Being both a shopaholic and a student can seem like a pretty tragic fate. Whilst Exeter might not have the biggest or the best shopping facilities in the world, it does have most of the main high street stores that can prove seriously dangerous to our student loans. This means many moments of ‘oops, I accidentally wandered into Topshop on my way to Sainsbury’s“. So many clothes, so little money.
The Zara/Topshop/Miss Selfridge/New Look danger zone
It’s a classic story – you need to go to town because the only thing you have in your food cupboard is a tin of beans and some mouldy bread, so you need to buy something for tonight’s dinner. You walk down the high street towards Tesco and next thing you know you’ve caught a glimpse of New Look and have convinced yourself that there’s nothing wrong with having a browse. I mean, what if they’ve updated their stock since the last time you went in (even though it was only yesterday)?! You must find out. You then realise you’re also surrounded by Zara, Topshop and Miss Selfridge and it would just be plain rude to not see what offerings they have for your fabulous AW15 wardrobe.
This Zara/Topshop/Miss Selfridge/New Look danger zone is not one for the weak – our advice is to avoid this area unless you have serious self-restraint/you don’t have your bank card with you (who are we kidding, this area is an absolute dream and we recommend going there 16253 times a week).
Urban Outfitters
Once you’ve made your way from the danger zone and walked down the high street (via River Island and H&M, obviously), you can’t help but be drawn into Urban Outfitters – the perfect place to get an edgy new outfit for your night out at Cavern. They have by far the best changing rooms in Exeter (Instagram selfie opportunity, anyone?) and we find it impossible not to spend ages in there deliberating whether it’s acceptable to spend £15 on a pretty bowl/mug/notebook, and then deciding it is absolutely essential. But you get student discount which makes it completely justifiable, right?
We have a MAC store now?!
If you’re anything like us, you’ll know the pain of desperately wanting a new MAC lipstick, but wanting to cry at the thought of having to pay that extra £4 for online delivery. Luckily, Exeter has answered our prayers and given us our very own MAC store, meaning we now get the pleasure of wandering into actual lipstick heaven whenever we want to. Is there anything better than leaving the shop with a pretty little black bag of goodies whenever our bank balance will stretch?! This can only be good news for us, but bad news for our bank accounts – see ya later student loan.
There’s Always a Reason to Shop
The looming Safer Sex Ball has got us into a shopping frenzy. We are desperately looking for an outfit that fits in with the circus and flesh-flashing theme but also somehow hides the visible consequences of all the Timepiece burgers we’ve consumed recently (can we go as a circus elephant instead?). Plus, there’s always a night out we need a new top for (the last thing we want is for our ‘photos of you’ on Facebook to be a slideshow of us in Unit 1 wearing the same outfit 23 times in a row). It also takes a lot of effort/money for us to maintain our ‘studious yet chic’ vibe in the library.
Being a shopaholic is a full time job.