BUDGET SHOPPING

Best place for fancy dress

Fantasy
119 Fore Street, EX4
Tel. 01392 495 559
The lurid window displays always provide a giggle and the staff are only too happy to transform you for a big night.

Best place for a blow out

Princesshay Shopping Centre
www.princesshay.com
The place to go when the student loan comes through. This mini-metropolis of retail crash landed in the city centre in 2007 and is definitely the place to go to max out the credit card. Massive new Top Shop and New Look stores make it easier to find cutting edge styles at an affordable price, while Cult, Fat Face and All Saints have got ranges that you don’t tend to see down these parts.

Best place for independent

Gandy Street
www.gandyst.co.uk
The old cobbled street boasts boutique stores where you can treat yourself to something a bit different. There’s also some funky jewellery to be had if that’s your bag.

Best place for vintage

The Real McCoy
21 McCoys Arcade, Fore Street, EX4
Tel. 01392 410 481
Sadie Frost and other celebs have been known to shop here, don’t you know. Anything from 1920s flapper fashions to biker chic is available in this second-hand treasure chest.

Electric Gypsy
143a Fore Street, EX4
Tel. 01392 413 877
Weird and wonderful shapes, colours and fabrics from the 60s, 70s and 80s can be found on the rack in this little gem.

Best place for cheap threads

Primark
Guidlhall Development, EX4
Tel. 01392 420931
Join the scrum on a Saturday and fill your shopping bag with 50 items for £20. No, really!

Best place for music

Zavvi
20-21 Princesshay Shopping Centre, EX1
Tel: 01392 213 148
Everything media-wise you might need under one roof. Leave behind the dizzying maze of computer games and DVDs on the first floor for the quite excellent and niftily priced range of zeitgeist books upstairs. The selection of CDs, mags and other wotnot will definitely threaten your overdraft.

Martian Records
15 Gandy Street, EX4
Tel. 01392 496 531
Dig out some obscure stuff and enjoy the general vibe in this long-established bat-cave of indie music.

Best place to kit out your digs

The Range
Unit 1, Water Lane, Haven Banks, EX2
Tel. 01392 412 138
Everything but the kitchen sink is under its gigantic roof, with loads of kitchen and bedroom bits and bobs to set you up for term time. The garden ornaments have to be seen to be believed.