Bargain Hunting: A New Bag

Regular readers might remember that some time ago, I picked up an amazing (well, in my opinion amazing) Accessorize shoulder bag from a Charity Shop where I live. I absolutely love that bag. However, seven months down the line, and the bag is started to show it's age a little bit, as the handles have become frayed and are starting to fall apart, irreparably. I'm slightly disappointed, but it sounds like a great excuse to purchase a new bag, right?

A lot of people might complain about a bag lasting only seven months, before it falls apart, but that's the joy of  bargain hunting in Charity Shops, and when you pay the meagre £1.50, you can't complain at all about it.

This one was a little more expensive at £3, however the straps seem to be a lot stronger than my old one, which is a huge bonus, for me. I was drawn to the bag because despite the cheap price tag, I think it has a look that it "could" be more expensive than it really is, which is always nice.

The only thing that I haven't been so keen about, regarding this bag, is that the overall space inside the bag is considerably smaller than my old one. Nevertheless, this could actually have more good points because at least I'll be forced to carry less in it, meaning it'll be lighter...right....right??

When I got this bag home, I actually got a little surprise, in the shape of the zips on the front, which I hadn't really expected much out of. And this really is evidence that I didn't explore this bag, pre-purchasing, as much as I'd thought that I had!!

There are two of these zips, one on each side of the front buckle, which I hadn't initially opened, because I'd just assumed that it was going to be a buckle that was "just for show", you know the decorative type that serves no real purpose. And so, I was expecting these two pockets to either not open at all, and were also be just decorative, or they'd be for two tiny pockets that served no real purpose other than perhaps playing home to chewing gum, or your spare coppers that would otherwise end up loitering at the bottom of your bag. But, how wrong was I when I opened all the zips and opened up the popper that the buckle was hiding. And this was revealed:

Yep, a whole new pocket, hidden at the front of the handbag. How awesome is that? Well, maybe I'm just really easily pleased (I know that a lot of the time I definitely am!), but I thought this was really quite nifty and handy. It's a neat place to store things like pens, lip balm and small notebooks (I am a writer, afterall!) that I might need at a moments notice and I no longer have to rifle around at the bottom of my bag to find them (or not, as the case usually is since no matter what size my bag is, big or small, it will inevitably turn into a never-ending bottomless pit of doom, swallowing my possessions up into it's depths!!).

For £3, I really adore this new bag and I can't wait to use it. Plus, I should also add that it came with a free gift. I decided that I perhaps wouldn't include a picture of the free gift, because well, I don't want you all getting too jealous and desperately wanting one of your own....this has to be the BEST free gift ever given away, ever....

I got...a free, USED emery board!!

Oh yeah, you read that right. A used emery board. Really jealous, huh? ;) Yeah, I didn't think so. I wasn't sure whether to be slightly grossed out, or mildly amused by it. I think I was more amused to be honest!! Needless to say, I threw that away!

So, there you go. That's my new handbag. 

What beautiful bargains have you picked up recently?