Other evidence of my CMS (Completely Mental Spending): Several of my handbags are lined with the dinner mints one amasses from eating out a lot (I didn't bother to check the other 12 or so bags at the bottom of the wardrobe). There are more receipts than banknotes in my wallet at any given time.

When it comes to online shopping, I'm a fully paid-up member of the 'It's-not-real-moneyif-you-can't-see-it' school of thought. Worse still, I regularly go into Boots to buy toothpaste, and emerge with 200 of other 'essentials'.

It seems that I'm not alone in my wayward spending . . . Brown Thomas has reported an unprecedented increase in sales of luxury brands, while the arrival of Harvey Nichols to these shores has been the retail success story of the year.

Alas, the early new year is ostensibly the time when one must atone for such financial crimes and adopt a back-to-basics approach.

But when one is so used to such frivolous ways with money, how easy can it be to endure a week of frugal living?

Monday First things first; it's time to ditch the luxury beauty brands in favour of something more affordable. We all have an octogenarian greataunt who barely looks a day over 50 and claims to have washed her face with Sunlight soap for years. While I'm not prepared to go to such extremes, I am willing to exchange my Kiehls moisturiser ( 22), Dermalogica cleanser ( 50) and Demalogica micro-exfoliant ( 49) for a bar of Dove soap (80c) and some Tesco own-brand vitamin E moisturiser ( 1.35).

Apparently, Beyonce Knowles insists on bringing Dove soap on tour, so if it's good enough for herf Admittedly, my skin does feel a little tight, but recovers fairly well with moisturiser. In a bid to combat my Amazon. com cold turkey, I take a trip to Chapters cut-price bookstore on Middle Abbey Street. To my delight, I find a copy of Walter Yetnikoff 's uproarious memoir Howling At The Moon for 1. Bargain!

Overall spend: 3.15 Tuesday I've never been one of those girls who could make the Penneys' look 'happen'. You know the kind . . . the girl who can make the 2.99 vest work with some clever accessorising and the right attitude. This week, the usual trip to BT2 is off-limits, while I decide to charter the waters of Dunnes Stores. I'm in for a surprise . . . the store has managed to turn around some of the main season trends with impressive elan. In fact, the store is now so fashion-forward, that I spot a deconstructed cardigan that is not too dissimilar to one I recently spotted in Whistles for 120.

Before you can say, 'I love the sales', I find a pair of shoes on sale for 15. Meanwhile, I also unearth a pair of well-cut jeans for 15. They're certainly cheaper than my favourite John Rocha jeans ( 75), and fit just as well. Armed with bargains galore, I'm glad to find I still get that minor thrill at the till.

Overall spend: 30 Wednesday Feeling less than pampered, I decide to investigate an online article about the "budget beauty secrets of the stars". Apparently, Natalie Imbruglia upkeeps her luminous peeps not with the aid of hi-tech eye cream, but with Vaseline ( 2.43), while Nicole Kidman reportedly brightens her highlights with tomato ketchup (99c). So that's 200 on a trip to Toni & Guy saved, then.

As this new regime does not allow for salon treatments or alternative therapies, I decide to enlist the help of a friend who is taking reiki classes by night. In the comfort of my own home, she cleanses my aura . . . she's only completed a handful of classes, but it does seem to work wonders. I can't help but wonder about the highly debated 'placebo effect' of alternative therapies . . . perhaps this is what they mean by the power of positive thinkingf Overall spend: 3.42 Thursday The average woman supposedly carts around 300 worth of cosmetics in her make-up case, so I wonder if it's time to go back to basics on the make-up front too.

With that, it's out with the Nars Primer ( 35), Nars Multible ( 40) Stila Tinted Moisturiser ( 29) and Bobbi Brown loose powder ( 36), and in with the Constance Carroll Touch Away Concealer ( 2.10), Constance Carroll Compact Refill ( 2.80) and the Tesco Skin Benefits Tinted Moisturiser ( 7.49). Having not touched a Constance Carroll product since. . .

oh, at least transition year, I'm pleased to find that they do exactly what they say on the tin.

Upon hearing of my new-found frugal ways, a friend directs me to the website of my mobile phone provider, where I am entitled to 300 free web texts a month. With that, I spend much of the afternoon attempting to send my allocated number of texts (not as easy as it sounds).

Meanwhile, a colleague mentions that I'm the only person he has seen after the festive season who looks more 'rested' than beforehand. One-nil to the budget brands, then. Or maybe the fewer financial worries are working their wonders on my complexion?

Overall spend: 12.39 Friday I've finished the Yetnikoff book, and as Amazon. com is still verboten, it's time to take a trip to Rathmines library. Mercifully, the selection of books is nicely varied and plentiful. Best of all, it's free, and it sort of feels like shopping.

Feeling buoyed by my virtuousness, I decide to take in some culture at the Gallery Of Photography. In all, it's been a rather entertaining day that has managed to keep my shopaholic tendencies at bay.

Overall spend: 0 Saturday I'm on a mission to find a free drink in the capital. In the organic market in Temple Bar's Meeting House Square, warm spicy apple juice is on sale for around 4f with an optional shot of free whisky. So on a technicality, I have found my first free alcoholic beverage of the day.

Instead of shelling out upwards of 30 for a live music gig, I decide that the next best place to catch some live music is Tower Records on Wicklow Street. Recently, talents as diverse as the Chalets, Brendan Benson and the Frames have all done free gigs within these walls. Today, alt-country outfit Bray Vista is performing, and the gig is certainly worth a look.

Later, I remember that the Blood Clinic on D'Olier Street serves up Guinness, not to mention cakes and crisps, to donors. The other side of the bargain is that you must actually donate blood . . . something you can't do if you've taken cocaine recently or travelled to certain parts of the world. It's not quite a brunch in Eden, but once you have a similarly altruistic donor friend in tow, there's no reason why you couldn't make an afternoon of it. And they say there's no such thing as a free lunchf Overall spend: 4 Sunday The costly enterprise of eating out is but a distant memory, and I decide to instigate a sort of 'co-op' dinner, whereby guests are asked to bring along some food if they expect to get fed.

It's a roaring success, despite the lack of 'people-watching' opportunities. Cost to me: less than 5 on groceries in Aldi. Given that my average weekly shop tips the tills at around 70, this is a revelation. It reminds me of my previous incarnation as a collegiate skinflint, when I could spend £8 on a weekly shop (15 packets of Super Noodles).

Later, a magazine article insists that costly detox regimes are pointless, while a brisk walk on a cool afternoon is as beneficial to the system as detox patches and the like. Brilliant . . . not only am I saving the price of a taxi fare, I'm also giving my system a major clear-out.

At dinner, the Dunnes shoes are afforded many compliments, with one friend asking if they are shoes from Fly (hip London shoe designers). When I spill the beans, I can't decide whether she looks impressed or just plain perplexed.

Overall spend: 5 Conclusion Once upon a time, all we needed in our lives to feel wealthy were a few Wham! bars and some gobstoppers. Nowadays, people derive much pleasure from spending their hard-earned cash on luxury brands . . . not only is it a way of self-rewarding and self-validating; people often spend money to buy into the notion of an affluent existence. Deep down, we know there's precious little difference between a Nars product and its Boots equivalent, but entranced by a certain lifestyle, we're more likely to enjoy buying the former.

The good news is that one can derive a certain amount of feelgood factor from being financially stringent. Essentially, we're worth it, but not that worth it. We're constantly being told we're citizens of the Rip-Off Republic, but a life of financial common sense need not be boring or painful.

So you see, there is life after you've battered your credit card to a savage, untimely death.