Sock it to 'em

I'm trying to be sensible with money at the moment. I figure I ought to do my bit to tighten my belt because of the credit crunch. Not that it's actually affecting me in any way at all. Yet. But, you know, a bit of sensibility never hurt anyone.

On Saturday, off to Lakeside I toddled. I needed socks. Even with a credit crunch you can be excused buying socks, can't you?

Actually, not really. There's nothing wrong with my old socks. About two years ago, I got fed up of all my black socks not actually matching, so I threw all of them away and bought a shitload of plain black socks from Next. Or so I thought. My genius plan was that having loads of identical socks, it wouldn't matter when they all got mixed up in the washing machine, and I could wear any two socks that popped up in my drawer. Good plan, poorly executed. After a few weeks of ignorant sock-wearing bliss, I noticed that actually the Next socks had a little tag designed to sit on the outside of the foot. This essentially marked a left and a right sock. Well, who would notice that? No-one. So it surely wouldn't matter if I wore two "left" socks. Would it? Would it?

That's when I began to get a little bit OCD about the whole thing. Over a period of a couple of months, I went from "preferring" to have a left and a right sock to "needing" to make sure the socks were a proper pair.

And this is where the madness must stop. So I decided to buy some Marks and Spencers' socks, which ostensibly do not have left and right foot markers.

Long story short. Credit crunch = Laura spending over £200 at Lakeside on lunch, shower gel, books, a Wii dance mat and an inflatable bed. And socks. Don't ask.