Pick'n'Mix - the joy of the chaz in '26!

Miró · 4 May at 2:29PM

Dipping a tentative toe back in the chazza world…. Saturday in the Thirsk Herriot Hospice shop I picked up an M&S denim 'Trucker' jacket for £6… currently selling in M&S at £45. Is actually a distressed black denim shade not blue as pictured. Dunno why it looks blue here!!!

Daphne updates:-

Sadly, we think Daffers lost her first clutch of eggs…. she and her mate have been harassed lately by a gang of four 'bully boy' drakes in the garden. We think she may be sitting on a second clutch at the moment, fingers crossed 🙏

Rosa_Damascena · 4 May at 9:33PM

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81986462#Comment_81986462

Don't discount Trash Nothing, Freecycle, Oilio etc. It is surprising how much furniture finds its way onto these sites.

goldfinches · 4 May at 11:43PM

@Miró - sorry to hear about Daphne and her first clutch and wishing her the best with her second brood. Very nice jacket too, clever you for spotting it.

@Florenceem - good luck with finding something you like.

@Rosa_Damascena - thankyou for the interesting Patrick Grant page, some places to investigate another time.

@Brie - I know just what you mean about time flying. I keep feeling as if the 1990s were only the other day and then I realise that my youngest DD is in her 30s.

No charity shopping today but I have put a few things by the front door to be donated first thing tomorrow morning.

DigForVictory · 5 May at 5:24PM

All Strength to Daffer's elbow/wing/mate & may the dratted drakes pick on something else.

I have that time thing - if I can place a memory to Before Children, that's over 25 years ago. Playing live music - that's over 30 years ago unless it's brass (in the last 3 months).

C_J · 7 May at 1:32PM

This morning I needed to cross the county and visit the small Oxfordshire market town of Witney, and I had a spare hour to have a mooch around the chazzers there. It's been a while since I've visited this neck of the woods and I think a couple of shops have disappeared from the town centre (or I may have misremembered). Barnardo's was good (well stocked, good prices, nicely laid out), the Sue Ryder one was a 'clearance' version with nothing over £3, there was also an RSPCA, Blue Cross, Helen & Douglas House, Forces Support and Animal Sanctuary which were all good. The African Children's Fund was one of those tiny, dark, chaotic and not very clean looking shops but it yielded my best bargain. There is a Sobell House warehouse on the edge of town but I didn't have time to get there this time.

In Sue Ryder I bought some 100g balls of acrylic yarn for a knitting project (they had a lovely selection of colours, £1.50 a ball) and several bundles of patterned cotton fabric (six mixed fat quarters for only £1, and perfect for something I need to make).

In Barnardo's I bought two books for the grandchildren, 50p each:

I wondered if the Sylvia Plath might be a bit dismal for children but it's a cracking book! She wrote it for her own children apparently.

And finally in the African Children's shop I got this for only £3. It has a perfect rubber washer on the stopper plus two new spare washers. The lady on the till asked me what it was because she had no idea :)

Rosa_Damascena · 7 May at 2:21PM

@C_J - I had assumed it was a different Sylvia Plath! Maybe because the book cover looks cheerful?

C_J · 7 May at 3:16PM

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81990202#Comment_81990202

🤣🤣🤣🤣. Exactly what I thought, Rosa! Clearly she did have a whimsical side.

Miró · 9 May at 3:53PM

A quick gallop around the Thirsk chazza shops today…picked up a, to my mind, charming, peaceful picture, £2.25 and a b/n Lakeland microfibre cleaning thingumidoofer from a 50p table.

Daphne Update

Sadly, poor Daffers can’t seem to catch a break this year! We have a wooden storage thingy in the garden with a pitched roof. I watched Daffers land on the sloping roof, she then realised she was sliding down it so a frantic, and at the time amusing, scrabble up and down several times ensued for her to get to the top…which she managed but then she disappeared down the back of said storage thingy. We had no idea there was a gap behind the SU about a foot wide and now poor old Daphne was stuck in there with no room for her to fly out. Panic stations and much quacking ensued which attracted Mr Daffers who also ended up disappearing into the void!!! Then one of the ‘bully boy’ drakes arrived, attracted by all the quacking and also enfed up in the abyss. Anyhoo, much later and after much faffing about with boxes on string/mops/brooms and other ‘guiding devices’ we managed to haul the sorry trio to safety. 🥵

Phew! The ‘gap’ has now been filled!