Your best ever bargain.

I like the idea of giving something that someone once loved, a little bit of extra love.
My bedspread is intricately made, and obviously left unwanted after its creator died.
It's only right it should end up living here with me.

Like you MissAdventure, we have a house of secondhand furniture - and always have had. We are junk shop rummagers, auction hunters and, at our age, have kept the best from the houses of relatives when they are being cleared.

We have just had a big new kitchen extension and have furnished it with a 1950s/60s Ercol dining suite, complete with sideboard.

My flat is full of bargains.
A £10 bookcase.
A £50 table and chairs, bought new from Wilkinsons years ago.
My bed, 20 odd pounds, Ebay.
My boy's bed £11 Ebay.
My beautiful hand crocheted bedspread, 20 odd pounds from Ebay.
I never buy new if I can get secondhand.

I thought my Fiat 500 was a really good bargain when bought under the discounted £2,000 on new cars government trade in scheme at the time. Given one of my sons had recently passed his driving test and pretty much ruined my previous car. Fiat 500 still going strong.

I bought a navy blue, military style coat which was discounted at the time, that was over 13 years ago now, still looks great wear it all the time, my best coat ever! When Meghan Markle did a walk about on an official engagement in England pre marriage, I was pleased to see she was wearing a very similar coat to mine, albeit with a much greater price tag.

A few years ago I won £500 on a sudoku competition.
With part of the money I bought a cordless lawn mower reduced in Homebase sale.
What a difference that has made. Mowing is so much easier.
No more tripping over the electric cord and no more sore hip due to holding the cord too one side.

Vintage Christmas baubles from a charity shop. I want a vintage style Christmas tree this year and I scooped up two bags of beautiful glass baubles for £2. To buy online we're very expensive.

Not as spectacular as many of yours, but a massive, floppy stuffed elephant in an expensive shop window in Muscat, the Christmas before we left. Dd1 was 10 and fell in love with him, but he was priced at 150 rials, over £200 then.

A few days before Christmas he was reduced to 75 so I thought what the hell. Had to hide him at a neighbour’s house, no hiding space at ours.
She’s 44 now and we still have El - Gdcs love him, he makes a very comfortable floor cushion.

I am going to be more honest now than I would really like to be. When DD2 was 2 about 26 years ago, I saw a red woollen coat with a fur hood in BHS for £28 which was a lot to spend on a child’s clothing item then. I got a £5 off voucher against another purchase. Then I had a thought - kerching! I returned the coat and re-purchased exactly the same coat with the £5 off voucher. I received another voucher. Then a few days later I did the same again. And if I recall correctly, again. So ended up paying far, far less for the coat in the end. ?

Back in the 80s, two wonderful as new Laura Ashley winter dresses, £1 each from our school jumble sale. And at the same sale, a new duvet cover and pillow cases that I still use, also for peanuts.

At a local bargain store, a box of badly tarnished silver rings that I bought for a school Christmas Fair. They came up a treat with silver dip and made a handsome sum for school funds.

Because I didn't finish my meal at a restaurant today, the manager said I didn't have to pay for it!!! This has never happened to me before. There was a group of us, but even so ...

I was looking for large oval Le Creuset casseroles. Usually I buy from outlet stores but I'd never been able to find the 29 or 31 cm sizes there.
I checked the main website for special offers - £540 reduced to £104! I ordered but heard the next day that there was a glitch on the website and they planned to cancel my order and others placed at the same time.
In the end they honoured the order and my family now share the two lovely big casseroles, real heirloom cookware, big enough to hold a small turkey or a cockerel. Also great for baking loaves.

I have 2 good ones ....

The first was I bought a load of terracotta tiles off Facebook Marketplace for £10 ... I used them to tile my hallway and then resold them as there were LOADS left for £120 to someone who actually offered me that price as they too were getting a bargain!

The second was a Silver Cross Wave Double Pram, just before my daughter's second DD was born ..... my daughter was just showing it to me at approximately £1200 when all of a sudden it appeared at £80! So I said buy it, I will pay for it, which I did - it was a computer error somehow, but it came and that was what certainly we, and we found one other person got it at that price - she just sold it for £500 (hardly used I might add, as it was bought just before lockdown and was barely used at all!)

