Credit crunch style

Fictional heroine Annie Valentine knows a thing or two about style. She shares her top tips to give you a fabulous wardrobe on a budget

Babes, having worked as a personal shopper for longer than I even want to think about there are thousands of things I could tell you about shopping for clothes and looking great.

OK, it's a recession, so time to be a recessionista. Less is more. We're going to buy less, own less and spend a lot less time shopping. Alright?

First off, nearly all the women who come to me for advice have far too many clothes and they spend far too much time shopping. You don't believe me, do you? But it's true!

There is no use shuffling off to the shops every weekend and coming back with one or two cheap bits hoping this will transform you into Angelina Jolie. No, this makes you Imelda Marcos, darlin'. She may have owned one thousand pairs of shoes but she looked like a little oink oink in all of them.

We don't have bottomless bank accounts, so we are going to be much smarter shoppers. We are going to sort through our wardrobes BEFORE we shop. No more coming back, bags bulging, to realise we already have most of the things we've just bought.

From now on, we are going to go clothes shopping four... well, maybe eight, OK ten, times a year - with a LIST, with a plan and eeeeek, with a budget. Yes a budget. It's taken me some time to get the hang of a budget, but believe me girl, if I can, you can.

So, you're going to look at your annual income and work out what you can afford to spend on clothes in a year. Be honest babes, there's no point owning five slinky dresses if you can't afford the heating, not to mention the mortgage, the holiday, the car insurance, the groceries and everything else life requires.

Let's say you come up with a figure of £700 for the year. I know, darlin', it sounds bad. But, bear with me. You have to. We all have to. This is the credit crunch, doll, we have to stick to our budgets and stay within our means. Anyone who's lucky enough to still have a credit card is not allowed to max it. And at 16 per cent interest, you'd be flipping MAD.

Less is going to have to be more.

OK, so you take your annual budget and you divide it in two: Spring/ Summer and Autumn/ Winter. Summer clothes are cheaper, so let's say £250 for S/S and £450 for winter.

Stop panicking! You do not need to buy a whole new wardrobe for that! No one needs to start from scratch unless they've been in a house fire (think of the insurance money) or they're Susan from the X-factor.