A Thrifty Mrs recently did a post about charity shopping and said that 'A bargain isn't a bargain unless you can afford it' or something like that. Whatever it was, it was a good point and I have been thinking about this, particularly as I need to really save some money. I've been trying not to buy things just because I really like them so much in charity shops (except for the awesome magenta and orange Monsoon skirt!) but on Saturday, whilst waiting for CBC to finish at the hairdressers, I mooched the high street charity shops of my local town and found three things I wanted and needed- Result.
CBC bought a large bag of nuts at the COOP last week but unfornately, all trace of Nutcrackers (excluding Tschaikovsky CDs) seem to have been lost in the big move so they sat uneaten, unloved, unfulfilled in their nutty destiny. I had perused the array of hideous and too large ballgowns in Oxfam (some were not nice) and then spied a good solid pair of nutcrackers for £1.49 which I grabbed gleefully. Good thing too as the toddler twins who came to our dinner party* on Saturday night were kept entertained by CBC for a good long time by cracking nuts.
We only appear to have about 7 bowls in our house aside from those used to serve food (all assorted and different shapes and sizes) and 9 guests and so it was great that I found two lovely white bowls with blue boat patterns for £2 in the Sue Ryder. CBC liked them which was lucky as he's uber fussy.
Finally, this may seem to you, a rather extravagant and expensive buy to you but for a while, I have been really wanting to buy myself a spare flute for school and for general use. I don't always want to take my proper flute to places so it would be useful for that. However, I didn't want to buy a flute in a cash converters as it's more than likely stolen and I wanted a good make and good model of flute, so definitely didn't want to buy some shoddy, substandard, strange make on Ebay (they have flutes in all colours!) BUT I didn't want to spend too much. I was really happy to find a silver-plated Pearl PF501 flute in a display cabinet in British Heart Foundation Shop. Pearl is a well-known maker, the same as my piccolo. I asked to try it and got it out. It was in super condition, had a lovely solid case, the pads were in good state of repair and it made a nice sound when I tried it in the shop. The best thing was it was £55. I've checked and the equivalent Pearl FLute new would be around £479 new and I've seen a few second hand in flute shops for around £350. Usually, you are looking at at least £300 for any sort of good quality basic student flute, secondhand. So I am really happy that not only do I have a spare flute now, but I got to give a nice fat chunk of money to the BHF in exchange for something I really wanted!
Oooh, and I forgot this one! I have wanted a copy of The Three Musketeers for a while as CBC has lost his and mine is the abridged, child-friendly version and found one in the BHF along with a Meerkat book for my work colleague.
So, not my usual charity-shop fayre but I'm really happy about all my purchases. All useful, most of them used instantly and nothing frivolous that I could feel too guilty about!
Have you found anything useful that was on your wishlist in the charityshop recently?
* makes it sound grander than it was! But it was nice.
Not blogging on a BEDN topic today, because I just need to get this written and go to bed, but just a little post I wanted to do! Hope your day was lovely. Mine was ok except for a 4 year old being sick all over my boots. AND over himself. And the carpet...