the charity shop challenge!

As a teenager, it's a given fact that I am constantly broke, therefore on Saturday I completed The Charity Shop Challenge. I learned many things from this experience and parted with no more than £14.99 - much less than I would have spent buying the same clothes with New Look, Peacocks or even Primark on the horizon of my spending limit.

My task was simply this- to take fifteen of my precious pounds out to town and buy a completely Charity Shop fuelled outfit. I started out with a trek to Cancer Research UK, where I sifted my way through the hand me downs, matted cardigans and trilby hats only to find...absolutely nothing. A good hour I spent making sure I had found and analysed each piece of clothing- whatever size- in the hope of being able to take it in if need be, or Gok-ify it to create what I was looking for. But all in vain. I left the shop to the watchful gaze of the Sales Assistant, unbelief in her mature eyes at the youth who had pottered her way around the clothes rails.

So. Onto shop number two. In which our heroine actually makes a purchase!

Thames Hospice was my next port of call, and it was in this shop where I started to actually quite like this charity shop fad. In the far left corner of the clothes was a shoe rack. On said shoe rack were a pair of delightful grey/purple Miss Selfridge flats- exactly my size, clearly never been worn since the price labels were still stuck to the underneath of the shoes, and reduced, I saw, from a whopping £25 to £9.99. 'Wow!' I thought- 'Now that's a tenner worth spending!' So I did. And thus commenced the start of my Second Hand Journey. Cue photo:

The third shop I set foot in was Helen And Douglas House. When I walked in, I did have slight doubts- with barely a quarter of the shop dedicated to clothing, I wasn't optimistic, but decided to give it a try. When I finally walked out of that place £4 lighter, I couldn't have felt more a fool or a thief, because frankly, it was a goldmine in nearly new clothing. So many unbelievable items I would have bought if I was one of those daring, confident, unique fashion thrill seekers, but as it was I left with one purchase, modelled here:

 

 To top the whole thing off, I found, at the back of the hats and scarves, a chunky blue belt which was calling to me (priced up at a single pound) so add it to the ensemble and you get...

For my final coup de theatre I bought a mug. Completely off the task I know, but I had to have it-

 Its now my Happy Mug. Providing happiness with every sip. And only .75p.

All in all, I didn’t do badly- I found a decent outfit and a new kitchen utensil. Can’t say fairer than that.
So, my advice to you is- go forth and purchase Charity Shop goods- you never know what you might find.

Jx