Collectibles

When I was a student, I worked as a barmaid in a social club.
There was a offer with bottles of Whitbread beer. You collected the bottle tops and exchanged them for pretty substantial beer glasses with your initial stamped on them
I thought I was onto a winner and would hand over the bottles, minus the tops and collect the tops.
That was until one customer kept demanding the tops, as he was collecting the tops as well. It would get really heated. I realised that I wasn't going to win, as he always got the last word. We eventually agreed to share.
He was the only man I had ever met, who managed to get the last word. It drove me mad.
I eventually married that man and we pooled the glasses!

Before we married, I collected coupons from a cereal, maybe Shredded Wheat? and got a set of Prestige cooking utensils and hanging rack. They are now nearly 58 years old, and still used daily.
With Green Shield stamps, I bought my first wheelie shopping bag, that saw me through several snowy winters.
The petrol glasses are long gone, but I see them occasionally turn up in the charity shop .

The white tin with scenes of Paris, which has been on my dressing table with cottonwool in it for the last 50 plus years, came free with Daz and I got the first aid tin, still with some of the original contents, by collecting coupons with Dixcel soft toilet paper.

I'm sure I remember a brand of washing powder, (Daz maybe?) that gave away a plastic tulip or rose with the larger boxes. My grandmother had vases full of them! Hideous things they were!

I have a set of table mats which my Mum collected free when she bought a box of washing powder (probably late 50's or very early 60's). They have a glossy finish which are easily wiped and cork-backed and look pretty good for their age. The only freebies I have acquired were china cereal bowls.

When first married I used Hornimans loose tea, in the yellow and brown packet, and saved the stamps that were on the pack, when the card was full the amount on there could be claimed.
In later years we saved Embassy coupons, hubby was a heavy smoker so we got quite a few things from there. I also saved Green Shield stamps, I remember getting an iron from there, we had to go to their place on Deansgate in Manchester to claim our "gift".

An Arcopol pan with detachable handle from petrol station coupons. Must be 30 years old and still going strong.

're Green Shield stamps... A friend of mine went to the ante natal clinic during her first pregnancy and she was asked to give a urine sample in a little jug. When she'd "finished" providing the sample, she found there was no loo roll and so she dug her hand into her handbag to get a tissue and clean herself up. All done and dusted, she went into see the doctor, carrying her little jug. The doctor decided to do a quick internal examination and so she climbed up onto the bed as requested. But as she was lying there, both the doctor and the nurse burst into fits of laughter. In her haste to find the tissue, she'd managed to stick a Green Shield stamp to her self!

Embassy fag coupons! Forgot about them! Now there’s going back.

It was my job to lick the horrid green shield stamps!!

We still have some petrol tumblers.

I collect Sajnsbury's points because that where I shop. We are doing well with those currently because we both have Sainsbury's car insurance and they double our points. We have £60 this year already. I usually spend them on the Christmas booze - we'll be paralytic till Easter at this rate.

We collected Airmiles from Sainsbury’s. We had enough to fly all six of us to Milan.

We still have the wine glasses from the petrol station!

I collected Barclaycard points - every time I got nearly enough to exchange them for something I fancied, they changed the number of points you needed.

I never got my dinner service or much else for that matter. Obviously we didn't spend enough on our credit cards.

Green Shield stamps - yes, there was a shop in Plymouth where we could go and exchange them.