GWAS Short & Sweet

This week's Satchel stash includes QV's excellent hand cream (the flick-cap = genius) and Prestige's 'Beautifully Buff' lippie, which I'm mixing with my stalwart Revlon Matte 'Pink Pout' (for days when my outfit says 'Boring!', my lips say, 'Whee!').

I ran into my beautiful friend Betty and her little dog in the fruit shop on Sunday morning before she trotted off to the Presbyterian church. She looked like a 74-year-old Carrie Bradshaw in a big fur coat and hat. Adorable. I'm convinced that Betty's social routine – a spot of grocery shopping, popping into the newsagent to buy her People's Friend, church and work at the Bargain Centre – is what keeps her in such high spirits. And now there's research to prove it. 

"Shopping more can help save your health and the community," read a Sydney Morning Herald headline last week accompanying a story on a 10-year study conducted in Taiwan and published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health online. The study found that older people (65+) who shopped every day were 27% less likely to die within the study period than less frequent shoppers. 

"Shopping captures several dimensions of personal well-being, health and security as well as contributing to the community's cohesiveness and economy, and may represent or actually confer increased longevity," said the study's authors, the Institute of Population Health Sciences and National Defence Medical Centre in Taiwan and Asia Pacific Health and Nutrition Centre in Australia.

While the latest issue of SHOP Til You Drop, 'The Online Issue', contains 800+ carefully curated items we can buy via the internet, and the Olsen twins' latest member-only venture, StyleMint.com, promises to "meld e-commerce and social media platforms to offer consumers a personalized shopping experience", I'm a big believer in balancing one's online purchasing with community shopping as it builds relationships, feeds into the coffers of locals and makes us feel good. Whether on a thrifty budget or in surplus of cash, community interaction pays off in more ways than the accumulation of goodies.

This weekend, Vinnies is hosting a 'Styled By Vinnies' event for Sydney ladies (Saturday 16 April, 292 Oxford Street), which follows the charity's new website launch. The event will showcase some of the store's finest picks (Versace! Prada! Hugo Boss!) and visitors will get goodie bags, light refreshments and a feelgood kick, too. Talk about maximising returns on your shopping investments!

Girl With a Satchel