I’m barely two days into my personal version of Dry July and I could be ready to give up. My July started being sent out with a staff collection to purchase a gift for a colleague we were farewelling. I headed to Melbourne’s GPO (which was closed til 10am) and then to David Jones (also closed til 9.30am) and finally ended up at Myer (OPEN!). The Chanel perfume the leaving staffer had requested was way outside our budget but I sprayed and took samples and chatted with the salesgirl anyway.

Burberry Ruched crepe-jersey dress

 $495.00 by Burberry at Net-A-Porter

~ A dress I dream of while waiting out the shopping embargo ~

I headed upstairs to handbags but found nothing that worked for my sense of style – or that I thought would work for her. A quick retreat led me back through Melbourne’s GPO (still closed) and over to David Jones. Beautiful red signs everywhere called to me – 10, 20 30 per cent off, SALE SALE SALE. Head down, I made a beeline for handbags and accessories, landing at Mimco. I eyed off everything. I wanted to try it all. But I didn’t.

Instead I selected a Mimco wallet and made my way out of the store, cursing my innate ability to choose such a bad time to quit shopping cold turkey.

36 hours later and I am still thinking about the rack of rings and scarves marked down to $5, but I will prevail. I will not let down my guard. I won’t go to stores unaccompanied again and I certainly won’t say yes next time someone leaves and a gift needs to be bought. 2 days down. 29 to go.

Many others in the twittersphere have been inspired by my quest and elected to share the Dry July journey by giving up things that are important to them. You can read about them at The Modern Womans Survival Guide and C’est La Vie.