Making Good Use

The Siren Call of the Charity Shop

I only went to the High Street to nip into the Post Office but whilst I was there I thought I might as well venture a bit further down the road and have a quick wander around the 99p shop, just to see what they had on offer.  It seemed a good opportunity to really assess what this shop sells now that the pre-Christmas crowds have died down.  It's not a shop I'd venture into all that often but they did have some excellent deals on padded envelopes - a pack of six medium sized ones for 99p, a pack of eight smaller ones also at 99p and a pack of four rolls of sellotape for, you've guessed it, 99p.  They were beginning to put their gardening stock out on the shelves too and that looked quite promising - maybe I'll pop back in in a month or so's time.

So, whilst I was down that end of the High Street, I couldn't resist the siren call of the charity shop, especially as I was passing their door anyway.

I came away with a huge pure-wool vintage Witney cellular blanket for £2.00.  That'll probably be destined for ebay at some point but in the meantime it's been washed and is blowing furiously on the line amidst intermittent snow showers.  There was another vintage blanket in the same box but that had obviously been a smorgasbord of a feast for many generations of moths - I swear it was more holey than whole.

Also coming home with me this morning was this rather spiffy 1960's oven glove for 50p.  I'm very pleased with finding that as the oven gloves I'm using at the moment are probably a health hazard.  And a blue and white stripey cotton pillowcase - destined to be a pillowcase tote for the summer - 50p.

Humdrum

Please excuse the rather boring post today but it's all very humdrum around these parts at the moment.  My days seem to consist entirely of washing-up, cooking, washing, ironing, cleaning, hoovering - you know, the day to day household jobs that can seem like painting the Forth Road Bridge.  No sooner do you finish one thing than something else needs doing.  Sometimes these things are enlivened by a trip to the High Street and / or Post Office - high living indeed!

As it's Thursday today, I shall spend most of the afternoon listing items on ebay.  I rather like doing that as I get a nice sense of achievement when I've photographed (rather tricky when the days are as dark and dank as they are at the moment) and listed everything.  And there's always a small soupcon of excitement to see if any bids are put on items quickly - usually the sign of an item that will sell well.  I did decide to list the two pieces of vintage fabric that I found last week and one of them has been bid up to £10.50 - with three days still to run on the auction and 25 people watching it.  Looks like I made the right decision to list those.  And the Ruby and Millie Kabuki Make-up Brush also has one bid and a lot of watchers - so I'm hopeful that will do well too. 

Sadly, the Country Diary wallpaper that I had such high hopes for failed to sell.  Never mind, I'll hold onto it for a week or two and try listing it again.  If an item doesn't sell first time round I always give it a second go on ebay - sometimes with surprisingly good results.  I suppose it just depends who's looking for a particular item at any given time.  

Anyway, nothing else to talk about really due to my recent humdrum existence - personally, I'm blaming this infernal cold weather and dark grey days for the lack of excitement in my life.  Really, anyone would think it was the middle of winter!! 

What's Hot / What's Not

A very slow news day around here today so I thought I'd do a quick 'What's Hot / What's Not' post instead.

Whats Hot:  Finally a day of strong winds and even some sunshine which means at long last the washing can actually go out on the line to, at least partially, dry in the open air.  I'm getting really fed up of the house being festooned with wet / damp washing all the time.

Still on the subject of drying washing indoors, I'm so pleased that I decided to keep hold of my very ancient three-fold wooden clothes airer.  I got it out of the shed in the autumn and seriously thought of selling it on ebay as they seem to fetch quite reasonable sums.  For some reason I decided just to clean it up and keep hold of it - and blooming good job I did as it's proved invaluable these past couple of months as extra indoor drying space.  I remember buying it years ago in a charity shop when we lived in Nottingham and over the years it's been used not only as a clothes airer but also as a towel rail.  I don't think it'll be ending up on ebay any time soon.

It's Tuesday which means 'Ice Road Truckers' is on telly this evening.  Both P and I love watching that programme and even though nothing bad ever does happen to the featured drivers it's fascinating to watch them haul these huge loads up and down the Dalton Highway in Alaska.  I love watching P's face whilst he's watching the programme too, he sits there like a little boy just entranced by it all - and I'm not surprised, it is truly 'Boy's Own' stuff.

