I'mma help you out

Out of the goodness of my heart I'll help you out. If you have £15 kicking around in your purse that's burning a hole that needs filling with fashion, you're in the right place. 

The Mela dress from New Look is on sale for a mere £15 - and it's lush. And it has many prints available. See...

This week I managed to get my hands on £52 worth of New Look vouchers for £40 - I can see where the majority of that cash is going. The prints on these dresses are adorable, and they're perfect for summer right through to adding in some jeans or (sorry fashion folks) leggings as the autumn hits. 

If I add in the sandals below I'm sorted - badabing! 

The top pair are £8 - that's right - just EIGHT WHOLE ENGLISH POUNDS - the printed pair are a mere £11.24 - so what are you waiting for? New Look! Now! 

Dowdy Friday

Sometimes I think there's something a little bit sexy about dressing a little bit like a grandmother. 

This skirt was sexy once, but now it's too big. So it looks dowdy. But I feel good in it. 

This jumper is a bit shapeless, and from a distance looks super dowdy. But it's a bit see through - so I feel a little cheeky in it.

See.

Throwing on a necklace that looks like a brightly coloured solar system makes any outfit a little less dowdy too. Furreals. 

Simple

Today I wanted a simple look. A plain black dress (George at Asda, £10) and my purple Next tights and blue New Look wedges. 

Your turn!

I get asked a lot how I find clothes at such good prices, and how I always have so many things to wear.


So here's a little gift from me to you.


These are available, right now, online, all for less than £10.

George at Asda, £9.00 

George at Asda, £7.00

George at Asda, £7.00

George at Asda, £6.00

George at Asda, £6.00

Ok, so they are all from Asda. You might have noticed I get lots of my things from there. You want to know why? Because they have great prices, they use nice fabrics for the cost and they make things well. Those things wash, they are bright colours, and they make me happy.

So you should go and buy their nice clothes, for bargain prices, and then rock the crap out of them all over the place.

You can also get these sale items in store, with even more variety. If you wait another week, towards the end of the sale, they'll drop the prices even more. You might have less choices but they will be even lower prices, and you can honest to goodness get some real treasures. 

Go! 

Another Monday came!

Another Monday arrived and, after a weekend of some serious party, I was tooooooo tired for thinking about what to wear. Or heels. 


I know.


So this is what I rocked. 

That's right, I banged on FLAT SHOES and a proper old lady cardi. Oh yes I did. 

The cardi is one my husband bought for me, he got it in Asda (we both love their clothes!) and I don't know what he paid, he says probably £5. It was definitely in the sale so won't have been much.

It isn't often I can't remember where I got something - but I do not remember where I got these shoes. I remember getting them shortly after our wedding - so this time two years ago - but I don't recall where from, or what I paid. I'm not crazy about flat shoes so they don't really stand out in my mind, I probably went into town in something totally unsuitable and wanted to go on the beach so grabbed these from some bargain bucket somewhere. They're comfy, ish, and I do love the beading. I also REALLY need to paint my nails.

If you've read any of my other posts you'll know this dress already - Peacocks, strawberry print.

The belt is also Peacocks and people always comment on it - it was in the sale, it was £4. I love it, but it is started to droop! 

I was comfortable, I felt good, and the outfit was very inexpensive! Even when I want to be a bit of a slob, and just pull on sandals and a cardigan, I think it can still look ok! 

Thursday time

This skirt is one of a very limited number of things I have paid full price for recently - though that full price was just £12.
I got it in Asda and bought it because it is genuinely the most comfortable thing I have EVER worn. It isn't my smartest skirt but by heck it's nice to wear!

The top is the colourful sister of the black polo neck I wore earlier in the week - from eBay.

The shoes I found in TKMaxx - they were reduced to £17 in their clearance stock and are glorious. Ridiculously comfortable and a lovely shade of deep bottle green. I adore deck shoes and love that these, being green, are just a little unusual.

