Charity Shop Mini Haul on Holiday

I can't quite believe that we manage to find charity shops when on our holidays abroad. We found two in Kas, Turkey last July and we found an animal welfare charity shop here in Adeje a week ago. My sister has been coming here for years and didn't know it existed and couldn't believe I'd managed to sniff a charity shop out.

I've been twice so far as it is open every day and I have to walk near it when I go the the mini mart for provisions. Most of the prices are €1 - 2 an item. I bought two large scarves for €1 each (87p in sterling). One is a patterned blue cotton one and the other is a heavy silk leopard print one. I love them both and stopped myself buying some others just because they were cheap but I didnt really need them.

A brand new sealed travel sized bottle of Calvin Klein CK one aftershave for my lovely David. This was  €1.

A Clint Eastwood DVD - Pale Rider and series 3 boxed set of my teenage taste in films - The Vampire Diaries. Both of these were €2 each. The price was spot on for the boxed set but a little more than I would have liked to have paid for the Clint Eastwood film, but I reckoned the money was going to a worthwhile cause so was happy to pay.

My Sunday

I woke at 5.16am to the most beautiful sunrise over the lake and the promise of a magical day. I started writing this looking out over the lake with the misty haze slowly turning from grey towards blue and I decided that it was going to be a shorts wearing day. I wore my new denim shorts that I bought on eBay a couple of days ago - remember them? along with a blue & white striped t shirt and my £2 adidas superstar trainers.

So it was off to the large carboot sale in the field near Milnthorpe, then on to the smaller carboot sale at the nearby farm. I bought a pair of Hotter plimsolls in a lovely spotty pattern - almost Cath Kidston for £2. I can't believe that my previous blog was about selling shoes as I have too many and here I am the next day buying more.

I bought quite a few items of toiletries and cosmetics such as this Eve Lom facial cleanser, Tom Ford perfume sample and Boots No.7 mascara for 50p. I also got a number of Avon Planet Spa items for 50p each too.

 

There was this cute little bucket with a tube of hand wash and hand cream for 50p along with this Roxy wallet for 50p.  Another 50p item was the Rachel Khoo hardback cookbook.

I bought this boxed set of two Steven Fry series for £2 and these DVDs at 50p each. I got quite a few DVDs again as they ranged in price from 3 for a £1 to £1 for brand new sealed copies such as The Theory of Everything. I also got the boxed set of The Walking Dead (series 1 & 2) for £4. I have quite a stack of DVDs to watch now do they should keep me going for a few weeks along with some magazines that I bought at 10p each. I also got 4 magazines for £1 from another lady that are late 2014. They should have been £4.99 each which is expensive for a magazine in my opinion but at 25p each I can't grumble.

After the carboot sales we drove into Morecambe to visit the festival market. I stocked up at the food stall there which I have written about in a previous post. I'll let you know what I bought in another post later this week.

It was back to the cabin for a cooked brunch and then we sat out on the veranda chatting and looking at our purchases for a while.

In the afternoon we drove to Milnthorpe to visit one charity shop that was sadly shut when we got there but the one next door was open and had a half price clothing sale on. I bought this striped t shirt that fits beautifully and this Christmas jumper which is sadly too tight. I love that it is pink rather than the reds and greens that you usually find. I'll put it away as a little gift for my niece at Christmas. Both of these were £1.75 (half price from £3.50 each).

We face timed our mum and stepfather who live in France early evening because it is my stepfather's birthday today. He is 77 today and we are pleased that he has enjoyed his birthday with his two sons visiting him over from England.

We have an evening out tonight and it is a tie between visiting Trungs Cantonese restaurant in Bolton le Sands or The Eagle pub in Over Kellett. My sister is kindly driving so David and I are just sipping a glass of fizz before we get changed and head out.

I'll let you know how our evening went in tomorrow's post.

Follow the last couple of days of Blog Every Day in May on Twitter #BEDM and me too #themrsdanvers.

More Charity Shop Finds

We set off on Saturday morning towards Abersoch but en route we decided to have a whistle stop visit to Pwllheli to visit a couple of charity shops.  Over the whole 3 day break we also visited more charity shops in Porthmadog and on the way home in Llandudno. 