Finding a few new blogs to really enjoy:  Frugal Queen, Jennifer (who always leaves such nice comments) over at The Prairie Girl and The Cottage Smallholder.

The fact that it is definitely getting just a little bit lighter each morning and each evening.  It's not a huge difference as yet but it's definitely moving in the right direction - thank goodness!!

What's Not:  The flipping weather - again.  Although the sun is out it is absolutely freezing here today - top temperature was forecast to be 3 degrees.  The wind is coming from the north and is so strong and cold it cuts right through you.  And there's talk of more snow for the end of the week!  This does seem to have been a very long, cold and energy-sapping winter.

Constructing / Deconstructing

Over the last couple of days I've managed to construct something and deconstruct something else.

The construction part is a draught excluder for the back door.  The back door, like the french windows, is poorly fitting and lets in draughts like you wouldn't believe.  If it was our house we'd rip both offending articles out pronto and replace them with snugly fitting double glazed units, as it's a rented property we have to live with them as best we can.  Like the other draught excluder I made in the autumn, this one has two large hanks of craft wool lashed together to make the filling - fortuitously, the length of each hank was exactly right for the bottom of the door.  The fabric casing was made from an offcut of the 'was a king size now a double' duvet cover.   It seems to be quite effective and the large spots are really quite cheerful to look at.  I bet there aren't many households with a matching duvet cover and draught excluder!!

On the deconstructing front, I unravelled a scarf I knitted a few years ago.  The darn thing seemed to have stretched and stretched to a ridiculous length, all the while getting thinner and thinner.  I'd given up wearing it.  The yarn is some rather nice Rowan biggi print (or something like that, I do know it's Rowan) and I unpicked it with the idea of knitting up a somewhat thicker but shorter scarf.  HOWEVER, now it's back to it's virgin state (although I still need to wash it to get rid of the crinkles) I'm wondering whether to embark on another patchwork knitted blanket.  It'd be a long job as I don't have much in the stash in the way of thick yarn but it would be a nice project to pick up and put down as and when the yarn becomes available. 

Hitting the Sales - Again!

Despite the weather being best suited to those with webbed feet, I decided to head down to Basildon this morning - just to check out the final reductions in the sales, have a mooch around the charity shops and pop into the Friday morning 'Bargain Box.'  I managed to find some good bargains but, for the sake of my finances, I think it's just as well that Arctic weather seems to be set to make a reappearance over the UK again next week.  Being stuck in the house may get a tad wearing at times but, my goodness me, it does help save money!!

Anyways, at the church 'Bargain Box' I got this cheerful pillowcase and a ball of dishcloth cotton for 50p.  I'm not sure if the pillowcase will end up as a pillowcase tote or if I'll actually use it.  As for the dishcloth cotton - well, having discovered how wonderful it is to use hand-knitted dishcloths to do the washing up, I'm always on the lookout for more cotton to knit them with.

As I was passing their door, I also popped in to Boots in the town centre. The Basildon branch of Boots is h-u-g-e and they had a different selection of 75% off items than they had in the (minute in comparison) Wickford branch. 

I bought this gorgeous Celia Birtwell Coin Purse and Key Fob boxed set for £2.50 instead of £10.00 - that'll be destined for ebay at some point although I must say I do rather like the coin purse.  It'd be very stylish to use it for my small change when I go car booting next summer.  In Basildon they also had a good selection of chocolates at 75% off so I bought a box of Belgian Chocolated for £1.50 instead of £6.00 (probably a nice treat for us for the weekend!) and, also for £1.50 instead of £6.00, a box of White Chocolate Truffles.  I'm going to keep those to give to P on Valentine's Day - he does dearly love a white chocolate.  We don't really 'do' Valentine's Day beyond giving each other a card so these will be a nice little bonus for him.

I then popped across the road to Primark where I managed to get another pair of Cath Kidston-esque pyjamas for my sister.  (S, hope you like the cream colour as much as the grey.)  I'll post those to her on Monday and they should arrive in time for round two of the big chill.

