Beck Vass: Thanks to Smiggle I've blown my school holidays budget

I was stunned by the prices at Smiggle. This is the Chanel of children's stationery, I thought to myself. Photo / Getty Images

This is my second ever school holidays - and my last with just two children. And on the first two days I blew myself out – physically and financially.

The costs don't take long to add up when you're not feeling physically active. Our son, 3, is in daycare some days. On those days it's me and my daughter, 5. And, of course, the one on the way.

Day one involved a series of visits from friends, which was awesome. We didn't leave the house and, miraculously, I didn't go insane thanks to the steady stream of guests.

Despite still feeling shattered from the busy day before, day two involved a trip to a café, a short scoot at the skate park, then a trip to the Mount for small ice creams for brunch (I'm pregnant, don't judge). Then we headed to Bayfair Mall in Tauranga, where we live.

Somehow, I successfully dodged those aggressive salespeople who make me not want to go anywhere. My girl had a play on the playground outside Kmart as I sat on a couch, contemplating falling asleep.

Then, we did it: We braved Kmart. My girl found a $5 pencil case she liked but I was feeling frivolous on our "girls' day". It will be one of the last with just the two of us for quite some time, so I suggested we look at Smiggle before making a purchase.

I hadn't really looked in Smiggle before, but the day before a friend's daughter had shown us her sequined diary that, in a somewhat addictive fashion, brushes up and down and sparkles both ways. Both ways! I know! It was a sensory experience I was instantly sucked into.

So, we got there and this journal, pretty much the notebook version of the $5 pencil case at Kmart, was $30. I was stunned by the prices. This is the Chanel of children's stationery, I thought to myself.

But as I looked at the journal, I realised, this was no ordinary notebook: I brushed the sequins up and down and damn, they were worth the extra $25. They were softer and much more satisfying than the coarse Kmart ones - I succumbed quickly. What the hell?

I brushed the sequins up and down and damn, they were worth the extra $25. Photo / Smiggle.com

Clearly, this shop has reignited some repressed childhood emotions involving an obsession with stationery. I am utterly and completely irrationally, in love.

Smiggle: Preying on the little kid in all of us.

I'm just going to have to keep myself away from there for the rest of the holidays otherwise temptation will likely prove too great.