The headscarf was 50p in Asda!

Flowery June

For a day that had some actual sunshine I thought I would dress in flowers. I do love flowers.

The t-shirt came from Asda (of course) and I was very pleased to get it for just £2 in the sale - it has a wee pocket on my left boob that I could do without, but it's a lovely soft cotton, and I like the colours of the flowers because I can pretty much pair it with anything and it'll go somehow. 

The skirt was from a charity shop - one in Dorchester for a local hospice - and it was £6. Today was the first time I wore it because it was too small when I first bought it (I never try things on in charity shops because I figure if it doesn't fit I can donate it back and I just made a donation) I absolutely love the detail around the hem. 

The shoes are these previous stars - £16 from Matalan (available in other colours and I do keep thinking about going back for the light blue ones, but I already have blue wedges!) and I adore the colour (which matches the skinny belt - also from Matalan, two for £3) 

I loved my outfit today - and all in it cost me £25.50

I was also complimented by a gay man, and that, my friends, means it's a success. (I'm ignoring the comment I got on Instagram from a foot fetish oddbod - we'll just gloss over that!) 

Don't forget to blog your own #whatyourocking and add your post to the (so far very quiet) linky! Don't leave me hanging! 

#WhatYouRocking

Who wants my cherry?

I felt like some colour today - so I popped on this little ensemble.

Red pencil skirt - British Heart Foundation, £6

Cherry print t-shirt - Peacocks, £3

Black belt - previously seen, Peacocks

Shoes - New Look, £10

Just another Monday

Today I wore one of my favourite outfits. I LOVE this top - I love the collar, I love the tiny velvety spots all over it, I love that there's a button on the back at the neck, I love that it's just a bit see-through (I wear a vest underneath for work!) and I love that it is just sexy enough to stop me looking too smart!


The top is, of course, from Asda, and I, of course, got it in their sale - I paid £5 for it, which was a bargain for something I love so much, even by my standards. 


I am wearing a vest underneath that was 2 for £3 in Peacocks. 


The skirt was a real treasure. I got it in a charity shop - one for a local charity that cares for premature children and young mothers - for £6. It was pretty unflattering when I got it - mid shin, A line, not a great shape or style - but a lovely fit around the waist and nice, soft fabric in a good colour.


I cut the skirt considerably shorter (saving the excess fabric for some possible future project - you never know!) and shaped it to be more pencil skirt than rara skirt. It is now a lovely shape, and makes me feel, as some twitter friends would say, shminky. 


I paired the skirt and blouse with a chunky belt (Peacocks, £4) and the New Look heels (£16) that you've already seen a lot of. 


I also popped on a coat - Peacocks, £10 - that is pretending to be sheepskin but is some kind of pretend fabric. Super soft and can go in the washing machine! 


All in this outfit cost £18 (we don't count shoes and coats in the cost of #WhatYouRocking remember - those are bought for MANY outfits!) which is, by anyone's standards, an absolute bargain - and I felt pretty darned hot! 




What did you wear this fine Monday?

Week one - what are YOU rocking?

I promised a linky and here it is - what you rocking?


Show me your top outfit of the week, your best bargains, your hottest look - let me know where you got it, what you paid, why you love it!


Remember that #whatyourocking is about style, not fashion, it isn't what's on the catwalk - just about what makes you feel like you're walking one, in a way that doesn't batter your bank account. The thriftier the better!

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The weekend edition

I recently bought some jeans - jeans that actually fit. They happen to be skinny jeans (I know, right) and they also happened, originally, to be dark green. 

The dark green lasted, oh, all of an hour - I thought I'd just quickly bleach the bathroom. Which meant splashing bleach on my new green jeans. Which meant bleaching them a sort of yellow colour down one shin. 

Nice.

Since I had already done it I thought it was best to give it some more bleach and see what happened. This is the result. A much lighter green with yellow streaks down the legs - I think they look awesome - but I'm sure I will bore of that soon, so I have a pack of dark green dye in a drawer waiting for me to fix them.

