Buy this, not that: Mint green bag

So I have a confession to make. When I made my fashion picks for March, I really wanted to include the above mint green bag I found on ASOS. But I looked at the other items I had already gathered and realized I probably had already chosen enough mint green items recently. Clearly I have an obsession :)

But then I saw this article from Lucky magazine and they had chosen a Loeffler Randall bag almost identical to the original one I loved. Only the price tag has an additional digit on it. The similarity was so fantastic that I thought I should showcase these two items in a "buy this, not that" post. Don't get me wrong, if I could afford the other bag, I'd take it! But since I'm more of a "finding-a-steal" than "making-a-splurge" kind of girl, this ASOS bag is the pick for me.

Buy this, not that: Knock off bag

I can't believe it but yep, I am really doing this. I am fully publicly endorsing buying a total knock off bag. It feels a little wrong, yet to my everyone's bank account it should feel so right.....right? Don't judge me?

So here's the deal. My friend Cassidy was at dinner one night a month or so ago with a fabulous bag that I thought was a real Tory Burch. Ok, who am I kidding, I thought it was Michael Kors, but still I knew it was designer, though clearly I didn't know which one. You knew it was a designer bag just by looking at it. Or did you?

I didn't even bring it up, still not sure how the convo started (we're never sure how any convo starts though) but somehow Cassidy started talking about how it was a fake. She had stumbled upon a fake purse website gold mine and now I can share it with you guys.

The way she tells it, it went a little something like this. She found this site, started clicking around, put a few things in her cart for fun and also so she could see the cost of shipping. So she filled out some info, clicked on "check out" in order to see shipping and it said "thanks for your purchase." She sort of panicked, but then got an e-mail confirmation from the company asking for payment, so she figured, well let's just ride this one out and see what happens, hopefully no one hacks into my checking account.

Thankfully the story has a happy ending and Cassidy had two lovely bags shipped to her from China a few weeks later with nothing extra taken out of her account. Though she did say the package looked a little sketch by the time it arrived to her here in the states.

So if you're willing to give it a whirl, I'd say even though the photos may not look like much on the site, I've seen one in person and it looks pretty good to me. Fingers crossed your story ends as happily as my friend's!

Buy this, not that: Box clutch

I fell hard and fast for this beautiful little clutch (and all of its friends in different colors) from Bottega Veneta. I mean, have you seen anything more gorgeous, elegant and fancy? Well, yeah, that means it comes with a fancy price tag, too: $1,750. Yikes.

Ok, so I'm sure it's worth it and all, but assuming you're like me and that's more than a month's worth of your mortgage, there's a pretty similar option out there to choose instead from lightinthebox.com. It has the same overall aesthetic, is close in color and has a much a better price tag: $49.99. I can handle that!

Buy this, not that

So just today, WWWD had a dedicated e-mail for Lucky Brand with a lovely fringe crossbody bag on it. As much as I love this bag—and the whole look for that matter—I can't bring myself to spend $149 on a tiny purse like this. I actually had my eye on a similar one at Forever21 a few months ago, but I had to make a choice and chose a top instead of the bag. It seems since I missed out on that purchase, I'll just have to buy one of these other similar items instead of that.

1. Charlotte Russe Tiered Fringe Crossbody Bag - $26.50

2. Volcom Kitty Claw Bag - $20.80 * also available in turquoise and black

3. Minnetonka Crossbody Fringe Bag - $49.90 *also available in dusty brown & gray

4. HSN Hot in Hollywood Downtown Fringe Crossbody Bag  - $39.90