"£187 down and I've only brought three items! A pair of Vivienne Westwood Melissa shoes at £80. An American Apparel T-shirt, £22, and a pair of jeans from B-Fair, £85. To be honest the price of ethical clothing sucks!" The bleached blonde bends down to pick up her bags and heads to the cashier with like the most unethical phone ever glued to her ear. "I mean I couldn't care less about the pregnant woman in the Indian sweatshop making my Primark shoes when I'm going to be broke in approximately as long as it takes this fucking cashier to serve me." My patience is beginning to wear thin too.

I'm on work experience with a fashion magazine and the bitch I'm shadowing is fashionably rude. We've been sent out with a £200 budget to buy an outfit for the front cover shoot she's doing in like 24 hours, but this bloody woman has her ShitBerry glued to her ear religiously and it's a wonder she gets anything done. I've been trying to tell her for the past 30 minutes that she may as well go to a charity shop to get the clothes but apparently she knows best and I should keep schtoom.

The brief stated that the clothing must be ethical. Don't get me wrong I understand why we're not spending £80 on a pair of trainers which cost 2 pence to make, but that does not mean that it's okay to spend £80 on flat pumps just because they're made out of recycled car tyres! Dismissing myself from the shopping trip, to head back to the office, I slip into a non-descript second hand shop.

Confession, I know it's mega uncool, according to most 19-year olds, but sometimes I find some standout pieces in charity shops that I can sew buttons and material on to, making myself an exclusive outfit. Point is. I know I can do what she does quicker, cheaper and more stylishly.

Arriving back at fashion HQ, choking on the receptionist's god-awful perfume, I can also smell trouble. The look I get as I walk back into the office, was, well - let's just say someone may as well have farted. The boss had evidently flipped thinking the 'work experience girl' had gone walk about and it didn't help that I had three shopping bags in my hand on my return either.

He was also furious that Miss Moneybags had gone £50 over her budget... Which is when I stepped in and handed over the six items in my bags and a receipt. A receipt that just so happened to total to only £18... As I found out, money talks. Along with a bit of creativity.

Words: Sian Anderson