Kate Middleton, adopting the 100ItemChallenge?

In a recent Daily Mail article it has been publicised that Kate Middleton, the well dressed, soon to be Royal had re-worked a quite marvelous herringbone overcoat.  She’d had the coat cut down to show off her well turned ankles and shapely legs.  This is an excellent example of what we were setting out to achieve in the www.100itemchallenge.com, it’s not just economical in this particular challenging financial crisis, it’s common sense.  Buy quality and wear for a decent amount of time.

Also, I am not a royalist by any stretch of the imagination, however in fairness it’s good that someone in the public eye is re-wearing outfits, where so many (I say this loosely) ‘celebrities’ never wear the same thing once normally with body parts slipping out for the paparazzi. Hopefully a new Royal will give something for young girls to aspire to be like, unlike page 3 girls or the big brother types.

Are you not sick of seeing the high streets and pubs full of orange skinned body hugging over sized women wearing crop tops, micro skirts and crappy Primark ‘wear once before it self destructs in the washing machine’. And the relentless production line of waive like girls wearing hardly anything in the most appalling weather conditions, as their favorite ‘celebrity’ has fallen out of a stretched limo onto a red carpet event of the opening of an envelope. I certainly am.

Good on you Kate Middleton. Bring back some taste and well dressed women to Britain.

Here is the Daily Mail article.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1360259/Kate-Middletons-Royal-engagement-Prince-William-Anglesey-lifeboat-station.html

Do you really need a car?

With the VAT increase in the UK it's coming more and more expensive to run a car, we decided to get rid of one of our cars back in September when we returned from our honeymoon.  I'd come out of my responsibility towards the letting business so no longer needed a car on a day to day basis, most of my friends are in the city and easy to get to.

The large grocery orders are delivered and we pop down to the local deli, butchers, fishmongers and green grocers for those requirements as and when.  So the reasoning having two cars was diminishing.
Living in the city is expensive for keeping a car, car parking costs, insurance premiums are expensive and there are the standard running costs of having a car, MOT, Road Tax and servicing costs.  Before you allow for petrol we worked out the cost of having a car ran to £3200 per year.  My partner drove to Liverpool for work so the fuel cost ran to around £70 per week, so that was £3640 per year with VAT prices increasing this figure will go up further and it's been muted that fuel prices will be going upto £1.50 per litre by the summer!, so getting rid of one car frees up a pile of cash.  We are heading out overseas for a year out from next week so we are waving farewell to our other car.  Our good old faithful Volvo Estate.

When we return to the UK I doubt we will purchase another car, we intend to work in the city where we live and there are decent public transport links for us to use,  if we do need a car for a journey to the countryside or for a particular journey we'll rent one  I am sure the saving of £6840 per year can allow us to hire a car.  In Manchester there is a car scheme where you can rent a car on an hourly basis which is great as you can do this on short notice and for a small rental amount.

Getting rid of our car will aid us in the progress to living our lives to the ethos of the 100itemchallenge.com, this challenge has really assisted us in working out what is important to us and finding out what our own values are and where they sit.  We're going greener in an organic way and our attitudes are skirting around a more Buddhist way of life (without shaving our heads, obtaining a tamborine and wearing orange)