or sausages to the other portion. If you have the grain pre cooked this is also a great one pan dish!

Do you ever buy things on impulse? Have you ever put things back on the shelves before you get to the till?

Please check out my first ever article: Eating Raw Made Easy over on the Viva Pure blog!

As I mentioned in yesterdays WIAW, this week I am healthy feasting and having a ‘set back’ week in my training. I’ve still been working out, but I’ve been taking it easier. Yesterday I just did 1.5 miles on the tread instead of 3 miles and cut my overall workout time down. On Monday I made up my own little light strength routine although I think it must have been tougher than I realised as I’ve had the worst DOMS in my abs! This morning I did yoga for runners then instead of going to the gym after work I came home and relaxed with James. It felt good to be so kind to myself!

Eats wise I’ve been enjoying more smoothies (sans stevia and gums) and salads:

Spinach, romaine, courgette, vanilla sun warrior, agave syrup, water, ice, ground flax topped with figs, honey and bee pollen

Spinach, pink lady apple, almond milk, 2 tbsp almond butter, cinnamon, ice topped with more cinnamon, buckwheaties and bee pollen

Spring greens, 2 pears, chocolate hemp protein powder, water, ice topped with raw chocolate hazelnut butter and raw pear and ginger granola

‘Rainbow’ salad with romaine, finely sliced spring greens, alfalfa sprouts, yellow pepper, carrot, red cabbage, beetroot, sunflower seeds, lemony hemp dressing (lemon juice, good hemp oil, coconut aminos)

Snacks have been a mix of fruit, veggies, nuts and dried fruit:

Apple, carrots, dried apricots and hazelnuts

Clemintines, apple, macadamias

For dinner I had spiralised courgettes with green goddess dressing topped with roast kabocha and some additional tahini miso dressing:

This was so good!

Dessert has been lots of fruit:

Frozen cherries, frozen grapes and a chopped apple

Frozen raspberries, raw chocolate granola, almond milk

I’ve really enjoyed all these eats, just goes to show how tasty healthy foods can be!

Big Budget Challenge Update

I don’t really have much to report this week to be honest! Pay day is next Friday and it can not come quickly enough. I’m doing well keeping up with my good habits regarding my grocery spending but with Christmas fast approaching my thoughts are turning to Christmas shopping which I have to admit is a bit distracting!

I am starting to think about how I can be a bit thrifty over Christmas and not go over the top as usual. I’ve came across a few really useful websites I’m going to make the most of:

Money Saving Expert – this is just full of lots of money saving advice and tips. You can sign up for their weekly email and get alerted when certain discount codes are available.

Voucher Codes – A great website that lets you search for voucher codes

Top Cash Back – gives you cash back when you click through their links and make a purchase online.

With more and more of us doing our shopping online I think sites like these could be really useful ways of saving a little bit of cash, especially at this time of year! I’ve also came across a few great blogs:

A Thrifty Mrs – a fun frugal lifestyle blog – I love her ‘how to’ pages and may have to try out the home made Christmas decorations!

Miss Thrifty – another great blog full of lots of tips for saving money including shopping, fashion, cheap recipes etc.

Skint in the City – I only discovered this blog via Huffington Post today but I love it! Lots of great tips and tricks for the style conscious girl

Big Budgeters joining in:

Head on over to Celery and Cupcakes and check out her Tofu Meatballs recipe! Sharon at Bit of the Good Stuff has posted her update that’s really full of some excellent tips. Alissa at Not Just Apples has posted her update – sounds like she’s got some good deals from Waitrose and has posted a lovely sounding recipe for brown rice congee porridge. Thanks for the updates everyone!

Come on all you Big Budget Challengers out there, only a couple of weeks to go! How about we all try and post a recap / update in these last two weeks to share how we’ve all been doing?

In line with being kind to myself, I think I’m going to take the rest of the week off blogging – but I do have a fun post scheduled for you tomorrow! Tomorrow night I’m off to the amazing Durham Lumiere festival – I will be getting lots of photographs hopefully! Then the rest of the weekend I think I’m going to try and recharge my batteries a bit as I have an insanely busy work week coming up.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your week and have a great weekend!

Don’t forget to check out my November sponsor giveaway for a chance to win Linwoods and Good Hemp Goodies!

I thought it would be a good idea to give my wardrobe a good sort out to see exactly what I have, with the hope that I will be able to make better use of existing clothes instead of being tempted to purchase new stuff!

I went through every item of clothing I own! I've put a couple of things into storage for when the weather gets cooler again, a few things into a bag for charity, a couple of dresses that need to be altered to fit and a few things I could try and sell on ebay.

Whilst looking through everything I rediscovered these old dresses:

The stripey vintage style dress and the black grecian style dress need taking in around the bust but the purple shift dress fits perfectly! I think I'm going to wear it with some bright accessories for my cousins engagement party at the end of the month.

I also rediscovered these two pretty tops


These are both quite big fitting but they will work with a little camisole underneath and a wide belt around the waist to pull them in.

I'm really happy with everything that I have, I should have no problem not buying anything new for the next three months. Whilst reviewing everything I came up with a list of my summer wardrobe essentials. I think between these items I can create quite a few outfits for various occassions.

Accessories - ethnic inspired colourful jewellery and big sunglasses.


Shoes and bags - tan leather wedges, gladiators and metalic sandals with coordinating bags


Vest tops - I love vest tops and have loads in various colours. They can go with so many other items, just so versatile


Pretty white cotton tops and skinny denim


Patterned sundresses and vintage style tea dress


Loose fit jeans, converse trainers, little cardigan and big bag for chilling out


So now I have no excuse to buy anything new, I'm writing this post to remind me of this! What are your essential summer wardrobe items?