In Pwllheli, we visited five in total which are all on the same street and a couple of doors away from each other. Two were a dead loss with either expensive or just tatty items. High street chain charity shops now charge silly prices and I think they must be deluded. Fancy wooden coat hangers holding second hand Primark or George at Asda clothes at more than their original prices when new. Why do they do this? 

Luckily there were a couple of independent charity shops which had good items and with sensible prices. I bought this toiletry gift set for £2. It is just for myself and has 4 full sized items in it so they were 50p each. It has come from Tescos so probably not an expensive item when knew but at £2 I am happy. In Porthmadog, I also found this lovely Bayliss & Harding gift set which had 5 full size items in it for £2.99. Again this is for me to use myself rather than a gift for anyone.

I bought 3 books for £1. One of these is by one of my favourite authors M.C. Beaton and who could resist a hardback Delia Smith book for 33p?. Not me.

I found another batch of gardening magazines at 20p each and love to have a flick through these for ideas. I then pass these on to my dad who loves his garden and loves picking out unusual plants from the magazines to buy for his garden. In the same box of magazines were some Guitarist magazines which David snapped up sharpish as they came complete with their CDs.

I also bought a beautiful Chesca 100% silk top which is complete with its tags for just £3.60. I couldn't be bothered to try it on so when I got home I found it is a little (well a lot!) too tight for me so I will pass it on to my sister.

Finally I found 3 DVDs for £1 each. One of these is a series of 6 programmes and one is new and still in its wrapper. 

I found a beautiful 100% linen shirt for David from the Autograph range from M&S. This was £3.50 and will be great for wearing on our next holiday.

In Llandudno I found a lovely M&S linen shirt for my dad for £3.50 and another selection of magazines at 5 for £1. I bought 10 at this price and found an InStyle magazine that is this month's and had to pay extra for this at 50p.

I also bought another toiletry gift set for £2. It is a County Living one and has a selection of Rose scented items including a cute candle and lavender bag although this is rose scented rather than lavender. Again this is just for me as the basket it came in was far too shabby for a gift.

Follow #BEDM on Twitter. 

Recent Charity Shop Finds

It was another beautiful morning when the sun started to peep over the hills in the distance. We decided to hit the charity shops as there are some quite decent independent charity shops in the area. We avoid the standard high street charity shops these days as they charge stupid prices and often more than the brand new price. Why do they do this? Was it Mary Portas and her series on a charity shop that increased the prices? It irritates me no end as often the reason people shop in charity shops in the first place is because money is tight and charging inflated prices just defeats this.

So we went to Carnforth first and visited the Salvation Army shop where I got 6 home magazines for £1 in total and 3 DVDs for 50p each. One was new and unopened and contained 3 films inside. We then walked a little further up the high street to visit the Christian Aid shop and I bought a further 4 DVDs for 50p each, a pair of leather shoes for £1 (I must have an inner Bet Lynch) and a birthday card for my brother in law for 50p. David bought 3 CDs for £1 and my sister bought a pair of shoes and two swimming costumes for £1 each plus two books at 20p each.

Then it was off to Milnthorpe where I bought 6 books by one of my favourite authors, M C Beaton from the Bay Search & Rescue charity shop. These books were 50p each so a £3 spend. I also found a Gucci glasses case with Gucci cleaning cloth for £2.49. I found a brand new and sealed jigsaw puzzle for 50p that I bought for selling on via eBay. David bought a large glass beer stein for 50p. Karen bought a cotton blouse for £1, two 50p books and a glass liquidiser for her Kenwood Chef at the knockdown price of £1.99.

Finally we went to Grange over Sands where I bought a Tresemme hairbrush hairdryer for £3 at the Bay Search  Rescue charity shop. There is also a local hospice charity shop where I bought two as-new linen and cotton shirts for my dad for his birthday next month. These were £3.50 each and will be great for him to wear on holiday in April when the whole family goes to Tenerife. An Age Concern superstore charity shop has opened in Grange overlooking the duck pond. I bought 6 DVDs for £4. Three of them were a series boxed set so I was delighted with these. David bought s new seat for his bicycle (random I know!) for £2 and my sister found two Pyrex roasting dishes for 75p each. We came home very laden down with the car boot bursting.

