I ♥ U TK Maxx

If there's one shop that can tempt me out of my self-imposed shopping ban it's TK Maxx. I've already explained here about my proclivity to spend on multiples of items and my obsessions with things - sports gear (which has now almost all been sold on eBay - update coming tomorrow); shoes; photo frames; and handbags all are, or have been 'must-haves' in the past. And there is nowhere I like better to buy them than TK Maxx. We're lucky to have a very big branch spread over three storeys in the city where I live.

I was in the city last week doing a mystery shopping job and just couldn't help having a quick skeg at the sale. Oh, the jewel-coloured handbags! Red, all shades of blue, shiny patent leather, animal skins and that delicious real leather smell!

But I have so many handbags that even I know that I shouldn't buy any more. All my favourites have come from TK Maxx - the one I love most of all is lime green woven leather and cost me £100. As you can imagine I get a lot of use out of that one. The handbag gene continues in Red. At 15 she used her birthday money to buy a £100 Betsey Johnson bag from TK Maxx and now it's thrown in her room, unused and unloved.

I also adore photo frames...we have a very big hall, stairs and landing that is covered with family photos. All family life is there, and many generations too. I use Photoshop a lot to repair old photos that have been ripped or faded and it's great to have those memories 'as new'. A lot of my frames come from eBay but just as many are from...yup, you guessed it, TK Maxx. There were some really pretty ones there but I resisted.

What I didn't do was resist temptation entirely...but I did only spend £3 - an absolute miracle for me. I bought a sweet cow money box that displays how much you've put in. Big Man bought me one a couple Christmases ago but as a result of putting coins in the slot too quickly it stopped adding up. I save copper in a cat, fivepenny bits in a fish and now twenty pences in the cow. I also bought a tin of numerals for cutting out pastry or moulding icing. A steal at 30p I thought, but when I got home I realised that 7,8 and 9 are missing. I'll have to work round that ;P! Then for 70p I bought a pack of 12 lacy cupcake wrappers. Red is 21 next Saturday so I shall wrap the homemade cupcakes that'll have 21 on top, cut with my numerals. Not bad eh? My TK Maxx addiction temporarily sated in a way both cheap AND useful.

Might there be hope for me yet?