In another charity shop I found these two brand new Designer's Guild Oxford pillowcases for £1.25 each.  These are destined for ebay and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they'll make a decent profit.

Finally, I had a quick look in Evans to see what their reductions were like.  I found two quite similar summer T-shirts for myself which were down from the original price of £23.00 each to £5.00 each!!  No way would I have ever paid £23.00 for either of them but at a fiver each I was well pleased.  I also found an Evans winter jumper in a charity shop for £2.00 but that's currently spinning around in the washing machine.  If it looks good on then it will have been a great bargain, if not - oh well, it can go in the next charity sack.

You Have To Speculate to (Hopefully) Accumulate

I've been keeping a weather eye on the sale in Boots, waiting for their half-price sale to drop even further.  This morning, as I was passing on my way back from the Post Office, I noticed that it was now 75% off so in I went to see what was on offer.  I bought three items which I hope I'll be able to sell for a profit on ebay.

A Ruby and Millie Kabuki Brush (whatever that is!) and case - £2.00 instead of £8.00.

A Ruby and Millie Travel Brush Collection - £3.75 instead of £15.00.

And a Ted Baker 'Divine' Cosmetic Purse with body wash, body spray and lip colour - £3.00 instead of £12.00.

There were loads of gift sets at 75% off but I didn't want to go too mad and only bought those whose names I recognised and which I thought might be genuinely good bargains.  There were a couple of other women there who had over-flowing baskets of sale items - and a lot of the items would make lovely gifts for anyone interested in designer make-up / toiletries.

And for myself, I splashed out and spent £2.00 on this Country Living Strawberry Preserve with ceramic spoon and spoon rest set.  (Sorry for the cr*p photo - this is what passes for daylight here this time of the year!) I have high hopes for this jam as even at £2.00 it's not (in my opinion) cheap.  I must say though, I can't imagine who would have paid £8.00 for it originally!!

ETA - Keep meaning to say, if anyone is interested in seeing a recent interview with Amy Dacyczyn - she of 'The Tightwad Gazette' - nip on over to Yard Sale Queen's blog where she has a link to the interview.  It's very interesting and, my goodness me, Amy has a beautiful house. 

Gosh, Darn It!

I've spent an inordinately large amount of time today attempting to darn a couple of pairs of handknitted socks which had gone into quite mahoosive holes around the heel.  Mum knitted the socks for me several years ago and they are lovely and toasty warm, and just the thing for wearing about the house on cold winter days. 

I've got no idea of the correct way to darn - never having really tried to do it before - but I adopted the method of trying to weave the darning thread in and out of the holes, creating a bit more fabric as I went.  I wouldn't say it is a particularly neat and tidy job but it does seem to have worked fairly successfully. 

I know how much work went into these socks and that, coupled with how comfy they are to wear, meant I really wanted to get a bit more wear out of them if at all possible.  I certainly wouldn't waste so much time mending cheapo 'bought' socks, even though P had the mad idea that I would be darning all his socks for him when we first started living together.  I think not!!  He's still got a bag full of holey socks somewhere, - presumably in the vain hope that I'll eventually relent and start darning them!  And that just ain't gonna happen any time soon.

And Today's Bargains Are ....

 
 

Two rather fabby largish pieces of vintage fabric found in one of the local charity shops - 50p each.  Not sure whether to keep hold of them or to try and sell them on ebay.  I've had some quite reasonable successes with selling vintage fabric on ebay in the past but, on the other hand, I do rather like these prints - especially the op art-style one.  Hmm, I'll have to think about it.

Another excellent bargain today was something far less pretty, but a lot more useful.  A pack of 12 Nouvelle toilet rolls for £1.66!!  Super bargain!  Somerfield have 12 packs of Nouvelle on half-price special at the moment - £2.50.  I bought one pack last week and decided, as I didn't have much other shopping, that I'd get another this week too.  Along with death and taxes, it's a certain in this life that toilet paper will ALWAYS get used eventually. 

