They�re taunting me.

I am trying my very best to be in about-to-be-paying-off-a-mortgage-therefore-no-discretionary-spending-until-things-settle-a-bit-(and-definitely-not-on-shoes)-mode.

And I have been doing pretty well. Perhaps I have been well enough distracted by stocking my new kitchen that avoiding the clothing and shoe sales has been relatively easy to date.

But today I discovered that one of my favourite Sydney stores is about to open in Melbourne. It�s one of my favourite stores at least partly because it is in Sydney, so it�s a treat to go and visit it (actually them, there are a few totally different branches up there), and also because it doesn�t taunt me daily with its $1,300 Jimmy Choo boots.

Now it�s decided to taunt me daily. Just three short blocks from my office. Bastards.

Adding that to the fact that one of the major department stores is about to start stocking Prada, and that a whole village of high end boutiques has moved into a new development, stocking lovely, hard to get here international brands like Paul & Joe and Christian Louboutin, is just unfair.

Now, I�m not saying that I automatically go out and buy $1,300 boots just because they�re there. I don�t in fact own any $1300 boots. But I was sufficiently tempted by them on one trip to Sydney that I went back to the store four or five times to look at them before finally removing myself from the State and away from the call of the siren boots.

So having them in much closer proximity is just asking for trouble. Especially as I have discovered over the last couple of years that my spending thresholds have leapt up quite considerably. Just when I was planning on applying my much-better-defined-now-I�m-in-my-thirties sense of personal style to less expensive clothes, more and more temptation is laid right at my doorstep.

I�m sure I�ll cope though. It is easier to exercise restraint over $1,300 boots than, say, $150 shoes. Which now seem relatively cheap to me but could quickly add up to �shit, now how do I eat this month?�

Actually, I have to work out my new post-mortgage budget this weekend. Which I don�t think will be as bad as I am imagining. After all, if it were going to be as a bad as I�m imagining they wouldn�t have given me the mortgage in the first place.

I think what I�m going to try and do is set aside a clothing budget each month, just a small amount, and save it up over four or six months and then go on one big shop to re-stock my wardrobe. Like I do when I go overseas and basically spend several days shopping and loading up on a variety of pieces all at once. It actually feels like shopping then.

Of course, we�ll see how long that lasts when I have the first month�s amount put away earning interest and see a cool pair of shoes. Or perhaps I�ll last six months of saving and then blow it all on one pair of Jimmy Choos. That will have been sitting there, a few blocks from my office, taunting me.