Love my charity shops

[staveleymum]

"My name is Staveleymum and I am addicted to Charity Shop bargains"

I am trying to be frugal and not spend on unnecessary things but I cant resist a good bargain. Popped into local Sue Ryder on the way back from school run and picked up a Barbour girls jumper for my DD for £1.95! Same shop 2 weeks ago I got my DS 2 pairs of Boden trousers for less than £2 each and my DD 2 Boden tops for £3.50. All of them too big for now but have stashed for future Christmas presents.

I tend to buy stuff for DD mostly (as DS is not interested in clothes) and then when she has outgrown them I flog them on ebay and get at least my money back and sometimes turn a small profit. Everyone wins, my kids, my purse and the Charity.

Santa has been very generous for her on the clothes front this year as I have managed to grab a lot of bargains.

Anyone else want to join my club and share bargains they've found.

Oh I love charity shops for my DC. Now DD is in slightly bigger clothes I find their isn't many clothes but for DS who is in 2-3 it's perfect. Recently have got him a perfect condition M&S long sleeve t-shirt for £1.50, a GAP jumper for £4, 2 H&M jumpers for £1 each, all perfect.
For DD I got her a full set of Oxford Reading Tree 'Read At Home' books untouched for £1.99 as she's in reception so just learning to read. We also got a perfect condition set of wooden Charlie and Lola dominos for 99p. You've inspired me to go for another rummage soon it's been a while.

About 40 minutes drive from us is a very posh market town - footballers live there and people decant bags from their bentley to take into the charity shops. If you drop on, you can get very good pickings, particularly DS because kids tend to grow out of clothes before getting their wear from them.

DH had a pair of brogues that were £25. It seemed a lot but they were unworn and fitted well. He looked online at home and they were £250 new. I got an aquascutum skirt for £8 which needed a repair at the waist and we got DS Duffer at St. George sweaters for less than £3 each.

Having spoken to friends at work there are apparently a few of us who mosey out to this market town every so often to mooch through the charity shops. There's a lot of dross as well, but you can find some real gems. Oh, DS asked for a pop up book he saw in a charity shop there last Halloween. It turned out to be Maurice Sendak illustrated (where the wild things are) - cheapest copy on Amazon was £34. It sits on a high shelf and we read it together rather than it adding to the heam of general books as it's a bit fragile. I suspect a child was given it by a well-meaning relative, didn't like it, and mum and dad gave it away not knowing what they'd get for it.

It's not always special things though, I've had some general work / office dresses that suit me well and I get a lot of wear from, and we've had loads of wonderful children's books, particuarly 1970s and 1980s picture books.

So many things. I volunteer in a charity shop and seem to find something every time I'm in...

Best bargains include a beautiful brand new with tags Hobbs 100% wool coat for £20 and a pair of unworn Doc Marten boots for a tenner. Yesterday got a John Lewis christmas jumper for my 8 year old for £3, and a pair of brand new shortie pj's for my teen for £2.

When ever I go to Upmarket places looking for bargains I only ever find overpriced dross. I have seen Primark t-shirts for more than the shop price, bobbled old monsoon dresses for £10, some designer stuff that is worn and dated for £30 etc.

I actually find better midrange stuff in poorer areas, shops outside the main town centre can be good. I've got cashmere scarves, unworn jeans/leggings from M&S, next, gap etc tops and dresses and coats from fat face, white stuff, oasis, debenhams etc mostly for £1, rarely over £5.

People always go on about bobbled primark tops at more than the new price - doesn't really make sense as a selling strategy. Charity shops don't want stock lying around and will price to sell.

Pricing to sell doesn't mean price cheap - it means knowing your market and knowing what people will pay. We know that in our area where there is a bit of cash sloshing around that people are happy to pay £5 for a M&S or Debenhams top, more for Karen Millen or Reiss. We know that although a three year old designer outfit at £30 might be outrageous to a fashionista who knows last season from this season, others are more than happy to have well-made items which aren't the height of fashion. We're lucky though, we get lots of high-end high street like Hobbs, Whistles or Cos along with the odd designer gem and plenty of Forever 21, Zara, H&M and supermarket brands.

I think that shops must move stock around different branches though. The shop I got my bits from is in a deprived area and I dont imagine many people from the local area bringing them in. I may be wrong, but I dont always find that the local area reflects what's in the shop.

Yeah we do - to some extent. It's really not a sophisticated system though. If things haven't sold in our shop after 3 weeks-ish, they'll get bagged up and sent on. Manager gets on the phone and contacts other shops to see who is short of stock. Or if we're snowed under, another shop will send a van to pick up bags we haven't even been through yet. Similarly, we take stuff from other stores, and a lot of hte really good stuff or vintage stuff never even hits the rails, we stick it online.

But it's not as sophisticated as "we know cashmere jumpers sell in Hampstead and send all the H&M to Halifax" type system.

I found this fab, barely worn Coast coat in my local shop. Was £20!😀

My name is Meglet and I'm also addicted to charity shops.

We don't have any designer shops. However there's enough of regular charity shops so that I can keep picking up bargains. The heart foundation seem to have their act together, well laid out and tidied into sizes.

itsallgood I keep hoping for black kitten heel shoes for work but they never have my size. Someone who donates to my local charity shop has wonderful taste in shoes; they have lovely size 6 shoes. unfortunately I'm a size 4.

I bought a beautiful monsoon jacket for 2.99 the other day. I wore it for a works event the other day and pretty much everyone said how lovely it was. Me being me had to say it was from a charity shop and a total bargain!

I love love love charity shops. Bought a gorgeous Zara cashmere jumper in my local one today. I disagree with the ethics of selling something from a charity shop on eBay and making a profit though, that just seems wrong to me - I give stuff back for them to resell once we're done with it. Sorry, just my opinion, am sure lots of other people are fine with it.

Me too, my best find was a brand new Karen Millen grey, real leather bikers jacket for £35, it was £450 new!

although when I’ve finished with the items I give them back to charity, sort of paying it forward .... I’ll be keeping that jacket though forever 🧥

I'm a charity shop lover too, we have the most wonderful shop locally where every item is a pound, even the coats.All my family has had great things from there..I donate all our stuff to it.

I also am a charity shop addict, all my work clothes and general clothes are sourced from local charity shops and all the really food stuff like Clarks and Nike shoes from my twins are forever growing out of all get donated back again. Happy days!

I love Charity Shops too. You can pick up some really nice things. Especially kids clothes as they grow out of them so quick and have often only been worn a handful of times.

I recently got a Whistles cardigan for £3, DH got some TopMan jeans for £1 & I got an M&S dress for £1, among other things.

I also got the DC a few presents for their stockings from charity shops - a fancy dress outfit for £1.50. puzzles for no more than £2 etc.

Poppypopcorn I'm interested in maybe volunteering in a charity shop. Do you enjoy it? Which charity is it?

I got some lovely John Lewis and Fatface tops from my local store a few days ago. Too big at the moment but I've squirrelled them away for next year. Also some lovely children's books for 50p each. They always enjoy the stuff they get from the charity shops much more than the brand new stuff my MIL gets for them.

I'm off to the local charity shops now. I'll keep you posted..

I bloody love the post-Christmas charity shop donations!

Today's haul is;

M&S mac (good as new) £5.00
Italian ceramic frying pan (vgc) £4.00
Next top (with tags) £2.75
Uniqlo 100% pure wool jumper (unworn) £3.00

Pretty chuffed.