Her Heartland Soul

Lovely Midwestern Living

My Must Have Bag

72 Comments

I feel like every girl has an area of her closet where she saves money, and an area where she spends money. I save money on tops and shoes. I don’t like to spend more than $30 on a top and physically cringe if I spend more than $50 on a pair of shoes. I spend money on purses and jeans. I believe in high quality denim and leather handbags. To me they are a long-term investment that I will use for years to come.

Over time I’ve been slowly but surely growing my handbag collection. I don’t have many, but the ones I have I absolutely adore. For the last few months I’ve been looking for the perfect everyday bag. I needed something structured, that fit over my shoulder, and worked with both dressy and casual outfits. After a lot of searching I finally found my must have bag. Meet the Mulberry Bayswater:

Untitled design-3(Photos from Pinterest)

Isn’t it gorgeous? It was love at first sight. It’s the perfect shape that can fit a lot or a little and look just as good at the office as it does out running errands. I love how it’s free from crazy grommets and intricate zippers. It is just so classic and timeless to me.

Untitled design-2(Photos from Pinterest)

The brown Mulberry Bayswater was exactly what I was looking for. The only thing that wasn’t so perfect was the price tag. Retail was way out of my budget so I turned to used luxury retailers online. These are my not-so-secret weapon for finding luxury goods at deeply discounted prices.

I’ve had good experiences with The RealReal before, so I started stalking the website daily. I like how they provide lots of pictures, describe the condition of the items that they’re selling, and have an authenticity team that checks every item someone consigns with them to make sure it’s not fake. The problem with The RealReal is because of how good their prices are, things sell out super quickly. Usually as soon as this bag would hit the site it would sell out and I’d have to add myself to the wait list. After months and months of waiting, I started to give up hope.

Then suddenly last week a brown Mulberry Bayswater became available. It was in great condition, being sold at a reasonable price, and The RealReal was even offering a 20% coupon code for my purchase! I pulled the trigger and didn’t look back.

Mulberry Bayswater Her Heartland Soul Erin Fairchild

I’m now the proud owner of this beauty. It’s going to get a lot of use! And I love it even more because of how much work I put into finding it. 😀

My must have bag @Mulberry_Editor #fashion #ontheblog #style #handbag #purse

Click To Tweet

Questions of the Day: What closet items do you save and splurge on? What’s your must have bag? Are you a fan of Mulberry? Have you ever shopped The RealReal?

Comments

  2. CARLA says

    ahhh I need a grown up bag as I own (whispers) a billion leather backpacks.
    I just get overwhelmed by all the different options.
    and so I backpack 😉

    Reply

  4. Erin @ Erin's Inside Job says

    I normally don’t like a lot of bags and actually stopped carrying my purse around this whole winter because I could keep things in my giant coat pockets. I don’t know what I’m going to do now that the weather is getting warmer! Anyway, I do really like the look of this bag and if I were to get one I would totally want it to look like this!

    Reply

    • Erin says

      Coat pockets are the best!! When I bring them out of storage at the beginning of winter I always find the craziest things in the pockets! haha

      Reply

    • Erin says

      I’m in love with it! 😀 I’m so glad I took the time to find the bag I really wanted and then to wait for one to become available in my price range.

      Reply

  11. Amanda @ Diary of a Semi-Health Nut says

    So I’ve now decided that not only are you going to let me in on all the cool Omaha events, you’re going to help me with fashion. I haven’t figured out what my contribution to the relationship will be…cookies?? 😉

    Ps I wonder if you should specify where on Pinterest you found those photos? I know its a lot of work, but if someone used my photos I know I would like credit..ya know?

    Reply

    • Erin says

      Oh yeah, I’m all about sourcing images! The problem with Pinterest is these don’t lead back to the original blog posts. They’re all pinned on Pinterest directing to other websites where people used the images. So I just decided to make them into collages.

      And I love cookies! That is more than enough contribution. 😀

      Reply

  12. Dilan says

    Wow. Amazing blog and such a interesting post! I like your blog a lot. It has its own style.

    If you want, you can check out mine.
    Maybe you will like it. Do you want to follow each other? This would be so great for starter bloggers – we can support us like this. Follow me and let me know with a comment on my blog 🙂

    Lots of Love, Dilan from DILANERGUL

    Reply

  23. Erin says

    That bag is fantastic! I hadn’t heard of TheRealReal before, can’t wait to check it out (though my wallet may not agree 🙂 )

    Erin @ Teal and Polka Dots
    tealandpolkadots.blogspot.com

    Reply

  24. jan says

    Those are gorgeous bags! I love the last one. It looks like it would hold so many things and make them easy to find!

    Reply

  27. Chantal says

    This bag is beautiful! I often will spend more than I have planned on a bag but it takes me a very long time to find out that is perfect! Thanks for joining the Link-It To Me Link Up Party this week, I hope you will party with us again next week!

    Reply

  29. Allison @ With Faith and Grace says

    What a cute bag! I’m looking for something similar too. What I’d really love is a tote that would work as a school bag and a regular bag so I’m not constantly switching between a purse and my backpack. It’s so annoying. I have signed up for TheRealReal because I’m lusting over getting a Louis Vuitton bag, but so far I can’t even afford the discount prices. But it’s good to know what I can aim for!

    Reply

  31. Emily says

    I love how that bag is a mix between a nice laptop case and a stylish purse. It’s big enough to hold more stuff, but it doesn’t look entirely business like, so you can take it around to everything. I’m actually kind of more of a minimalist when it comes to bags, because (shh..) I lose things really easily, so the smaller my purse is, the better. 😀

    Closet items I would splurge on would probably be good shoes. 🙂

    Reply

    • Erin says

      My husband loses everything! I think he likes when I carry a big bag because then he can put all his stuff in it!! haha 😀

      Reply

  33. Nadine says

    That bag is gorgeous!!! I love the shape and it looks fabulous in every color. I certainly tend to splurge more with purses than with anything else.

    Reply

  34. Antonella says

    Love your Bayswater!!
    I recently purchased mine in March.
    I purchased it in black, because I have a few LV’s that are brown. Mulberry is
    a fabulous brand. I use it everyday.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.