Probably this house which I've been in for 46 years.

Some years ago when we still had a local newspaper there was a section advertising Jumble Sales. One that I went to had a table of "better stuff"; at the end they announced everything on this table was 50p. I picked up a good quality, as new, fake fur (brown mink) jacket in size 18, unfortunately too big for me. I checked in the local department store and there they were for £130 so I used the Free Ads in the same newspaper to advertise it for £50 and it sold immediately the ads appeared.
Another bargain was a pair of Van Dal patent shoes, (20p) hardly worn and fitted me,. I wore those for years. I started going to 'jumbles' in the 70's and only stopped when the local paper folded and the internet came with eBay. One more I must mention is an Alexon Jacket which was part of a suit, 2 weeks I went to another jumbley and found the matching skirt - 10p each. I must find out if jumbles are still held

I bought a china oblong Beatrix Potter door plaque for my then 3 yr old daughter's bedroom at a car boot sale for £1.50. She wanted all groovy chic at 7 yrs when we moved house. Put all her Beatrix Potter things on ebay starting at 0.99p.
The door plaque sold to a lady in Japan for £15. She was a collector of Peter Rabbit items and happy to pay for courier too.
Love watching The Real Deal on TV. Some people have bought for a few £££s at car boots and then sold it for hundreds on there.

My latest bargain was a Coast cocktail dress, brand new with the tags on for £50 and a pair of sparkly court slingbacks for £10 for an outfit for a black tie do!

My best bargain was a raffle ticket in Tesco, I won a very grand barbecue which I sold and we were able to go on holiday with the proceeds!

I had some good Black Friday bargains via the Oxfam website yesterday as they had 40% off their charity gifts, which they would match pound for pound. My son does not want physical Christmas presents for himself this year so is having a goat, chicken and some seeds sent to poorer countries on his behalf. My brother, who already has everything he needs and more, has always liked us to get these gifts so his is a pig.

Ampersand that’s a lovely print and a real bargain.

A beautiful Donegal tweed coat with velvet lined hood, perfect condition. It was £15 in a local charity shop. Next time I went to Donegal I saw the same one, in the famous tweedshop, Magees for 570 euros!

Another bargain I got was a Barbour coat for my DH In A charity shop for £5. I had to replace 2 poppers but Barbour sent me a packet of those as a goodwill gesture. He still wears it today. New, would have been over £100!

I saw a beautiful coat in a West End store at a price completely beyond me. A few weeks later I walked past our local branch, and saw the coat, hanging on the front of a sale rack, for a tenth of the original price. I defied gravity leaping through the door and grabbing it - they had just one, in my size, and I wore that coat for about ten years, every winter - it fitted as if it had been made for me.

Ro60

Just remembered another supermarket sweep. It was a few days after Christmas and we'd been eaten out of house & home.
Popped into Sainsbury's and there was smoked salmon marked down so I picked up 4 packs. When I got home I pondered why the shop was less than I'd expected - only to find, the salmon was at the reduced price but then their system had applied the original discount to buy 2 aswell. Meaning that, they were paying me to take the salmon away!

This is my favourite lol

I once realised I hadn't been charged for a pair of trousers so I went back in to pay for them and the manager was at the checkout and gave me a £20 gift card as a good will gesture for coming back in. The trousers were £18 so I made a £2 profit in the end!

It really made my day

I bought a fabulous nearly new Burberry Duffle Coat in a charity shop on line for £45. They sell for about £1000. I feel I've won the lottery every time I wear it....

In a charity shop some years ago I found a lovely brown anorak type coat of a well known make for £6. When I took it to the counter the lady told me I could not have it as there was a rip in the lining next to the seam which I had not noticed. She said it would have to be dumped for recycling. Noticing my disappointment she said, "Well, I have to sell it, but if you really want it I will charge you 1 penny. " Of course I bought it. Who wouldn't? I still wear it now.