More Charity Shop Bargains for 2018 & beyond!

lessonlearned

Whizzbang.....you have exactly the right attitude and this is how I was with my sons too.

However their wives......they both seem to have a had very different upbringing.

My DIL comes from a very rich family and earns serious money herself. She has never had to really think about money. I do not think she realises that she is literally throwing money away. Maybe she will wise up one day.

As you say she would be better salting the money away for the child’s education, or maybe a house deposit, or even her own retirement.

Anyway it’s her money.......

The thing is I am not going to follow her path and be squandering money on my grandchild buying him expensive clothes he will wear for a few weeks.

Madness...:rotfl:

Miró

You know how it is when you go into a chazza and spot something and instantly think 'I have to have that' no matter what the price? My 'have to have' today was a calf length jersey skirt, M & S, fully lined, as new in purple/black/white fuzzy stripes, cut in four panels so the stripes formed a (matching:p) zig zag. My favourite colours :heart2:. Was priced at £4.49 and in the BHF shop. I don't normally go chazza-ing on Saturday and wouldn't usually pay so much for a skirt but it just had to be.....:D

retiredinfrance

I quite agree. After moaning about their financial problems, a young colleague started talking about her three yearold DD, who has four pairs of shoes, real shoes , that is , not counting wellies or slippers. I asked why DD had four pairs( mine only ever had one pair at a time). To go with different outfits was the answer I got and a look that implied " what a daft question". I don't think she connected the two parts of the conversation.

Lucy5781

I bought new big items for DS with saved money such as his buggy, car seat and cot and some of that was with vouchers and special offers as well. Most of that is being re-used this time around as I pointedly bought unisex for this reason.

A large amount of his clothing has been second-hand and No.2's even more so through having more friends with girls passing on stuff.

I bought all his vests new in Asda though as that's cheap anyway though and they're being re-used for No.2 obviously.

Owain_Moneysaver

Wizzbang wrote: »

I do not understand people's squeamishness about second hand,... I was bought up by wartime parents and my Grandparents were equally as thrifty.

So was I, and my parents had a horror of second-hand perhaps for that reason.

Inherited was different, of course.

Personally I don't see the difference between sleeping between sheets that my great-grandmother died in and sleeping between sheets that someone else's great-grandmother died in.

Owain_Moneysaver

Al Murray's The Pub Landlord's British Book of Common Sense Hardback 25p.

The Best of James Herriot - Favourite Memories of a Country Vet Hardback 50p.

Both 'as new' condition. I got the Herriot one a few weeks ago in another shop for a similar price, but it wasn't such good condition. I wanted to get a nice one as my father gave this to my mother as a gift years ago and that copy was lost in the house clearance.

And my favourite Chest and Stroke shop has reopened after 4 months closure - everything 49p or 99p (and books for for 99p).

Floss

Me & my 2 elder brothers shared a grandparents-bought Silver Cross pram (DB3 got a new one as he is 7yrs younger & we had moved house too), our cot did 4 of us and then my 2 sons for sleepovers. My parents bought DS1 his SC pram, in-laws bought buggy & car seat. Baby car seat was passed on, as were 2 binbags of boys clothes from friends & antenatal class mums who gave birth before me. DS2 got everything his big bruv had worn, including the wonderful brushed cotton nightdresses that made nightime changes so easy with a full, sleepy newborn baby! MiL was a mad machine knitter so picture jumpers were in the boys wardrobe, along with some Prince William/Prince George style rompers

silvasava

Back in the 60's jersey shift dresses were very fashionable - trouble was when they were washed they stretched about a foot! I used to pick them up at jumble sales for pennies and make my boys dungarees from them. The short back neck zip was just right size for the front!

Lucy - read your thread the other day from before you met DH - very impressed with your determination and tenacity and so pleased for you.

Miro - the skirt sounds lovely.

Sayschezza

My friend is horrified at the thought of wearing cs clothes but freely admits she doesn't wash new stuff before wearing even though I pointed out several other people had probably tried the garment on before she bought it.

DigForVictory

We got given some new stuff for the first grandchild. (M'mother-in-law has a superlative nose for sale rails - I got a phone call when she was on a coach trip top Chester, demanding to know what size the lads' feet were. She came back with four pairs of Hush Puppies for the under 6s, all different colours, with all the insoles. £5 each, as they were "last season's colours"... MIL snaffled every pair that would fit now or in the next 3 months & my lads suddenly had shoes that were different to the others in their group at nursery!)

Me, I was so pleased to spot a cot in Barnardos, I bought it & then found I hadn't the huff to carry it home. People can be really really kind if you promise not to go into labour on them. The previous occupant had gnawed it - so I got out the sandpaper, then Himself re-varnished it. When we went to Toys R Us for the travel system (which didn't look anywhere near as nice in person, so we got a pram and carseat & a new mattress & then a taxi home), we managed not to fall for a lot of stuff.

Then the medics told me I Absolutely Was Not To Breastfeed (hours after I'd given birth) without a reason. Ward staff as bemused I was was, so eldest was cupfed for the first 48 hours while the reason percolated through - my anti-convulsants. So my parents had half an hour to croon then were despatched off to Mothercare & Boots to get bottles, steriliser, a specific milk etc. Still, my packet-mix poppets are hefty cheerful young thugs now, so while I regret never learning that skill they've no quarrel with it!

Me, I shoved that pushchair (actually full wheelchair width - things you find out too late, eh?!) to every jumble sale, charity shop & NCT bash I could squeeze the chair into. As long as all the seams were still intact, the poppers worked & it was machine washable, I'd buy. Then I ran the little once-were-white vests through the washing machine with a sachet of dylon til they came out kermit green. You could spot our family laundry at several hundred yards, and it still washed beautifully. (Stuff boy or girl colours - we went for British Racing Green where possible!) Both blonde & brown haired Diglets looked stunning in strong jewel tones, jade, amythest, ruby. I quickly found the paler the colour the more often it needed washing so went for the (much) stronger colours by child #2! (We ended up with 3 under 5 which was hard work but ye gods every garment, toy & infant-related kit gave value for money! Er, decades later that's still true. Only now youngest is the only one in uniform does he get much stuff *new*.)

As for the baby doesn't know what kit you're using - So Right! One memorable family holiday there wasn't space for the Moses basket - so he slept in a drawer. Absolutely fine. We happened not to mention that til we'd got home, lest our parents worry, but they roared with laughter & revealed where we'd been tucked on occasion. (The things your parents Happen Not To Mention til you are a parent too!)

You can't dictate as a grandparent. If mum is adamant that only new will do, it may wear off. (Point out the family baptism robe is hardly new?! Ours is glorious, just my three were such strapping young souls at baptism, they were all too big for it. So we have photos of me, babe & relatives, where child has arms tucked through armholes but you can't see the robe gaping at the back....) If on the other hand, smart cookie mum is cheerfully accepting Everything she can store? Those terrifying tummy bugs where every orifice seems to be leaking are just less difficult - you just keep on changing them from desperately-needs-a-wash to whatever's in the clean basket. Regardless of its colour etc.

Very best of luck to you, expecting folk!