This 'n' That

Well, the hideous weather continues apace here - rain, rain, a bit more rain and flippin' freezing as well.   It's joyous, it really is!!

Have you read the excellent post by A Thrifty Mrs about charity shop prices?  Her post really struck a chord with me as I rarely go into the Marie Curie shop we have in the high street here because their prices are often ridiculous, plus they charge for their carrier bags (a mega pet peeve of mine.)  Luckily for me, the other two charity shops we have here are run by small local charities where the prices are much more sensible and the shops are rather more 'old school' chazza than designer boutique.  There is a particular charity shop in Billericay where I think I can honestly say I've not bought a single thing since they put up all their prices extortionately in order to pay for the laminated flooring and posh wooden hangers they now use to give the impression that their shop is upmarket and 'aspirational' rather than what it really is - a charity shop selling second-hand clothes.  Puhlease - who do they think they're kidding!

I was very pleased yesterday to find two unused Brita water filter cartridges in their original wrapping - 50p for both - in one of our 'sensibly priced' charity shops.  They were stuffed away on a small shelf under a basket of hair dyes.  As we had run out of cartridges for the water filter - plus they're darned expensive to buy in the shops - I was hugely delighted with my find.  And, for me, that's most of the pleasure of shopping in charity shops - you never know what you're going to find and often you have to dig around a bit to unearth a treasure or two.  In the same shop I also found a lovely chartreuse green Fenn Wright and Manson hand towel which will be just the ticket in our bathroom, it was also the grand sum of 50p.  Yay for the chazzas who don't charge a fortune and don't want to masquerade as designer boutiques - long may they continue.

I've done another draw for my five-year giveaway goodie bag as Briget (the original name out of the 'hat') won a giveaway from me last year and asked me to draw another name.  So, the second name out of the 'hat' was Fiona.  Fiona, if you could drop me an e-mail with your details, I'll get your prize in the post to you.

Comments

[Mum]

Ridiculous weather here aswell - sunny first thing and really hot, pouring with rain now. I agree with you about CS prices - stay out of them if they're being too greedy.
Love from Mum
xx

[Jean]

I read the Thrifty Mrs post and like you couldn't agree more. Perhaps one day the chazza shops will also start selling the 'not for sale display only' products as well. In my opinion they should sell the products with a profit, turn the stock around and make money for their charity, not hang on to stuff. I was in a local chazza shop today (normally very expensive), and as usual some bod was taking things off hangers and bagging them up presumably for the rag man. They'll get less from him, why don't they just price fairly, then we would all be happy.

[Briget]

Congratulations to Fiona, hope she enjoys her prize as much a I enjoyed mine last year.

[Caroline]

We don't have a Marie Curie locally, but I went into one in my mum's village with her last weekend, and was ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIED by the prices. I thought a couple of my local ones were starting to take the biscuit, but they had nothing on Marie Curie. I left VERY quickly. Empty handed.