The jeans cost £8 in the New Look sale. The bottle of bleach cost a pound!

The top, just a plain black polo neck, came in a pack of two - the other is a kind of burgandy colour - that I got from ebay a couple of years ago. I can't remember what I paid but it will have cost less than £10, because I'm stingy, and I was even more stingy two years ago than I am now.

I have also recorded here, for posterity, that I wore matching socks today. Unless they're some kind of novelty sock I never wear a matching pair - so this is mainly here to prove to my Dad that I can.

The most important part of today's outfit is a little bit of a cheat in the #whatyourocking rules. These boots. 

Technically they do fit in the rules, since I was given them for free, so the outfit still came in at less than £30. 

My Mum gave me these boots. They cost her a LOT more than £30. They were her absolute favourite boots, and she wore them everywhere. I complimented heavily, I gave her puppy eyes and looked mournful. It took a few years - but eventually she bought herself new boots, and gave in, and the boots are mine! 

Man I love these boots. 

Fruity

I love dresses. I think this is something you'll notice if you follow the blog - or the #whatyourocking hashtag on twitter or instagram. 


This dress came from Peacocks - it cost all of £5 from their sale rail and I fell in love with the strawberry print and cute collar. 


I bought it a size too big and lost a bit of weight recently (have I shouted that at you yet? I LOST WEIGHT!) so it's a bit big - which means I need a belt with it. 


This one came from a charity shop for a pound - I LOVE charity shops - and this was, as so many things are, from the British Heart Foundation in Dorchester. 


It claimed to be leather but I think we all know that isn't entirely true - but it IS sparkly around the buckle, which is always a winner. 





The strawberries are properly cute - and the polkadots - I love polkadots. 




This outfit makes me feel a little bit rock chick - which is a look I like - but in a way I can just about get away with at work. 


I teamed the dress with some boots I picked up from Shoe Zone (cheap and cheerful!) for £12 - they are just amazing - this time I laced them right up to look a bit steampunk and funky - but they have some fluffy fake sheepskin inside and can be worn folded down for a totally different look, which is awesome - like two pairs of boots in one. 






I would recommend re-heeling them though as they come with the standard plastic heels on and those wear quite quickly - I'd say do that for all the heels you buy actually. 

You can see in the pic above that I added in some purple tights (next, £5 - which is a lot for tights for me!) and below you can see the jewellery I threw on. 

The bracelet I bought for my sister-in-law's wedding last weekend - Matalan, £2.50 (I got the matching necklace too - that will appear next week!) and the necklace I got from the Avon sale - I think I paid £6 for it, and got my Mum a matching one - it really opens, and I really want to stash something inside it but can't think what! You can see the earrings in the first pic are the same £4 British Heart Foundation pair I wore here.

I think this is one of my favourite outfits - I feel confident in it and it feels very me - what do you think? What cute prints have you been rocking this week? #WhatYouRocking?

Unsure

I bought this yellow skirt from Peacocks for £7. I love it because it's all swishy and yellow and has a petticoat, but I'm never sure what top to put it with. I wore it a couple of months ago with a white polo neck jumper, but it's too warm for that now (even though it's only fake summer, and has rained all day) so I wasn't really sure how to make it an outfit.


I ended up wearing this top, which I got in Next as one of my possible interview outfits for the job I do now - it was £12 in their sale and is MEANT to have a white ruffle top and puff sleeves, but was subjected to a wash by my husband that coloured it grey. I figure since grey matches the tank top part I'll keep wearing it. 


As I wasn't entirely sure I teamed it with a bright yellow belt - two (of different colours) for £3 from Matalan - and the bright blue wedges I got in New Look two summers ago to add a pop of contrast. 


I wasn't completely sold on this as an outfit, but feedback at work was positive so maybe it worked after all. What do you think? This top - yey or nay? 

