Things I bought in September 2025

Every month I say I’m going to have a frugal month. Every month I seem to fail. September was no exception. So, here’s what I spent my money on this month.

Vintage Christmas baubles

Is it too early to mention the C word? Hopefully not because I am starting to think about this year’s festivities and have added a few more baubles to our collection.

Our Christmas decorations have evolved over the past few years We used to have a very Scandinavian theme to our Christmas decorations, a lot of white and red and hygge vibes. But a couple of years ago we moved away from simplicity to a more multi-coloured mixed vibe – think chunky multi-coloured tinsel, dinosaurs, London icons, animals etc. and that has transitioned into more of a pure mid-century bauble-y vibe.

Although we do have a lot of lovely baubles, I’m of the belief that a tree can never be too bauble-y. And so, despite my husband’s protestations that we already have more than enough baubles, I do still keep an eye on eBay for bargains (summer generally being the best time for fewer people bidding against you online)!

I might have also bought these multi-coloured striped bows… I am loving that so many shops this season are embracing merry and bright vibes for Christmas.

Rubber stamps

Last Christmas (that word again) I decided to make hand stamped Christmas cards using stamps from Noolibird and then attached a Christmas decoration to the front of them. I’ve been looking for a reason to buy more Noolibird stamps though because the non-Christmassy ones are just so lovely.

My niblings are the excuse I needed. I love the idea of injecting a little bit of whimsy into things that I do with them and so I’ve started building a collection of rubber stamps that I can use to decorate cards and post that I send to them. They’re very into pirates at the moment so I’ve gone with an underwater theme to begin with and so bought some stamps with fish, waves, a crab and an octopus. Now I can turn boring envelopes into mini masterpieces.

Xanthe Burdett painting

I’ve been following Xanthe Burdett on Instagram for a while and love her art. When going through a recent studio move she had a clear out of some of her older work and it finally gave me the opportunity to own one of her pieces – Rising Sap – which is now framed and up on the wall in our space room/home office.

More stemware

After last month’s mega haul of stemware, I was browsing eBay to see which other Waterford Alana glasses might be out there (at some point red wine glasses would be good to complete our basic set of stemware) and I saw a set of four ‘juice glasses’ which could serve as water glasses being sold by a hospice in Sheffield. They weren’t on my to buy immediately list but they both benefit charity and will help round out our set in case we ever have two other people over for a fancy dinner that requires multiple crystal glasses. Win win.

Obnoxiously pink running shoes

I walked over to John Lewis on Oxford Street after work the other day in order to ultimately fail to exchange something. En route I passed Nike Town and had my head turned by the most blinding wall display of neon pink highlighter-coloured shoes – the Nike Vomero Plus.

Unable to get them out of my head, I ordered them (from JD Sports and with a 20% code, bargain).

My active wear tends to very much be on a theme – dark coloured t-shirts, dark leggings (usually black or grey) and all-black shoes. These are the complete opposite of what I usually look for. I can’t explain the attraction, but I had to have them. I am now Workout Barbenheimer in the most ridiculous shoes ever.

All the gear, no idea.

Alohas TB 490

Lisa from Blackpink bought army pants and flip-flops, so I bought army pants and flip-flops. And by army pants and flip-flops I mean a pair of Alohas TB 490 trainers. She had pink and red ones, I have gone for the slightly more muted dusty olive ones for Autumn and Winter. Alohas have an interesting model, it’s a bit like the old Made.com model with ordering being much more about pre-ordering for batch production on demand, rather than products being held in stock, but I did manage to find these in stock and so they arrived in just a few days (from Barcelona), rather than a few weeks.

I never buy shoes. Two pairs in one month feels excessive.

Winter jumpers

Buying jumpers is the bane of my existence. I’m not sure when all jumpers were required to become boxy shapeless things, but boxy shapeless things they are. Great if you’re a beanpole, not so much if you have boobs and hips as they make you look very much like a box. So my quest is always to find jumpers that are cut slightly longer in the body and narrower in the body. I also want proper sleeves, none of this wrist-length stuff.

The other problem I have with jumpers is that I need low maintenance ones. I want jumpers you can throw in the washing machine and not have to dry flat – tricky as so many contain wool and require actual effort that I am not willing to expend on clothes.

However, extensive list of requirements for jumpers notwithstanding, I have found a number that seem to have fit the bill so far this year – this stripey number from Next, this stripey jumper from H&M, a plain black one from Next (maybe this one) and this collared jumper from H&M.