Anyhoo, I'm just checking out the 'battered tins and split packaging section' at the back of the shop - 'cos you just never know what you might find there - when I spotted three 12 packs of toilet rolls stacked on the floor.  They had 33% off stickers on them so were reduced to £1.66.  I think they were reduced because some of the packaging is torn but, really, who worries about that!  I wish now I'd bought a second pack of 12 rolls too but I wasn't sure I'd be able to carry them all in the shopping trolley.  Even the lady at the checkout remarked what a bargain it was, and wondered if they were reduced because they were near their sell-by date!!

I Think It Must Be Delayed Cabin Fever

Well, today was red-letter day indeed - not only did I get out of the house, not only did I got out of the house accompanied by my shopping trolley but I actually went somewhere apart from the High Street.  Yup, for the first time in what seems forever, I got out of the house with my shopping trolley and got on a bus and went somewhere different.  I had a morning out in Billericay.  I think the excitement of it all went to my head somewhat as not only did I manage to spend £31.50 in Waitrose (and, really, there was very little to show for it - but what there was will be very very tasty), but I also managed to buy rather a lot in the charity shops too.

A pack of 10 Cath Kidston for Marie Curie Cancer Care Christmas cards reduced from £3.99 to £1.00.  Somehow I think next Christmas I'll wish I'd bought more of these.

An unopened roll of Vymura 'Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady' Hare Bells wallpaper - £1.50.  I'm taking a bit of a punt on this that it will sell well on ebay.  Who knows, but I'll keep you posted as to how much it sells for.

A pack of large plastic buttons.  Obviously intended for small children to play with but I thought for 49p I'd probably be able to find a use for them eventually.

 

A little set of painted wooden mushrooms / toadstools.  Probably shouldn't have bought this as it's just another item that'll need dusting but it was only 99p and it is incredibly Japanese-kawaii-like and I did really really like it.

A summer top which was £2.65.  I originally got this for myself but having tried it on I'm not so sure it's really 'me' so that may end up on ebay eventually.

In the same charity shop this beautiful plus-size embroidered silk jacket (it is jet-black in reality but I had to resort to photographing it in the garden to get the embroidery to show up) was pulled out of a bag by the lady behind the till whilst she was serving me.  She asked if I'd be interested in it for £2.00 as she was just about to send it for rags!!!!  WHY?  Anyway, it's not my cup of tea but it is a beautiful jacket with embroidery on the back as well so I thought I'd give that a try on ebay too.  I'm sure someone will like it and I'd much rather someone got some wear out of it than it end up being cut up for rags.  Makes you wonder what other perfectly good clothing given to charity shops ends up as rags.

'New' Bedding Set for £6

Ta da - my 'new' bedding set which cost me the grand total of £6.00 - £5.00 for the rather splendid supima cotton sheet in the M&S post-Christmas sale (thanks, Mum, for encouraging me to buy it), the £1.00 duvet cover that had to be re-sized from a king-size to a double and the pillowcases that came with another duvet set (Ikea, but bought in a charity shop) seven or eight years ago.  I'm rather pleased with this ensemble, especially as it goes rather nicely with the lavender coloured paint on the walls.

I'm always on the lookout for second-hand duvet covers, pillowcases etc as much of the bedding I already have is seriously ancient - and I'm talking 15 plus years in many cases.  Duvet covers are wearing very thin as are some of the pillowcases and it's only a matter of a very short time before mahoosive holes will inevitably start appearing.  Apart from my 'new' bedding, the next newest bedding we have is rapidly approaching double figures in age - the charity-shop-bought Ikea set and a rather spiffy paisley-print Caroline Charles duvet set which was bought on mega mega discount when a large department store closed down in Bristol.

I never fail to be amazed by how expensive duvet sets are new - although, to be fair, there is a huge amount of fabric involved - although I was surprised to find in the latest Aldi leaflet that a set of one fitted and one flat sheet was priced at £16.99.  Anyway, next time I come across a king-size duvet in a charity shop or a car boot sale, I'll remember that it can be (fairly) easily sized-down to a double.  And, I'd just like to say thank you very much to The Shopping Sherpa and Lindsey for your inspired suggestions to resize the duvet cover on my post when I discovered it wasn't a double after all .