This Christmas – check out a Charity Shop

As regular readers of this blog know, I am a huge fan of Charity Shops. I love the fact that you can find a bargain, sometimes brand new with tags, sometimes a vintage treasure, and that you can pick it up for very little money. I also love the fact that buying your item means that you are contributing to one of the many goodwill causes that need a little extra help at this time of year.

The Salvation Army have this year been setting #MyCharityChallenge. This is to get people to think about Charity shops at Christmas – either by donating unwanted items to their local shops, or by buying items as gifts from one of the many stores dotted around the country. I have already had a huge sort-out (read cull!) of Joe’s toys because he has both Christmas and his birthday within a week of each other, and so we get a little overrun in the toy department. Many of the toys were hardly used and I hope they will make another child very happy.

I think Charity shops are also a great way to add to your wardrobe in a guilt free way. You can find everything from Designer names to vintage pieces in charity shops, as well as essentials that you may be missing from your wardrobe. When I need something specific – I often look around the charity shops before I hit the regular stores, and usually find a great bargain.

Here are a few pieces I have picked up from the Salvation Army shop in Cannock.

The Boots

I’ve lost some weight over the past year, and now my black boots, which were for wider calves, are just too big. I was really happy to find these black suede, pull on style boots (label Next) for £7.

The Jaeger Dress

Apologies for the poor quality image (my camera seems to be dying), but this is an amazing Jaeger, 1980s style dress that I found on my recent trip to Cannock. The dress was £5.99 and I love it. This is a great winter dress that I can wear with boots or heels for a dressed up or dressed down look.

The Tunic Top

This is a perfect example of thinking outside the box. This ASOS piece is a size 12, petite label dress, but it fits me perfectly well as a rather pretty tunic top. For £1.99 it would’ve been rude not to have given it a try, and I was really pleased with how nice it looks with jeans.

I was super pleased with my finds as I know I will wear them a lot (the tunic has already had two wears in a week.).

Here are a few more Charity shop finds I have picked up on my travels.

A few facts from Research conducted by the Salvation Army.

• Did you know that two thirds of people will never buy Christmas clothes or gifts from a charity shop at Christmas? (Salvation Army research)?
• The average person spends £415 on Christmas – if just £5 of this was spent in a charity shop, we could raise £130m for good causes?
• Spending a little makes a big different – £9 could bring a homeless person in from the cold, while £19 could buy a Christmas box for a family in need, and £28 can help five lonely older people enjoy a proper Christmas lunch and friendship.

You can share your Charity shop finds by uploading images to the Salvation Army website here, or by sharing on social media using the hashtag #MyCharityChallenge .

Looking forward to seeing what you find!

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