On July 17th… exactly 25 days ago (not that I’m counting…) I started my 50-day challenge of not buying any clothes, shoes or accessories… You can read all about it in this post.

Now I’m halfway there and perhaps you’re a bit curious on how I’ve been doing… have I been cheating ? Have I managed to withhold myself of any temptations I might have stumbled on along the way ? Did I stroll around in shops sniffing leather shoes and bags ? Did fabrics glide through my hands ?

Well… I’m pleased to say that so far so good ! I have been tempted of course, but I managed to stand the test for 25 days now… and surprisingly well I must say.

The first real test was on our daytrip to Utrecht (of which you can read all about here) and that was quite challenging. In Utrecht you literally have one shop next to the other but as I otherwise should’ve spend quite some time in the shops, we now walked past most of them and only went in a few shops my husband or daughters wanted to to into. Instead of spending time in shops, I went to the Aboriginal Art Museum to give my cultural level a boost (I did buy a birthday card for my Australian friend Katelijne I must admit but that I was allowed to !).

The second test was when I met up with my sisters at the end of July. Normally meeting up with my sisters means having a quick coffee and then hitting the shops, but fortunately we hadn’t seen eachother for a while, so we needed our time to catch up and there was no more time left for shopping !

Then last week I went to Bruges and stumbled upon a little market where people sold homemade jewellery, scarves,… now that was quite hard as one of them sold the most beautiful silk/filt scarves ! I didn’t even open the scarves as temptation would have been even harder…

But actually I have been really persistent… now am I not miss goody two shoes !

I fear the next 25 days though, as shops are stocking up… and I have already fitted some autumn trends I must admit ! So I really hope that the next 25 days will pass as smoothly as the first… I’m keeping my fingers crossed and I will fill you in on September 5th !

Love, Kathleen