Charity Shopping - New to You in '22!

Floss

Miró unstretchy jeans can be a guide to one's fluctuating dimensions, especially when freshly washed 😉

Rosa_Damascena

tooldle said:

An odd answer indeed. 

My mum (now in her 80’s) has always held strong opinions in jeans. They are apparently male work wear and should not be worn by women or by any male not doing a manual job. Not sure if such a view would be relevant to the era of your book. I think such views may have been common as neither parents or grandparents ever wore jeans. 

I have at least 12 pairs and wear (smart) jeans 7 days a week if I don't need to be in the office, I have loads of nice clothes but it just wouldn't occur to me not to go to my jeans instead. They are just too handy (pockets for phones), versatile and hardwearing not wear! 

Miró

Floss said:

Miró unstretchy jeans can be a guide to one's fluctuating dimensions, especially when freshly washed 😉

Oh, but the joy when those freshly washed jeans finally relax again after a couple of wears!

Brie

Rosa_Damascena said:

tooldle said:

An odd answer indeed. 

My mum (now in her 80’s) has always held strong opinions in jeans. They are apparently male work wear and should not be worn by women or by any male not doing a manual job. Not sure if such a view would be relevant to the era of your book. I think such views may have been common as neither parents or grandparents ever wore jeans. 

I have at least 12 pairs and wear (smart) jeans 7 days a week if I don't need to be in the office, I have loads of nice clothes but it just wouldn't occur to me not to go to my jeans instead. They are just too handy (pockets for phones), versatile and hardwearing not wear! 

Fortunately my mom did think them suitable for women - well initially it meant as a child I could inherit them from my 3 older brothers.  But at some point she went from frock wearing 50s house wife to farm labour and had a good selection herself including jean jackets.  Haven't been to see her for a couple of years but I suspect she still wears her jeans some days despite being in her 90s.

I've been trying to count in my tiny overheated brain how many pairs I have.  2 blue, 2 good black ones (for work) 2 bad black ones (just about dead after being mostly at home for 2+ years), 1 each of purple, mint green and florescent orange.  Still have my jean jacket too but it hasn't fit for a few years but it's too lovely to chazza it.  

@Miro
Oh, but the joy when those freshly washed jeans finally relax again after a couple of wears!

I said that once to a friend and she looked really surprised as she (or actually her husband) washes her jeans after each time wearing them.  Shocking waste of energy in every sense to me.

Potternerd

@Miro lucky you with the Levi’s and I love the sound of the look you’ve created with the white shirt.
I live in jeans in the winter which is partly  why I buy so many CS coats and jackets to vary the look. And shoes and boots. And bags.

I bought a green Sistema water bottle for 50p and a cream Pretty Little thing crop top. Not I hasten to add to wear on its own as a crop top, but for layering.

Miró

@Brie

I remember reading an article ages ago saying that jeans should only be washed when really, really dirty and/or stained!!  Yuk!!!

Anyone ever heard of this gift card thingy????  No good to me as no charity shops on my patch or travel routes take 'em.  Good idea or what????

https://shop.thecharityshopgiftcard.co.uk/?fbclid=IwAR0JMQ0te3_UEw-lHi1I0T99UGDCcQFOhQCsb6t5gu1GnQbGAkz6JErBuHY

Brie

Miró said:

@Brie

I remember reading an article ages ago saying that jeans should only be washed when really, really dirty and/or stained!!  Yuk!!!

Anyone ever heard of this gift card thingy????  No good to me as no charity shops on my patch or travel routes take 'em.  Good idea or what????

yes there was a whole load of stuff at one point about how we all wash our clothes much too often (bad for environment and clothes) but there's dirty and there's filthy dirty.  I'll wash when it gets to/near dirty.

Not a fan of gift cards - I've had some as presents in the past or as refunds and usually forget about them until it's too late or lose them. And I always worry about these companies selling them.  What happens if they go out of business, do you lose the credit?  And how much does the charity actually get?  There must be some sort of processing discount. 

One company I worked for you could get a portion of your wages in store vouchers (somewhere I was shopping regularly at the time).  So I'd use £90 after tax pay and get £100 of vouchers.  That was fine as I got into the swing of it and the vouchers were actually issued by the store, not a third party.

Personally if I wanted to simply give to a charity I might buy a gift there for someone or make a donation on their behalf - like the Oxfam "buy a chicken" scheme.  We've done that a couple of times for family christmas presents for those who are impossible to buy for.

General_Grant

Wednesday2000 said:

I wandered down to a shop called Shared Space in Westcliff-on-sea today. It is quite reasonable in price and I bought quite a lot in there. Two black Wallis tunic dresses, a black Primark top with white stars, a blue BHS vest top, two floaty, sheer vest tops (one blue, one black) and some black shorts. That all came to £25. I could have bought a lot more as they had a lot of nice things there. I will definitely be going there again.:) I like the way they had put all the separate colours together as I wear mostly black, blue and red. I find it annoying when charity shops jumble different colours of clothes together for some reason. I'm very pleased with the dresses as they are lightweight despite being black so they will be good in this next heatwave with some sandals.:)

On the other hand, I prefer not a "jumble" of sizes but for clothes to be arranged in order of size rather than colour.
I find colours are fairly evident from the hanging edge whereas the size needs closer inspection.
I know what size clothes are likely to fit me and don't do home sewing to re-size things but then I have a wider colour palette in my wardrobe.

Brie

General_Grant said:

On the other hand, I prefer not a "jumble" of sizes but for clothes to be arranged in order of size rather than colour.

I find colours are fairly evident from the hanging edge whereas the size needs closer inspection.
I know what size clothes are likely to fit me and don't do home sewing to re-size things but then I have a wider colour palette in my wardrobe.

Quite agree on this.  I hate it if I spot something nice and then see "oops size 6".  A colour I can dismiss immediately if I don't want silver sparkles or hot pink or whatever but after that it's down to the feel of the cloth and a look to see if it's something I could actually enjoy wearing.  And not covered in curry stains like the stuff I might be wearing around the house.  (which makes me sound much sloppier than i actually am)

CAFCGirl

Not charity shop as such but we had a group event at the town library for DS and they seem to have a perpetual book sale of old books.

I raided the kids/youth titles and got 5 very good condition (Hard to tell if they've been borrowed much as nothing gets stamped anymore) thick newish books. There's a pot for donations next to it but my anxiety and I always like someone to see me put money in, and theres another larger donation point by the desk so I said 'oh I'm just putting this in for book sale if thats ok' softly waving my £5 note, and they asked me what change I'd like.

I was a bit flabbergasted! I said oh no I've picked loads! showing my arm bundle.

Long story short, second hand purchase, 5 books (with dust jackets!) £5.