Why I love charity shops!

by Donna Werbner on 09 June 2009  |  3 comments
Tweet

Donna Werbner dishes the dirt on her weekend of bargain-packed adventures!

As a child, I spent many a happy hour rooting through charity shops. Loaded down with bags, I would arrive home and bring out my treasures.

"Look at this wondrous ceramic cat! These super-trendy neon leggings! This 10p copy of The Billionaire Tycoon's Virgin Mistress Pregnant Bride!" I would boast, expecting excited  exclamations of envy from my nearest and dearest.

Needless to say, silence often greeted me.

Credit crunch chic

Seriously, though, I do love a bargain. And along with all the tat, charity shops are full of them. What's more, they're back in fashion. It's all about the credit crunch chic, don't you know, and over the last few days - inspired by the BBC 2 programme, Mary, Queen of Shops - I've been on the hunt.

Why? Because, here at lovemoney.com, as most of you probably know, we've started producing videos. And that means looking smart.

Now, I'm the kind of girl who finds a jumper, likes it, and buys it in seven different colours in order to solve the problem of what to wear in the morning. (So far, I've got yellow, pink, blue, maroon, green, brown and black.)

So I'm not exactly Little Miss Fashion.

Luckily, we've generously been given quite a large budget to buy some lovely, smart clothes. But I'm not going to spend it. Why should I - when you find the most amazing, posh clothes in charity shops?

I'm talking, of course, about the jacket rail.

The jacket rail

Those of you familiar with charity shops will know, if you want to look smart, this is the rail to find. I managed to hunt down an absolutely gorgeous - and extremely posh-looking - Laura Ashley jacket for just £8! It fits so well, I'm planning to change my blog photo to one where I'm wearing it. That is literally how much I love it.

Plus, there's that extra, I don't know, sense of happiness/satisfaction/good old-fashioned smugness that comes with wearing something you know, just know, that thousands of people have paid lots more for! 

And, as an added bonus, you are actually giving to charity! A warm, fuzzy feeling not to be under-estimated, especially if you're on a tight budget and can't afford to give any other way.

So if you haven't been in your local charity shop recently, I highly recommend you check it out before the month is up.

That's all for my second money adventure - subscribe to this blog if you want to read my third!

Other fantastic items I've bought recently from charity shops

• A lovely little tiny teabag bowl-thingy,
• A scuffy-but-perfectly-sized plastic cutlery drawer placement holder
• A brand new-old, very cool Willy Nelson CD.  

Now you tell me: don't they sound like bargains to you?

Check out My First Money Adventure