Charity Shop Bargains #1

We live in a lovely village which has a very nice selection of shops, one of my favourites has to be the local charity shop. They always have an amazing display in the window which the children love to look at, at Christmas they had an igloo and penguins which was lovely!

I started to pop in there looking for phonics books for Oliver because I wanted a big collection to help him to learn to read but they were proving on the expensive side new, luckily I got a great selection in there for 50p each which I thought was fantastic! We are a young family and 'spare' money isn't a thing we have at the moment so wherever we can save a few pennies or pounds is a very good idea.

Then I noticed that often they had brand new toys in there that the children would love which amazed me and they were such bargains too. Then I noticed they were selling Christmas cards - so that's now where I will get those. Then I noticed that they sell new rolls of wrapping paper, paper for girls gifts, for boys for new baby - you name it, they had it so that's where I'll buy my wrapping paper! And if it's someone's birthday they've an amazing selection of birthday cards too, thank you cards, sympathy, just to say... you get the point! I even got Michael a valentines day card in there - the cards aren't any cheaper than elsewhere but you're supporting a really good cause which I think is a great idea. If you're spending that money anyway - why not spend it somewhere that will go to supporting a charity such as our local one which is for a hospice?

I thought I'd start a monthly post showing you what bargains I've found in the charity shop to hopefully inspire other people to go into there's and support them too.

Firstly I absolutely adore Jelly Cat and have no idea why someone didn't want this little penguin! I do... I love penguins and snapped him up straight away. He cost me £1 and he's literally pristine condition with tags on him still.

Oliver loves books and loves deadly 60. These cost me just £1 each and he's absolutely delighted with them! If I went to a book store I couldn't of just bought him both 'just because' could I? So this, to me makes perfect sense. Then when he's finished with them, we'll donate them back to the shop and they can find a new home!

Just this morning I was saying to Michael's mum that little miss Isabelle didn't own an umbrella yet, to which she replied "I'll have to look for one"... well I beat her to it because this afternoon I found one in the charity shop for just £1.50! It is brand new with tags and it's a frozen one - perfect because Grandma got Isabelle the frozen coat for next year from the M&S sale! This will match just perfectly.

I had never owned a biscuit jar, I guess I found it a little silly to pay money for something to store biscuits in when I had lock and locks in the cupboard... but now I have a cute biscuit jar that's a fairly reasonable size and it cost me just £2.

We're getting married next year, March 2017 and wedding bits and bobs are expensive as we all know. So if I see anything cute that I think will match our theme I'm going to start buying them. I found this really cute candle holder which will match our table centres perfectly - Not sure where it'll go actually but it'll go somewhere because it was a bargain at £2.

We love sticker and activity books so we loved getting this one for Isabelle costing just 50p.

Have you had any bargains recently in charity shops? I'd love to know.

Mary-Kate, x