As part of #SecondHandSeptember, we decided to share a mini charity shop haul with you to show you some of the bargains you can pick up.
Last week, I told you all about why we were joining in with #SecondHandSeptember and I promised a mini charity shop haul so that’s what today’s post is all about.
I roped Miss Frugal in to help me with because (a) she has a little mini eBay business that she set up as she couldn’t get a Summer job and (b) she’s a teenage girl who knows her own style and has never (until recently) been a fan of wearing charity shop clothes. Basically, I knew that if she could find some outfits that she liked, anyone could.
We’re experts at this charity shop shopping game now after a Summer of hunting for bargains for her to sell (and occasionally keep for herself) so we headed off to a town nearby that you would definitely describe as ‘affluent’. We parked at one end of the high street and walked down one side and back up the other so we hit every charity shop on the high street. We have a system now which makes sure we don’t miss any bargains but I’ll share that with you next week. 😉
There were three shops that we didn’t buy anything from so I’ll tell you about that before I show you the outfits we did buy…
- The first shop we went into was a small independent charity shop for a small local charity and it was pretty busy with older ladies. It definitely seemed to cater to that market and although there were some lovely things in there that were good brands and great quality, there was nothing that we could see that wasn’t suitable for a grandma and very little that was below a size 12. There was nothing suitable for Miss Frugal although I did find an amazing pink faux fur handbag that would go perfect with Miss Frugal’s Winter jacket but she was having none of it.
- The second shop we didn’t buy anything from was a little goldmine of designer clothes with everything from Armani jeans, Karen Millen blazers, DKNY dresses and even a cheeky little Ted Baker handbag – none of which were Miss Frugal’s size or taste so we ruled out the designer section and moved on to the rest of the shop. Here’s where the problem was though – I think it fancied itself as a bit of a posh charity shop so the prices on the rest of the clothes were ridiculous. A second-hand little vest style crop top from Topshop which we know would have been about £7 new (Miss Frugal has it in another colour from a couple of years ago) was £4.99 in used condition. When you see what we got below for less than that, you’ll see where our problem was.
- The last shop we didn’t buy anything from was amazing with loads of designer stuff – in fact, it seemed like they’d had some sort of Ted Baker consignment in as they had a LOT of Ted Baker clothes and accessories. It wasn’t cheap but definitely a great deal compared to new but Miss Frugal isn’t a fan of the flower Ted Baker designs and the rest of the shop was so busy that we decided to go back to the car instead.
Also, Miss Frugal has quite a slim build so we were limited to a pretty small selection in all of the shops. She’s a size six in most things usually but can wear a size eight in dresses sometimes if they’re small fitting and we’ve found that a lot of the shops don’t really have a huge amount in for smaller sizes with just a small selection in each section (dresses, bottoms, tops, coats etc). It’s from about size 10/12 upwards where the bulk of the clothes are through to around size 22 judging by what we saw yesterday in the shops that we were in.
So now you know why we didn’t buy from some shops, here’s what we did actually buy…
Outfit One – Bershka Skirt from Oxfam
Ok, this is a Bershka black suede skirt that cost us £3.49 from Oxfam paired with a super cheap top that Miss Frugal bought herself from Primark last week when she went college wardrobe shopping. She really likes this little outfit and says she’ll definitely wear it for college with some black tights and a pair of boots. Success!
Outfit Two – Warehouse Dress from Oxfam
I know you’d think I was torturing her in this photo but I’m really not and she actually likes it. The dress is from Warehouse and honestly, the photo and teen scowl doesn’t do it justice at all. For the £3.99 that it cost, it’s a total bargain and another one that Miss Frugal actually likes.
Outfit 3 – H&M from Oxfam
The photo doesn’t do this dress any justice either, what you can’t really see is that the stripes are cream and red and the dress itself isn’t black as it looks – it’s actually navy. It fits so well and for £2.99 I think it’s an absolute bargain! Miss Frugal likes it too which means we’re three for three so far.
Outfit Four – New Look from Age UK
This is my favourite dress by far which can only mean one thing… Miss Frugal HATES it! She loved it in the shop but once she’s got it home to try on she just can’t stand it which means she’s going to pop it on eBay and see if she can sell it on. It’s typical that it was the most expensive dress by far at £4.99!
Outfit 5 – coming soon!
We actually bought a dress from the 99p sale rack in Age UK and I think it’s a total winner as it’s so versatile. I’ve tasked my teen to find five different ways to wear this dress so hopefully I’ll be back with that post very soon!
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