Yesterday I went on a charity shop rumage as kids have grown again when we are skint (why are growth spurts always at bad times?) and due to this I was looking for anything for my boys.
A few of the shops were stupidly over priced, for example a Primark tshirt, the ones that are £1.50 normally was £2.00 second hand and faded. One shop had a brand new with tags still on Ollie shirt for £1.50. How can they vary so much? Sadly most is charged at more than its realistic value. In Salvation Army they had a “bargain basket” which was 20p an item. Mainly socks, vests, gloves or scruffy looking items, like wearable but donated dirty.
In this basket I found several items suitable for my lads. 🙂 these bits washed ok and don’t look too bad…. was happy with this until walking past Mind Jen shouts “Mum mum look, can I have that, look a giant pencil” so I peered in the window to see what he was on about. Well spotted Little Jen! It was a brand new Vertbaudet coat stand and the tag said “£5, will need assembling properly” and was leaning sideways at a similar angle to the tower of Pisa. I could see why it hadn’t sold looking that wonkey.
Jen and me were not put off, I went in and spoke to the staff. It turns out its wonkey as it had never been put together, not screwed and glued. So its an item I loved, he loved, its really wood, made by a well known expensive brand, and is helping a good charity.
Unsuprisingly I bought this. I have put this together when I got it home, shame the glue provided took 3 hours to dry. But now his coat is no longer living on the floor. As Jen chose it, he’s using it!! What a result.
This is it in use
And this is it before I assembled
Even better, I discovered that the Sally Army shops have a loyalty card scheme. For each bag you donate your card gets stamped entitling you to £2 off your shopping there next time. And each time you spend over £5 you get a loyalty stamp, ten are worth £5 off your shopping there.
As I was in the middle of a clearout at home i know where I will be donating to.
Hopefully writing this here might help somebody, I’m a pretty savvy shopper but I had no idea about this one.
Just addng the badge below so you can blog hop to other bloggers who have also been bargain hunting. 🙂
Hiya!! Thanks so much for linking up.
What a brilliant find. Well worth the hassle of gluing it together, it looks brilliant.
I picked up the loyalty card from the Sally Army too, it’s a great idea. I think they also have a scheme whereby if you donate M&S clothes, you can get an M&S voucher. Good to see big companies working together with worthwhile charities. x
The M&S voucher scheme one was OXFAM wasn’t it? You had to donate items FROM M&S to them, and you get a £5 voucher, BUT had a minimum spend on it. Think it was £5 off WYS £25 which isn’t great as I never buy from there, except EXTREMELY good sale deals. 😛
What a brilliant find, I love it! and I didn’t know about the Salvation Army loyalty card – nice 🙂
Great find! And with the added bonus that you’re introducing the next generation to the concept of second hand treasure 🙂