This month’s pre-loved bargains {January 2026}….

Welcome to my monthly pre-loved bargain post – one of my favourite things to write because it gives me an excuse to share the second-hand treasures I’ve brought home lately. 😀

In 2026, I really want to take my love of pre-loved shopping to the next level. I’ll still be picking up the usual charity shop gems, but I’m also planning to expand what I buy — not just things for our home, but pieces I can resell for a profit and items that could do with a bit of love so I can try my hand at thrift flips. I love the idea of taking something that’s seen better days and transforming it into something genuinely beautiful (and hopefully saving it from landfill in the process).

So each month, I’ll be sharing a mix of the things I’ve bought second-hand, the bargains I couldn’t leave behind, what I’ve flipped, what I’ve resold, and of course… the pieces I’ve kept because they were just too pretty to part with!

First up, there’s some very random things in today’s post!  It’s mainly because I’ve not been very well and have been finding that a walk every day helps me so I’ve been having a wander down to our village high street each afternoon. It would be rude not to have a peak in the charity shops while I was there and that means that I’ve found more bargains than usual – and there’s some great ones to share this month!

Let’s get started with the biggest splurge we’ve had in a while….

We spotted a dining table in a local vintage shop and despite the fact we weren’t looking to buy a table, we both felt drawn to it in a way that meant we couldn’t leave it behind. We knew that we wanted a bigger table than the one we had but we weren’t planning on buying one until after we’d moved – until we spotted this one. 

We currently have it set up as a six seater but it has two extension pieces that can be used together or individually, making it a comfortable eight seater but we could easily squeeze some extra chairs around it if we needed to. 

I bought some covering from Dunelm to protect the surface as it’s high gloss and for a 30 year old table, it’s in immaculate condition. I want it to be a table that is used as a family dining table should be used and I don’t want anyone to be worried about damaging it so this way, it’s protected against daily use. It has a beautiful pattern in the wood underneath the cover but I can’t do it justice as it’s so glossy and just reflects light all over the place. 

The chairs are beautiful too although I do think at some point I’ll get them recovered into a darker fabric so they’re a bit more user friendly. 😁

We spent ages in the shop debating whether we wanted it and just as we were making our mind up, the owner popped over and pointed out a sideboard in the corner that had come in with the table from the same home. It’s a buffet server sideboard which means that the top opens up to extend and because it has a heatproof surface protector it’s perfect for serving hot food. 

We did some research in the shop using ChatGPT and Google Lens and straight away, we knew the price she was quoting was a good deal for the set so we decided to go for it. It’s dated as 1997 and looks to be solid cherry wood which makes the value at least double what we paid for it but we didn’t buy the set to sell, we bought it because it’s going to be perfect for our home!

We sold our old dining room table and chairs for £110 and the sideboard for £15 which went a good way to paying for the new ones.  

A couple of months ago, I shared a pre-loved bargain that reminded me of my Nana and this month, I spotted something that goes hand in hand with what I bought last month. I bought these two unusual looking Ringtons cups which actually look tiny in my hand for some reason but they are normal sized cups. 😁 

I paid £1.50 for them both and a quick Google search tells me that that’s a bargain as they’re selling for about £10 each!

I’m not a fan of the colour but I saw them and knew I needed them to sit on the shelf with my teapot bargain. 

My final bargain for this month is a mirror that’s a bit more rustic than I’d usually go for but I love it. It looks like it’s made from reclaimed wood, floorboards I think, and it’s a perfect size to do a full length outfit check before leaving the house. 😁

It cost £9 but it’s huge and a really good piece of furniture so it’s a brilliant find for us! 

And that’s pretty much it for this month’s pre-loved bargains from me but I have a couple of things to share that we sold this month too…

We cleared out our Summer house (actually my partner did the clearing and I did the supervising) and managed to sell our Ikea Trofast units for £15 each (we had three of them) on Facebook Marketplace. We also managed to get £10 for a pile of the Trofast boxes that went in them that had definitely seen better days. 

We also sold this Ikea Unit for £50 too…

We bought it as we needed some extra storage space in our hall but it was in a really awkward position and whilst you could easily get past it to get through the living room door, it was a bit of a squeeze when we had shopping bags to take through to the kitchen. Because of all the decluttering we’ve been doing, we were able to re-home or get rid of everything in this unit so we could get rid of it. 

We also said goodbye to our little Mini Cooper that Master Frugal had used to learn to drive in this month.

He passed his test last month and as much as the mini has been amazing (until the last six weeks or so), it needed a bit of work doing and we said we’d only get it done if he was keeping the car for a little while as it wouldn’t be worth fixing otherwise with it being an old car. He was after something a bit newer and more reliable so we sold the mini and put that towards his new car which he’d been saving for in the hopes that he passed. 

We actually got a good price for it from a local scrapyard who paid us £200 – a price we were pleased with considering it had no MOT on after it ran out just after the head gasket blew up. We shopped around for the best price we could get and this was the best one by about £50 so it was worth a few phone calls. We also took off a few of the saleable bits of the car like the chrome mirrors and headlights and sold those for another £80. 

If you want to find out more about how I find bargains on Vinted then this how to buy on Vinted post is perfect for you – it’s the perfect place to start if you want to start finding some pre-loved bargains of your own. 

Also, I know that money is tight for many of us right now so I did just want to say that usually when I buy anything pre-loved, I try and only use money that I’ve made from things that I’ve sold on Vinted so I rarely pay actual money for anything you see that I’ve bought from there. Here’s a post about how much I made in a weekend selling on Vinted a little while ago to give you an idea!

If you do decide to sign up to Vinted, I’d be super grateful if you use my refer a friend link. 😁

So that’s what I’ve bought pre-loved this month. I’d love to see your bargains so feel free to tag me in any Instagram posts and I’ll pop over and see what you’ve been buying! 

And don’t forget, you might like to read my post sharing all my top tips for getting a bargain buying clothes in a charity shop here and if you can’t get out to wander around your local charity shops then have a look at my favourite online charity shops!  

I’d love you follow me on Twitter and it would be amazing to see you over on my Facebook page and on Instagram. If you’re interested, you can find out more about me here and while I’ve got your attention, if you’re wondering why some of my posts lately are a little bit less frugal then have a read of this post. 😉