The Marcie saddle bag by Chloe

The problem with being stuck at home all day with a baby is that there's little to do in those precious minutes when your offspring sleeps. Apart from housework. I've been trying to read more, but being exhausted means my concentration levels are pretty shocking. The lure of internet shopping, therefore, is STRONG.

It's fine when it's things for the baby (I signed up for Amazon Family after Daphne was born, and it's pretty much bankrupted me already), but the excitement of ordering bottles and nappies online and knowing they'll be delivered the next day lasts about thirty seconds.

So inevitably I've been spending a lot of time looking at clothes for me... No longer pregnant = hurrah! A stone heavier than before = not so hurrah! I've decided not to buy clothes to fit my new bigger size, as I AM DETERMINED to lose this extra stone. So if you can't buy clothes, what's left to do but buy a new bag?!

My friend Julia (also a new mum) told me that when her baby was born she got herself a crossbody bag, so that she could get to her phone and keys etc easily and keep her hands free. I conveniently translated this little nugget of information into meaning that a new handbag was an essential purchase for all mothers. And so last week, at one particularly low moment where I hadn't left the house for two days and the baby had been doing her usual screaming-at-me-with-impressive-force thing for more than an hour, I went on Matches and ordered myself the above beauty. The mini Marcie saddle bag by Chloé (side note: isn't Chloe a nice name?)

I even paid the ridiculous £12 delivery charge to have it delivered that very day. And it came on a motorbike and in a posh box. And it made me so happy.

The fact that I can barely fit anything in it is besides the point (that's the one advantage of the ginormous nappy bag I now lug around - all my extraneous extra crap can be stowed in there). It is a mint green thing of beauty, it has a perfect little slip pocket at the front and a perfect little slip pocket inside, and it has cheered me right up.

New mothers: you now have my permission to buy yourselves something ridiculously expensive and unnecessary. In fact, sod permission, it's an order.

If there was ever a time in your life when you deserve it, it would be now.

Disclaimer: handbags are my thing. I totally get that most people would consider this purchase nuts.