What’s in Your Pocket? A Blogger Challenge

You put on a coat you’ve not worn for a while. Slip your hand in the pocket. Unexpectedly find a folded up £20 note. Oooo yay! 

Let’s face it, there is very little chance that I would ever find a forgotten £20 anywhere. A couple of quid maybe, but not £20. I might, however, gain £20 by saving money on my household bills, or by shopping around for something. For the purposes of this post and blogger challenge I found £20. Ok when I say found I mean given. This is a challenge I have been set by MoneySupermarket.com.

MoneySupermarket are celebrating life’s “little wins” by showing how finding something like £20 can make you feel great. All I had to do was spend it on something that would make me happy. Something that would make me smile. Wow. Now that’s a challenge. £20 can actually go quite a long way. There are so many things I need. So many people who deserve £20. So many people I could treat. So many bigger things I could put it towards. Decisions decisions.

I could so easily have spent this £20 hundreds of times over. That’s the problem when you start looking – lots and lots (and lots) of things catch your attention. I’d already decided not to spend it on a meal out, or on something that I needed, and I decided against giving it to charity for a number of reasons (the main one being that when I went shopping for this challenge I was stopped/interrupted/shouted at by several chuggers on Lincoln High Street – ugh!).

I decided I would spend it on something for me. Something frivolous. A thing. Or maybe more than one thing. I wondered about a tshirt. Or some sandals. Or a scarf. Or some boots. What about a really nice pen? Or a new wallet? Each of these things I snapped came in at £20 or less. And I could have taken LOADS more photos!

But what was in my little Fat Face bag I pictured at the top of this post?

I chose some cute little earrings (£8), a pack of two socks (£8) and some Butter Tablet from Thornton (£1.99). You’ll notice I have £2 (and a penny) left – I’ll stick that in the offering at Church on Sunday.

I’ve been looking for some stud earrings for a while and just haven’t found anything I liked. I have other bits of Fat Face jewellery and really like it and I spotted these star and ball earrings when I was browsing. They are perfect for wearing every day. The socks were an extravagance – £8 on two pairs of socks with no technical specification is loads, but hey, this was a treat. They are thick and I love the colours and I can’t wait to wear them (yes I am sad, I love socks!). And finally the butter tablet – one of my absolute favourite sweet treats, so naughty, so good. When LincsGeek saw it he said “ooooooooooooooo butter tablet” – smiles all round!

And yes, I am very well aware that there are loads more sensible things I could have done with my £20. But I chose to be materialistic. I can honestly say handing over my money in Fat Face and Thorntons and bringing home a little bag of goodies just for me made me smile from ear to ear. It was guilt free spending. I don’t know what that says about me. Maybe I need to stop and think about that. Or maybe I shouldn’t.

MoneySupermarket.com are right; finding or saving money does make us feel good, especially when we can do whatever we want with it. Having something extra, over and above what we normally have, can really make us smile. It made me smile anyway.