£5 charity shop challenge

I think you win kezia

Whata thrifty lot we are!

Well I certainly haven't won - on Saturday I paid £2.99 at Oxfam for a CD. Except that I later found that they had sold me an empty CD case. By then, I was back home, 120 miles from the shop, so I'm stuck with it.

I bought this very pretty little bell yesterday, from the Sue Ryder shop.

DD found an excellent bargain. She paid £10 for a Précis dress that is £99 online, new. Looks practically new.

Actually, it does look completely unworn. (We were in a posh little market town where the donators are likely to be rolling in it wealthy.

Sorry if the photo is sideways on. #notmyfault

That is beautiful - I love glass and one of my favourite presents to give is a charity shop bowl filled with chocolates. Must be a good week for it Jings - perhaps people are having their Spring clear -outs. I got a Fatface dress for £2.50 and a meshy cardigan - brand new with labels for £1 this week. I'm not usually very lucky in the clothes dept. I also got an M&S black jacket and dress for an interview for £12.25 all told last week. Pity I didn't get the job - but at least I felt I looked great ha ha! .

I rarely look for clothes because all that I see is tat. I do buy books and the one I bought yesterday is a paperback, around 500 pages, in excellent condition and cost me 69p.

Yesterday was a bitterly cold day, the front door was wedged open so the heat was warming the high street. When paying I mentioned that I did not buy from there to see my money go out of the door. The lady at the till agreed with me but she was not the manager. I said that on the way out my stick would accidentally slip and close the door, she laughed.

I share books with friends and then they end up in a charity shop.

The same charity shop had a notice in the window, "New season cruising and holiday clothes in now". #theresposh

We've got a new, large Roy Castle charity shop which has furniture. My son who has just moved (separated from dil) bought a lovely cream sofa, good as new for £145. I've bought dgd several new dvds,still wrapped in cellophane, for £1 each!

I bought a really long, cashmere cardigan a couple of months ago from the Marie Curie shop. It cost me £4.50. When I got home I Googled the maker/designer (a firm in Berwick-on-Tweed), and my cardigan was on sale for -wait for it- £420.....!! It's even more lovely now than when I saw it on the rail!!

WOW!!! I thought I was doing well with a Jaeger dress for £9.99 that cost £129 new, but I think you win with that cardigan Marelli

Mind you, I wouldn't have bought it at £420 - even if I could've afforded it (but it's nice to know, though)!

You win Marelli! Mary Portas would have a fit!

I've got a beautiful and much loved, but old, cashmere sweater that I got caught in a jacket zip and put a hole in, adding to the one I'd already put my elbow through. I went charity shopping yesterday and picked up a fabulous designer label skirt in a lightweight wool tweed, that will patch my sweater up beautifully, for £6. The rest of the material will be recycled into a rag rug.

While I was there I picked up an as new raincoat (£3.50) for elder grandson. He's very keen on dinosaurs at the moment and this is printed with proper dinosaur silhouettes, he'll love it! For me there was a cut glass biscuit barrel (£2.50) which will make an amazing container for a birthday/Christmas gift of home made biscuits, sweets or chocolates.

Tuesday is the day that new stock arrives, so the best day to go. I'm really pleased with my bargains!

Well done, Sloeginny! Especially doing a rag rug, too. After having been at Beamish, and watching one of the women pegging a rug, I bought hessian and cut up loads and loads of material. I've done 2 rows - and I went to Beamish 5 years ago....

Thank you Marelli.

I've decided that it's time to pick up skills taught by my mother and grandmother that I haven't practiced for some time, and I'm really enjoying it.

I know what you mean about being inspired by Beamish, I started on a big rug about 10 years ago, then work and other things got in the way and I abandoned it for ages! I'm now doing things like cushion covers, it's quick and easy to get them finished.

I don't know where you all live, but there never seems to be anything like that in our local charity shops.

I have heard that the Cotswolds is a good area for picking up good quality stuff.

Friend of mine is very lucky with charity shop buys But she is very slim 8/10, which helps .Ditto my DD2 who once bought a beautiful Coast cocktail dress (that season) for £10.Both shop in quite 'posh'areas though .
The only thing I've ever bought apart from books and jigsaws which I thought was a bargain was in a shop in Dulwich. Its a rather unusual necklace which has a Dolce e Gabbana logo.It may be fake but it was £8 and I love it.I do have a lovely beaded evening top too I hink that was £12 though

There does seem to have been a boom in charity shops in the past few years. I go regularly with a friend or my daughter and we always have a favourite within each of the towns we visit, but these vary from Cancer Research, Sue Ryder, Oxfam and RSPCA depending on location. British Heart Foundation always seems the priciest.

Tuesday does indeed seem a good day to pick up fresh bargains ...

My bargains include:
Cashmere jumpers and cardigans, £6.50 - £10
Alpaca jacket £12.50
Fossil handbag £3.50
Debenham's tweed coat £15
Old framed Dutch print from National Gallery £2.50
Big mirror , fine quality £8.50
I don't look for supermarket clothes or car boot sale stuff but find good items by looking often.

I often find real bargains but I do look often.

I love nice quality scarves and they have gathered up somewhat. Today I decided to have a clear out. All those that I am keeping are rolled up and secured with a rubber band and stored like an upright sausage so that I can see every one...... all 31 of them.

A full Bombay is going back to the charity shop.

Ooooops...... a full bin bag.....