More Charity Shop Bargains for 2018 & beyond!

DigForVictory

Alas, these little cultural conventions have been in sway rather less time than the kilt (in its many forms) has been with us.

One chap I know dons his Great Kilt by laying out the several yards of fabric on the grass (having 'worn' it bundled round him as a blanket overnight) & rolling carefully. Then fastens his belt & stands up. Eye catching as he can manage it less than fully awake, less than fully sober and still get to the bread van.

I refuse to worry overmuch. Whomever it is meant for will find it, and if they take shears and make it into teddybears then I'm sure the Fates will deal with them appropriately.

Pollycat

An Aigle 3/4 sleeve shirt, very thin stripe pattern, looks predominantly green but lots of lovely subtle colours.
Bought to wear with my new pinafore dresses.
£1.00 Air Ambulance.

This is a French make, I recognised the brand immediately as I bought a raincoat a while ago and was gob-smacked at the prices on the website.
Long sleeved shirts start at £65 and this one has some nice embroidery detailing on so would probably have been more.
They've been in business since 1853.


I might take it on holiday as a cover up.

dolly84

Pollycat - your Air Ambulance shop sounds great.


I got a couple of things yesterday. Berghaus fleece jumper in oatmeal colour, 4 button neckline, hood, kangaroo pocket £2.59, Smartwool 1/2 zip merino wool jumper in teal with arm pocket, thumb holes on sleeves £3.69. Never heard of Smartwool so looked them up and they appear to be an expensive American brand, the top looks unworn, the sleeves are an excellent length on my long arms and this will be fab for walking.


I also got a pair of Brooks long distance running shoes, I love Brooks but find them too expensive new, these look like they have been worn once, tiny bit of dirt on the sole but the tops and laces are immaculate, the insides look new - £4.99.

dolly84

I forgot I also got a BNWT pair of Accessorize slipper boots, knitted with a solid sole, fur and fleece lined with fur pom-poms - £3.99, tag says £20.

Pollycat

dolly84 wrote: »

Pollycat - your Air Ambulance shop sounds great.


I got a couple of things yesterday. Berghaus fleece jumper in oatmeal colour, 4 button neckline, hood, kangaroo pocket £2.59, Smartwool 1/2 zip merino wool jumper in teal with arm pocket, thumb holes on sleeves £3.69. Never heard of Smartwool so looked them up and they appear to be an expensive American brand, the top looks unworn, the sleeves are an excellent length on my long arms and this will be fab for walking.


I also got a pair of Brooks long distance running shoes, I love Brooks but find them too expensive new, these look like they have been worn once, tiny bit of dirt on the sole but the tops and laces are immaculate, the insides look new - £4.99.

Dolly - it is great. It's a clearance shop and everything is £1.00.

Some good bargains you've got there ^^^^.

Went to 'the city' yesterday.
As usual I thought a lot of stuff was overpriced.
I did splurge on a Betty Barclay T shirt. Lovely blurry, washed out tropical pattern, reminds me a bit of Ted Baker. Pricey at £5.00 but very nice. From MIND

And - not a charity shop bargain but - a pair of Superdry leather and suede ankle boots RRP £89.99, I paid £12 from TK Maxx.

MovingForwards

Just to give a little update and say we have now moved into the new place.

Sadly the sofa we were getting from a mate turned out to be too big to get it into the lounge (it looked like a large 3 seater, possibly 4 seater!), a mate of the guy doing my move (he is a work mate) had a friend after a sofa so that was rehomed and I popped back to BHF. They had sold the £60 sofa and the next one was £140 + delivery.

Have gone slightly over budget:

Sofa £140
Sofa £40
New bed/mattress £307
Side board/tv stand £40
Toiletry (or veg) rack £5
Laundry box £20
Delivery £20
Delivery £20

Bean bag £5

Curtains £48

Dining table £0

Rug (from sofa mate) £0

Sub-Total £645

HOWEVER

My removal mate was doing a house clearance after moving us and offerred us the unwanted furniture!

We chose the two seater sofa (material one so we have put blankets over it to bring it in to the colour scheme), a TV stand/unit and a glass fronted unit. Cost £0.00

Add in what we paid him for the contribution to van hire and extra diesel for bringing the extra furniture to us £60

Makes a grand total of £705

Yes, we got lucky, yes I was determined to keep costs down, yes I could have just got everything brand new (didnt want to because of it eating more of our mortgage deposit savings).

The only thing we havent got hold of is a bin for the kitchen but there is no urgency.

Got lucky due to having fitted wardrobes in the new place (saved us £100 max), we were collecting furniture in our old place as we had hoped to go from that one into our own place.

Will sus out how to upload photos (prob have to not use mobile browser).

But it proves you dont need to spend loads kitting a place out

Just got to unpack......

thriftwizard

We had a stroke of luck yesterday. DS3 was going to the wedding of two friends; I was halfway through ironing his suit when he got a text from the bride & groom requesting everyone to dress "comfortably for the weather, and ready to dance!" hence rather less formally than he'd planned. So out came the chinos, but he didn't have a suitable jacket, and he insisted he'd need one for the outdoor evening ceilidh. We had less than an hour to find one & get there... actually we literally had 10 minutes; the "do" was in a village hall that's normally a 20 minute drive from us, but not on a high-season Saturday, when our roads are completely choked up with caravans and impatient city drivers with clueless sat-navs that send them down tiny side-roads where the combine harvesters & tractors are trying to get from field to field. Not to mention brush fires, but that's another story, which explains why we were late anyway!

So we stopped in the only little town en route, which has 5 charity shops, all reasonably good but two of them the kind of little independent local charities where you find the best bargains. And in the fourth shop, there was a smart grey herringbone Next wool sports jacket that fitted over his broad shoulders beautifully. We couldn't believe our luck when the lady at the till told us it was just £2! "Somewhat out-of-season!" she told us cheerfully. "But we felt it was worth a try..." That's almost the first time I've got him to wear something from a charity shop; hopefully he'll realise now that you can, & often do, get good stuff in them, amongst the secondhand primarni stuff at inflated prices!

MovingForwards

Thriftwizard what an absolute bargain and good luck with converting. But dont convert too many people as we will miss out on the goodies

hollydays

Got a fab mini halogen cooker for £5 virtually new, something I've been looking for for ages as they take up a lot less space then the full sized ones.

thriftwizard

MovingForwards, he desperately needed "converting", he's an academic trying to live on a small stipend in a big city, with a taste for "posh" labels! And unlike his sisters, who can spot a genuine designer gem at 100 paces, he's always been convinced that CSs are full of "unwanted tat & ill-fitting cheap garments" so spotting that jacket - and it was him that spotted it - was a real & much-needed lightbulb moment!