 I didn't edit out my fingers from the pic again because it caused such hilarity on instagram yesterday - but this time they are more obviously my fingers! Also I really need to paint my toenails again...

As you can see I'm also wearing my white jacket from this previous post today and you can just see the satchel I got from the Cybher conference last month - which I have been using daily as my work bag - it stops me carrying too much crap and is the perfect size for my massive family diary! 

Sparkle

Today I changed about twenty times before I left the house, having slept through my alarm - if I wake with plenty of time I wear the first thing I spot and don't fuss much but today I fussed and fussed!


Silly really because I ended up in a really simple outfit.


I love this dress because of the sparkly sweetheart collar. It's yet another Asda find - I think I paid £8, possibly £10. It means I don't have to think about jewellery because I can't wear a necklace with it anyway, and it sparkles and glimmers when I move, which makes me feel all special.


It is also a flattering fit and I can wear a skinny belt, a wide belt or no belt and still feel good in it.


This skinny coral belt came with the dress my husband bought me that I posted here so cost nothing extra - the matching shoes I bought for a Jubilee party (to go with that dress too!) and they were £16 in Matalan.
















They're really comfortable but a little wide over the toes so clumpy to walk in!
























This bangle here I got in the British Heart Foundation charity shop and it was about £2 and I love it - but it's silver and enamel so weighs rather a lot!










By the way - the pink things at the top of the shoes photo are my knuckles. No matter what Tamsin might say!

A touch of blue

Today I couldn't decide how to dress - it's June so it should be summer - but it's not is it?!

I ended opting for this dress - I do love it, but it is a bit big and I constantly fiddle with it to keep my bra covered up, with varied levels of success.

The dress came from the last day of a sale in asda and cost £2.

The skirt on it was a bit of an odd style and some of the seam had pulled leaving a hole so I machine stitched it into a more flattering style and removed the skinny blue belt and always wear it with a chunky waist belt.

This sparkly one was £2.50 in Oxfam.

I got the necklace from a market stall for £5 and the earrings are from the British Heart Foundation - I think they were £4.

I have on a black cardigan, also from Asda from a couple of years back, and bright blue tights that are also a couple of years old and from a New Look sale bin.

Same shoes as yesterday - £16 from New Look - and topped off with a three year old white jacket from Peacocks, I paid £7 for it and love the bow on the back!

There are always real bargains to be had if you hold off until the last day of a sale - you might have less choice but with some imagination you can alter things and really change how they look to suit your style, and you'll be rocking something nobody else has.

Welcome

Welcome to What You Rocking?

Some of you may have seen my first aborted attempt to blog the What You Rocking thing - it was rapidly abandoned as it floundered along its way.

In place of the blog I stripped it right back to basics and have been using the #whatyourocking hashtag on Instagram and on Twitter - and a fair few people along the way have started joining in. Some are aware of the background, some aren't - and either way it's been amazing to see people from far and wide using the tag and enjoying fashion and style, in a thrifty way!

The idea behind What You Rocking isn't just style - it's about feeling amazing, thinking about what you're putting together, and doing it on a budget. 

With my own #Whatyourocking pictures the general rule is that the outfit has almost always cost me less than £30 to put together - and I very, very rarely spend more than £10 on one item of clothing - though I might push the boat out for shoes and double up the budget! 

I am fanatical about bargain hunting and always on the look out for something different that I can style up. I have some basic sewing skills, a mad love for bright colours and tend to go a bit bold and OTT. 

I do most of my shopping from sale rails and charity shops, think TKMaxx is like Mecca and take huge delight in saying things like "You like it? FOUR POUNDS IN ASDA!" when people compliment my dress. 

If you want to rock some fabulous style and have tight purse strings to do it with, stick around - I have a lot to teach you grasshopper. 

Dress - Asda, £5. Shoes, New Look, £16. Necklace, Matalan, £2.