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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To feel a tad aggrieved and ripped off after a village fund-raising day?

21 replies

mollyroger · 03/05/2009 19:55

Nice wealthy village has open day to raise funds for various village enterprises.
Fair enough, lovely little day out for us all, I thought.(2 kids)
£3.50 each for dh and I to look round some village gardens - ok.
There were various rip-off stalls run by outsiders - bouncy slide - £2 a go, for 2 minutes!

We were urged to visit the school where there were events promised for children.
1 - hook a duck £1. Prize? a drumstick lolly.
2 - lucky dip 50p. Prize? a 10p lolly.
3 - Coconut shy type thing with cans - £1 fr 3 throws. Prize? Nothing unless you knoacked them ALL off (very difficult for children, and these were aimed at children)
And the prize for that was a small bag of sweets or a bouncy ball.
4 - cafe. 'homemade' cakes were mostly shop bought and £1 each. 50p for a toffee crisp with the '15p' label cleary visible on the wrapper £1 for a cup of watery squash. £1.50 for a tiny cup of crap tea.
5 - tombola - filled full of very obviously 2nd hand tat - £1 for 3 tickets.
6 - dh ordered a suasage sandiwch from the bbq. It was 1 pale chipolata in a stale bun. No onion. No mustard. no ketchup. £2!

So this is quite a long whinge and i'm sorry, I just wanted to rant. OK, we didn't have to take part in the activities but it is very hard when you have driven for quite a while to visit an event and it's lunchtime and the children were spending their own pocket money on these crap, greedy stalls.

And this is not the first time I have felt like this at a fund-raising event recently. Just feel like people are taking the piss.

OP posts:
cornsilk · 03/05/2009 19:57

So where does the money go then? No need for them to be quite so greedy.

FAQinglovely · 03/05/2009 19:57

are your children not school age yet then??

As this sounds like it could have been DS1's Junior School Christmas Fair

FrannyandZooey · 03/05/2009 19:57

god molly that was atrocious
the rotters
you should leave a village event feeling that you had an awful lot of entertainment for not too much money, imo
that was just greedy and unimaginative
in fact i would say
you was robbed

Ponders · 03/05/2009 19:58

Agree completely, mollyr. Fundraising fair enough, ripping people off like that not

You won't go back, obv, but others will

(Pls name & shame the village )

IotasCat · 03/05/2009 20:01

Blimey we charge 50p for a cup of tea and 20p for squash at our PTA fundraisers

Tinker · 03/05/2009 20:04

I'm laughing at "It was 1 pale chipolata in a stale bun"

nickytwotimes · 03/05/2009 20:05

Jezoo!
Where do you live? Poole?

mollyroger · 03/05/2009 20:05

oh and I am a veteran of school fairs!And fund-raising! I've done more stalls than I can count...

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mollyroger · 03/05/2009 20:08

lol, can't name and shame as there were some very MNettry-looking mums manning the stalls!

It is a very bunting-cupcake village.

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chequersmate · 03/05/2009 20:09

Oh, that's just mean.

DH, DD and I spent £15 getting into a commercial open farm today and that included soft play, meeting the farm animals and seeing them in events, tractor rides, go karting, free bets and prizes on sheep racing , cuddling bunny rabbits, crazy golf. All included in the admission and that was a commercial venture.

The tea was about £1 I think.

YANBU.

mollyroger · 03/05/2009 20:13

And there is a local suburb gala tomorrow which the kids know about...and are keen to go to

I wish we hadn't gone, and put the £20 we spnet towards a meal out for us all....

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chequersmate · 03/05/2009 20:15

A local suburb gala?

Do you live on Wisteria Lane?

Seriously though, take em to a park or something if the weather is nice. I'll be it's just as much the doing things as a family they are keen on as anything else.

mollyroger · 03/05/2009 20:19

Ha, not WisteriaLane.
But if I tell you that each and every gorgeously rustic cottage in the village had ancient and yet tastefully trained wiseria growing over it's mellowed stone porch, you might start thinking that the feckers don't need my money

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muggglewump · 03/05/2009 20:21

YANBU. Total money grabbing.
We have an estate fayre here (I live on a navy estate) and it costs nowhere near that much.
Last year I spent £5-£6 or thereabouts and DD had her face painted, fake tattoos on, a hot dog, squash, a shot at a guess the something game, some sweets, a cake, one of those big bouncy balloon things, stickers, a shot on the navy boat, fire engine etc.

It's one of our favourite days of the year and literally 1 minute walk from my house.

muggglewump · 03/05/2009 20:24

Actualy, I realise now it's so cheap as it's the kind of estate where it's fine to put fake tattoos on the kids.

Jaypickle · 04/05/2009 15:25

YANBU But be happy you don't live in Ireland, where it would have cost you twice that, easy!

lucykate · 04/05/2009 15:29

we have one of these where i live, it's on today, we've not gone this year. got fleeced there last year.

mum23monkeys · 04/05/2009 18:05

yanbu, and for that reason I try to keep these things to a minimum. With 3 dc these sorts of village/school/community centre things can end up costing an arm and a leg.

hotbot · 04/05/2009 18:08

devises?
go on name and shame ! were there scarecrows?

FiteFuaite · 05/05/2009 10:18

Really,Jaypickle?? D'you live in Howth or somewhere like that??

Our local one is coming up this month and it is great value for money,lots of homemade buns and the like and a real old Granny churning butter beside a turf fire,not to mention lots of lickle lambs and calves and piggywigs!

mollyroger · 06/05/2009 08:30

hotbot - there were scarecrows! (but rather more Northern than Devizes..)
We liked the scarecrows, they were free to look at

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