Back for a late lunch of reduced price sandwiches from Tesco & Booths.

We lazed around the log cabin in the afternoon as we needed a rest after all that shopping. We watched one of the DVDs that I had bought which was The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus by Terry Gilliam. It is an all star cast - Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Heath Ledger, Colin Farrell, Lily Cole even Paloma Faith. What a weird film! I don't know whether I enjoyed it or not. I think I did overall. We went for a swim and a laze in the jacuzzi around 6pm and then got back for drinks and evening meal. We watched another film, Shirley Valentine. What a classic. It was filmed in Mykonos and David and I stayed there a year after the film was made and again about 15 years later. We kept saying "been in that bar or been to that beach, restaurant" etc. etc. all the way through the film until my sister told us to shut up (she was laughing as she said it). Another lovely day. 

eBay Sale

I have not sold anything on eBay for some time but had an urge last weekend to list a pair of genuine Gucci trainers that I bought in a charity shop in Porthmadog earlier this year. I bought them for my niece but she was not too keen on them so thought I would sell them on. I paid £3.99 for them.

I knew they were genuine because they had a reference number inside them and you could tell by the detailing that they were genuine. I checked them out on the Gucci website and they are currently selling for £370.  I noticed another identical pair sell for £132 on eBay a couple of weeks ago.

The ones that sold for £132 came with the box, receipt, extra laces and cloth bag so I did not expect to sell them anywhere near this price. Although these were a size 8, mine are a size 6.5 which is an unusual man's shoe size. This must have been a deal breaker because they sold for .......£122.00. Whoever turns their nose up at shopping in a charity shop needs to have a re-think. 

Jumble Sale Bargains

I love jumble sales, always have and always will.......

I love where they are held which is usually a 1930s or 1940s community or parish hall with wooden floors and that unique smell of polish and dust.  I love the people who are selling the items at the jumble sales. Brown Owls from the brownies who have fantastic organisational skills and are always so pleasant and friendly when you ask them how much they want for the treasure I have just found.  Most of all I love the serendipity of what I will find at a knockdown price.

I went to the local Scouts jumble sale the other Saturday afternoon and came back with a small haul of treasure. A cute grey felt mini hot water bottle cover with appliqué bird house for 10p. It is just the right size for a mini hot water bottle that we have. Nothing beats a toasty hot water bottle on a chilly night when tucked up in bed.

I love the author M C Beaton and found two hardback novels that I have not read for just 20p each. Both will go in my suitcase for my up and coming holiday to Tenerife. I found a couple of DVDs and CDs for 20p each too. My biggest cost on the day was 50p for an instamatic Polaroid camera. The films for these cameras are extremely expensive so we do not plan to use it but I just loved the look of it and it reminded me of my childhood so it is now an ornament in the spare bedroom.

The next day we went to a sale at the local grammar school. I found more DVDs at between 20p and £1 each but found the most gorgeous Hello Kitty/Liberty toiletry gift set for £1. It is new, unopened and had the original price ticket attached of £18. I also found a new tube of hand cream for £1. I always keep a tube of hand cream in the car so that when I am sitting in traffic I can put some on. I must spend a lot of time stuck in traffic because I go through quite a few tubes each year.

The last couple of weeks have seen me still clearing out items for the charity bags I get posted through our door. So although I buy items from sales I do give items away that are no longer needed otherwise our home would become very cluttered.

The items are as follows:

• Two padded coat hangers
• Handbag hanger for on the edge of a table so that your bag is not on the floor  - just not me!
• Heart shaped bath bomb - just not me!
• Toiletry bag

• Straw sun hat - given to me by my dad but too small for everyone in our family
• Cadbury's hot chocolate tin
• Small ramekin with lid
• Catnip toy for a cat - our cat is far too ladylike to get involved with catnip
• Toiletry bag