£5 charity shop challenge

We have a push and ride car that I bought in a charity shop for £2 several years ago and all 7 GC love it - it is still one of the favourite toys at Grandma and Granpa's house, even though one of the GC is nearly 13!

Last week bought a big bag of jigsaw puzzles for children for £3, what a bargain.

I recently got two pairs of gorgeous mix and match polka dot pyjamas for my little baby GD - £1.50 a pair. And in the same shop I spotted a really lovely, dark denim skirt, very full and gathered onto an elastic waistband. It was such good quality and looked like new. It is to fit 4-5 years and she is only 7 months, but I couldn't resist it! At £2.50 it was worth putting by for when she's older .

Just before Christmas I bought several toys to keep at our house for her, really good, 'expensive when new' toys, all for under a fiver. You don't need to spend a fortune.

Why do the charity shops I go in only have tat?
Last week I bought two packs of C******s cards and two paperbacks.
I have never bought clothes.

I bought a beautiful cut glass fruit/trifle bowl a few years ago in Richmond N Yorks - since then nothing but Xmas cards. We have many such shops here and they are full everyday of the week - I think the keen eyed get there before me.

Some nice yarn for £1 (four balls)
Still waiting to be knitted up 2 years later
A bike for DGD (that was more than £5 though)
Some nice wooden puzzles, the lift-up kind, Galt and ELC
6 Hornsea pottery egg cups

I daren't go in because I am trying to get rid of knick-knacks and I would only come home with some more china

We got a lovely stuffed rocking horse on wooden rockers for £4 when older dgcs were small. Grampy did some repair work on the reins and bridle and put new battery in his ear for the galloping noise. I attacked his coat with the cat brush and he came up good as new. I've seen similar horses for £40/50. Small dgs's now love him.

Today I bought a brand new 'FatFace' jumper (this season's), I also bought some brand new Clark's shoes, identical to a pair I already have and that I use for slippers, and a M&S top - cost? Less than £15 for the lot. I really do haunt our charity shops and pick up amazing bargains. On Saturday I bought two brand new (shrink wrapped) jigsaw puzzles for £1.50 each. I was very tempted by a gorgeous Jerry Weber coat (£10 - as new), but it was slightly too large for me and as I'm losing weight it would have got very little wear. (Plus I have a coat for every day of the week already!! )

A fine selection of good quality wooden puzzles and the ELC type games to keep at our house for DGC visits. Each around the £2 mark. And what amazes me, they've all had all their component parts - until they've been at ours for a couple of hours, that is

Today I bought a pack of ten brand new tea towels in assorted, trendy patterns and colours in Sue Ryder for £4.50.

It's a large shop and the problem is whenever you start browsing, a member of staff suddenly appears and hovers around, keeping an eye on you. I find this quite off putting and I'm sure I'd buy more if I could be left alone to browse without being made to feel like a shoplifter.

On Saturday I bought a piece of material that I thought would make lovely cushion covers, that was £1.00. There was enough for four cushion covers, bargain, especially as I had four zips just waiting for a project. Have made two covers, and as I have a friend coming for coffee tomorrow, I really want to get back upstairs and make the other two. Dinner will have to wait but hoovering will have to be done as it's a messy business.

Bargaiinous! I can't sew straight - even curtains come out lopsided! Charity shops are so good for linen - and before my DGS was born we went on a layette hunt. My DD did not know the sex of the baby, but between us we spent £10 and got 8 vests, six babygrows and a warm suit! Some vests and all the babygrows still had labels in - never worn!

Where's the Gerry Weber coat, which shop ???? I am probably fatter slightly larger than you grannyactivist
Never seem to get clothes bargains like that in ours

DD was at the tip getting rid of rubbish and found a beautiful cut-glass bowl standing on top of the glass skip - too big to go through the slot. No flaws at all.

merlotgran I have heard that there are just as many shoplifters in charity shops as in other shops, so staff are probably told to hang about.Like you, I enjoy browsing but have noticed if you browse too long ( what they consider too long) staff are suspicious!

Most recent bargain was a Nerf gun and bullet belt in good condition for £3.99. Proper price would have been £72 for the gun and £24 for the belt (and no there should not be a decimal point between the numbers). If you don't know what a Nerf gun is just count yourself lucky.

Best buy ever was a cashmere and wool coat in excellent condition for £9.99.

I had no idea that Nerf guns cost that kind of money!

tiggypiro - Over 10 years ago I hesitated to spend £10 on a similar coat. It is still my favourite coat to wear in cold weather each year!

One of my smallest GD's presents at Christmas was a giant wooden tray puzzle with chunky pieces of toys and decorations on a Christmas tree. Perfect condition, she loves it. Very cheap as I bought it in the summer.

A pair of Favor sneakers. Grey suede and leather with white soles and laces, as new...£3.99.

A huge bag of duplo for 4 pounds. The bag its self was good storage bag.
I have a full toy box all from our local charity shop.
The best time for toys is just after a holiday like xmas. As the parents usually have sort out of toys children have grown out of and pass them on to charity shops

Some years ago I got a splendid toy fire engine, with blue light and bells and moving ladders, for £2. I produced it at the moment his parents left the house to go to the hospital for his sister to be born. He was so delighted he didn't mind being suddenly left with me and we had a lovely day and before bedtime his parents were home again with the new baby. (We didn't live close to them so he wasn't used to bring left without his parents.)

I confess, I have been going wild in Charity shops recently - and entirely on treats for myself.

I bought a vintage 1960s/70s/ Jaeger summer dress in linen, fully lined and as good as new. It fits, it still looks very stylish (according to DD and DDiL, DDil might be inclined to be kind, but DD is generally brutally honest). It cost £40.

I then spent most of the Autumn looking for a new winter coat, I could find nothing I liked, when I walked into a local Charity shop. Hanging up was a similar-aged fake fur winter coat, three quarter length, little worn, in perfect condtion and weighing a ton. It fitted and was mine for £15. It is so warm and I have been so glad of it this last week!

However this thread is about the £5 challenge. I did also buy two skirts; a practically new M&S one and one from the USA, both came in well under £5.

I donate so much stuff to our charity shops, all good condition etc but never see anything as wonderful as the things you are all mentioning. As someone said, it's all tat! I wonder if the good stuff gets siphoned off to shops in better areas?

Same here Mollie. I donate good quality stuff ( clothes that no longer fit ), household stuff, books etc. I am trying to slowly clear stuff out of the house with a view to downsizing in a couple of years time. I never find anything worth buying when I pop in though. Maybe I dont go in often enough.Mind you, DD has got some lovely stuff but she is tall and skinny and everything looks fab on her, I dont want to be a little dumpy old lady in a charity shop coat

I took bags and bags of clothes to a charity shop in another town when a friend died; they were all very good quality and good makes, some still unworn with labels. The lady in the shop said that if they were not sold there they went off to another shop in a poorer area. I know that another friend used to go up to London every three months and visit the charity shops there for her new clothes - all good brands, some designer and hardly worn!