Cloutie I spilled tomato sauce all over my soft white sweatshirt the other day 
but I got it back to white again. My DD2 is 4 now so I'm able to wear whites again...
Mother fantastic perfumes! I haven't tried the M&S Lyn Harris range but my perfumista friends say it's a true bargain and we love regular, more expensive Miller & Harris perfumes too.
Re: muted color palette, it's easy to get sidetracked by color and pattern - I'm a magpie - but I only use bright colors for summer and party dresses (my summer day to day wear is neutrals too). And I don't do pattern, not even stripes and checks. (They too overwhelm my natural contrast and somehow they are always fussier than I'd like.)
It took me some time to understand that muted does not equal muddy and dirty. I didn't get it right at first, if I wear beige or pale gray it's too bland and I disappear altogether. My muted palette is filled with light.
My best white? Matching my top to my natural tooth color 
I'm not one of those toothpaste ad Americans with blue white teeth, mine are a -softer ivory shade. If I wear a pure white top (the classic white tee) or very cool-toned lipstick, my teeth look yellow; if I match my top to the color of my teeth, my smile looks great... My tooth color is also an excellent guide for choosing pearls. I also understood on one of the original Frugal threads that with my long oval face, my best necklace length is 2x my face length, ie, opera length. I found a loose three-strand necklace that was the perfect shade of ivory and the right length sometime last summer and it's been one of my favorite accessories ever since. I combine pearls with chambray and denim but they also look good with soft white sweaters and sweatshirts. I also liked the YSL influenced tassel necklace trend and found one made of very dark taupe sweetwater pearls with a bitter cocoa brown tassel. It works with most of my tops.
When you are looking for great neutrals, also try your eye color and natural hair color (match the shade but you can go much lighter too). Then look for colors that complement an enhance them. That works for me!
Because my color palette is so limited, I'm more and more about texture. I love medium to heavyweight materials. Waffle and cable knits, mohair and alpaca, good jersey, but also sweatshirt material and all the different washes in denim.
High street quality is really poor these days. Because I like good materials, I tend to shop high end at the final sales time. Although higher end is no guarantee of good materials, I shop by finger feel and have found my best basics -70% - 80% off, ie, at Zara prices. I don't do high street any more, although I did find a couple of tops I like at H&M and COS. Some of my best finds are from department stores at final sales time, for example I found a short navy Burberry trench that goes well with all of my everyday neutrals for next to nothing. The department store I like also sometimes has a sample sale during their general sale, and there I've found great but a bit more unusual basics there (my camo print parka and my best taupe/blue fine wool winter scarf and a slate blue wool biker jacket for example).
Sorry about being long-winded. I'm not trying to induce a frenzy of shopping... For me, finding the easy neutrals has made life much simpler. They all work well together, feel effortless to wear, and because I'm very happy with what I have, I've been able go for months without shopping. My spring and summer wardrobe is already sorted from past seasons, so hoping to spend very little time thinking about clothes and shopping for them this year...