A Charity Shop Haul To Start the New Year

I'm trying to get control of my spending this year, so I'm trying to have a relatively low spend year. In spite of this, I decided to visit my local charity shop on the way home from the gym the other day. I hadn't been for probably a month, so I just fancied a mooch.

It was a very successful visit on this particular occasion. Sometimes I go and buy virtually nothing and other times I go and find lots of things I want to buy. This visit was one of the latter. So here goes.

The first thing I decided to buy was this lovely high necked sweater. I love sweaters like this and my current ones are looking a bit worse for wear, so I decided to treat myself to a new one, as I'm sure we will get more cold weather in which to wear it. Unfortunately, the labels have all been cut out of it, so I have no idea of the wool content, if any, washing instructions, or the brand, but it feels very good quality. I will need to be careful when I wash it and put it on a low temperature cycle, but as it's quite oversized, if it does shrink on the first wash, it should still be okay. It cost £8.

I then spotted these Vans skater shoes. This is my favourite style of Vans shoes and I've wanted another pair since my last pair virtually fell apart after being worn so much. The leopard print, wouldn't be my colour of choice, but I'll go with it for the £10 price tag. I think they've only been worn once, as there is very little wear, so these were an absolute steal. I can't wait to wear these when the weather warms up.

Aside from these large items, I bought a couple of books for OH's birthday in May, which cost £3, a birthday card for a friend for 50p, and two books for me. 

One, was a hardback Charlotte Bronte novel that I haven't read, called Villette, which cost £3, and the second, was a Muriel Spark novel called The Girls of Slender Means, which cost £1. I love Muriel Spark. I love her sharp wit. I'm looking forward to reading these this year, as I read very little last year.

Finally, I bought some cutlery for LB, for a project at Uni. We bought her a dinner service when we were up in Yorkshire before Christmas, but she still needed cutlery and I found some that was perfect for only 10p per item, which was fantastic and will save her scouring the charity shops when she gets back to Uni. I felt so lucky to find these and we both returned to the shop later, to buy some crystal glasses that they were also selling, which cost £15. This was probably a lot of money for a Uni project, but she could have spent that much bussing herself around London to find some that suited and they had the right look for her brief. She may get reimbursed for some of the cost by her University.

So, it was a very serendipitous shop for me and for LB and a great frugal start to the New Year. Have you found any great things in charity shops lately?