Hello, my name's Sarah and I'm addicted to ebay.

My youngest is growing fast and about to bust out of her 12-18 month clothes so I took myself off to the local shopping centre to buy her autumn/winter wardrobe (no really!). I got some great stuff and was really pleased with myself until I realised that if I'd shopped a bit smarter and a bit earlier, I could have got a whole wardrobe for her for a fraction of the cost on ebay.

A good friend of mine is an excellent sale shopper. Since her daughter was tiny she's bought clothes in the sales for her daughter to wear the next year. Maybe I'm unlucky, but whenever I go to the same shops, albeit a different branch, I can NEVER find ANYTHING. It's hopeless. That added to the fact that I'm addicted to my laptop, means that the way forward for me was always going to be the computer.

I've looked at the 'bundles' on ebay - listings of sometimes 60 or 70 items of clothing being sold in one lump - but frankly they scare me. Actually, I'll confess that I did buy a fairly small bundle from someone once, but it never arrived. Once bitten, and all that... So anyway, the bundles scare me, plus you're never going to like all of the 60-70 items, and at what point does it stop being a bargain when, say 15 or 20 of the items are going to end up at the bottom of the cupboard, never to be seen again.

So I'm buying individual items. I have a plan of attack - go online two or three times a day and bid on things, preferably with no bids yet, that have less than two hours to go and pounce! The problem is, I can't stop bidding! In the past 4 days I've bought 12 items... for just £32! I'm worried that I'm getting to much fun from it. It's becoming too enjoyable. I'm concerned that I'm going to be turning down dinner dates (ha!) in case I miss a Mini boden dress that nobody seems to have noticed and still doesn't have any bidders!

I think I need to set up a support group. Maybe I should go onto Facebook and start the ball rolling...

Oh Freddie

Two posts in one day?! Don't expect this all the time, but something just occurred to me that I wanted to get written down...

Now I'm not one to gloat and I sincerely hope this doesn't come back to bite me on the backside, but if there's one thing that gives me the pip is a footballer throwing his toys out of the pram when he leaves a club at which he's been treated extremely well, adored by fans and has won more trophies than you can shake a large stick at. Which brings me on to Freddie Ljungberg, who left Arsenal in the summer, saying the following:

"Two years ago when I signed my last contract we talked a lot about the
future and about bringing great players to the club," Ljungberg explained.
"Despite building the new stadium we wanted to stay top in England and do
well in Europe. For me that didn't really happen."

And here I sit, listening to the radio as Freddie plays for his new club West Ham and they are being beaten 3-1 at Newcastle. Arsenal beat Derby 5-0 yesterday (not that difficult, I grant you), but all the pundits have been raving about them and saying how well they're doing this season and that they're actually a better team since Thierry Henry left - one of the reasons Freddie Ljungberg gave for leaving.

I hate ingrates, and do love to see them having their words shoved right back up their...