Yorkshire Charity Shopping Haul

As promised in this week's blog post, after visiting family in Yorkshire for a few days last week, here's a charity shop haul from our few days away. The items were bought in several different charity shops over the course of the few days we were there.

The first few items were bought from Age UK. This particular shop had lots of nice things in it. I tried on about 6 different items, but came away with just two items of clothing, a pair of sandals and some new tights. I paid approximately £15 in total.

The first item was this lovely linen mix blouse from George at ASDA. It's a big size, but looks okay.  The embroidery on the sleeves caught my eye and I liked it when I tried it on. It will be good to throw on with a pair of shorts on hot summer days to walk the dog or do some gardening. It cost £2.99.

The next item, I thought was so pretty. It's essentially a high necked, long sleeved, ribbed sweater, but it was the detailing on the sleeves that sold it to me. It has a net frill on each cuff which is so pretty. At £4.99, this was definitely coming home with me.  The high neck was also surprisingly flattering. I may still get some wear out of it this spring, if not, it may be a new favourite next autumn.

One of the first things I saw, when I walked into the shop, was this lovely pair of Clark's navy suede sandals. There were actually two pairs. One pair was a mustard colour, half a size larger and had some marks on the suede top, then there was this pair, which are a size 6. I tried these on first with socks on and they fitted okay and felt really comfortable. They are pretty immaculate. I don't think they've hardly been worn at all. At £5.99, they were an absolute steal. I have a few navy coloured things that I can wear in the summer months and I thought these would work great with them.

Lastly, at Age UK, I picked up this pair of seamed tights from Primark in size Large for 99p. I'm hoping they fit, as I tend to wear their size large these days.

A couple of doors away, is a great British Red Cross shop. They often sell quite a lot of new Zara clothing. I bought a new with tags Zara dress here last year, for a family wedding we went to in June. This visit, they had this lovely, new with tags, Zara dress: 

I thought it was so striking that I had to try it on, despite it being size XS. It didn't actually look that small, as it's quite full, being tiered, so I thought I'd give it a go. I was very pleasantly surprised when it did fit quite well, a little snug on top, but otherwise very comfortable and so cute. It is quite short, but I decided to buy it, as I loved the machine embroidered design and it went well with the navy sandals I'd already bought. 

My legs are more toned since I've been working out on a regular basis, so I can hopefully get away with wearing it. I thought it would be great to wear for another family wedding we're going to later this year. I may have to wear tights with it. This dress cost £20, which is quite a lot for a charity shop, but it is new and was originally £49.99. It is a bit of a gamble, as I may chicken out of wearing it, when it gets nearer the day, we'll see. I really love it though.

I paid one more visit to another charity shop and found this pair of grey gym leggings.  

They too, look as if they've never been worn. They are a bit on the snug side, being a size M, but wearable with a long T-shirt. I'm currently finding that as I'm losing weight, some of my gym leggings (and trousers generally, for that matter) are getting way too baggy and I need to size down. This is more of a future proofing purchase, anticipating possibly more weight loss, but they are also wearable now. They cost £5, which I thought was a very good price and they look good quality too, but the proof will, of course, be in the wearing.

My/Our final charity purchase was made at the Tip Shop, which is run by a local Hospice charity at the local refuse tip. Here I found this great set of cast iron dumbells for £10. 

I thought these were very good value, as they include the dumbell bars and locks and 4 x 2kg cast iron plates. Unfortunately, 4 x 1kg plates that should have been in the set weren't there, which is a big pity, as it would have made them much more versatile, but regardless, these should help me to progress with my strength training, as I try to increase the weights I work with.

In addtion to this set, there was also a set of 4 x 5kg cast iron plates for sale for £20. We thought this was quite a good deal, as to buy these online you have to factor in postage which is expensive due to how heavy they are or alternatively travel to collect them from sellers. They are in very good condition and are the same make as the dumbell set and I made sure that they could be attached to the dumbell bars for use.  

These are mainly for OH to use, so he paid for them, as they are too heavy for me at the moment, but on their own they could be used in some exercises. Unfortunately, they didn't come with a long barbell bar, but if I can find one at some point in the future, then this set could be very useful going forward, for both of us to do more weight work at home. I was really thrilled to buy all of these, as I'd been looking online to buy some in recent weeks and then just stumbled upon them. Serendipity at work, maybe.

So, as far as I was concerned, it was a very successful couple of days in terms of thrift shopping, in spite of spending quite a bit of money. I feel it was very much worth the outlay though, because of the usefulness of the items we/I bought and how much I liked them. I hope you liked this post. What did you like the best from the items I bought?