AIBU to use all the free so called charity bags that arrive through my letter box daily as rubbish bags

[sneezecakesmum]

Saves money thats for sure.

And whoever heard of the charity for firefighters!

The charity for women who burnt their fingers on the oven!

The charity for kids given wedgies by other kids!

Due to injuries not die!

Yes outraged many charities are also registered charities. But if a "clothing appeal" has "registered company number 1235788" at the bottom then that means that a) it's not a charity because if it were it would put the charity number at the bottom instead and b) it's trying to fool the people who know that they should be looking for a charity number but are in too much of a hurry (or don't have their right glasses on) to look closely.

I tried leaving them out, but nobody came to collect them, so now I use them for rubbish.
Any way, a lot of them are businesses not charities, you shouldn't feel guilty about it.

I just think the vast majority are fakes. Apparently its quite lucrative and they are all capable of forging lookalike bags.

I bet a few genuine ones are in their somewhere and tarred with the same brush!

I use them as a prompt to do a quick run through my wardrobes etc, do a wee de-clutter then leave it in the boot of the car for months drop them at my charity shop of choice!

YANBU i do this too. I only donate to charities that are well known and i haven't heard of most of them that come through the door.

The last time i donated to The British Heart Foundation ( i was the only one in our street that day) i left about 7 bags, I got a lovely handwritten Thankyou note on BHF headed note paper from the collection driver...made me feel all warm and fuzzy!!!

Fair enough Dilys Its a common misunderstanding that charities can't also be companies though, and I don't get any bags like that. I just seem to get loads from big well known national charities.

I do this too. Occasionally we get one through for the Scope shop in town, they put the address and phone number of the shop on it so you could phone them to check it was genuine, and I do leave it out for them, but otherwise I use the bags either as rubbish sacks or to take stuff to charity shops in.

YANBU. In our area the Red Cross collections are genuine - a Red Cross van comes round to pick them up, with two Red Cross volunteers. They're the only charity bags that I use for their intended purpose!

Genius why didn't I thonk of this?

My mum runs her local WI - they have bric a brac stalls now and then to raise money for......er something - I try and offload my crap to them - nice old ladies who fuss dd to her hearts content and they make posh cakes

Also.....I do donate stuff to the PDSA who send letters telling you how much they have raised whoch I love. That's general junk but there is a pilot children's charity shop where I work for, god British heart foundation I think but it's amazing anyway for toys and clothes and books - I try to only donate kids stuff to that one because I want it to succeed and spawn one in every town

I have loads of them. Sometimes two a week come through the door. I have even filled some up to take to the 50p per kilo recycling place .

i felt a bit bad, but I didn't ask for the bags through my letterbox, so I'm just making good use of them.

We have loads of these bags, so if I plan to donate stuff to the relevant charity shop and I have the bag, I'll use that.

Otherwise, I use them as rubbish bags as none of the collectors ever come round to collect un-used bags.

I only fill the local air ambulance ones as I know they are genuine

The rest line my bin regularly I haven't bought bin bags for yonks!!!

Look on the bags - if it says "we give £X per tonne to the charity" it's a load of crap. If it's a charity that actually has charity shops, then more likely it'll go there and they'll actually make some money out of your donations. The funniest bags we get are from "Children Our Future" - total scammers who can't string a coherent sentence together on the bag. My neighbour still leaves stuff out for them though. I am always tempted to nick her bags as she seems about the same clothes size as me and has nicer stuff!

This must cost charities a fortune, delivering all these bags and not picking them up.

We get loads. Most of the time they have a message on them suggesting that you use them for putting out rubbish, if you're not going to fill them with clothes. Good for the environment or something.

I use them for rubbish / recycling bins too.

Agree British Heart Foundation are good.

Can't be bothered with the ones that say "no bric-a-brac" or the ones which aren't actually charities when you look a bit closer!