Thrift: The Mighty Pound

There was a time when I was a bit funny about setting foot inside a pound shop. But I am SOOOOO over it!
It's like retail therapy without the guilt! And if you are into crafts, or ANYTHING, you will find something. I've heard the gardening stuff is fab, but that's not my shizzle.

MY shizzle is things like these cute chickens above, or felt dusters which you can sew into finger puppets, or a set of 10 toy cars which keeps Daph entertained for hours!

These are my tips for pound shop newbies:

Use your brain, would that bubble bath be less than a pound normally in the supermarket? I have been caught out on this one when my bargain-hunting-devil voice sees the £1 sign and snatches it.
If there are things you need which don't necessarily need to be branded or amazing quality, get them here! I'm talking washing up sponges, dusters, sandwich bags, flowerpots, kids rainy day activities, party plates etc, pens, paper.... oh there is too much.
Parents will be all over this already I reckon. You can get a shedload of paper, paints, glitter, pom poms, sticky shapes etc for a few quid. And that few quid can probably buy you a whole afternoon (or a few) of peace. HEAVEN. Tidier stuff might be the books and toys, they get all the joy of a "new" toy, and you get all the "joy" of spending one humble pound.
Speaking of kids, although minders of useless husbands might be interested, you can even use the pound shop (99p shop, 98p store...) to make up some of their packed lunches. If you're of the junk food discipline (party time is all the time in your house!) then you can get crisps, chocolate packs and biscuits galore at bargain prices. Or if you're trying to be good you can get big packs of raisins, nuts, crackers and ricecakes to fill them up. Again, check if it's cheaper than your supermarket special offers first!
I know you have fallen in love with that stunning vase from John Lewis, but it's £40 dude. Get a cheap one (or aforementioned flower pot) from this shop, and spray or paint it with the kids poster paints, or stick cute (£1) buttons on it, and wrap a (£1) ribbon around it. So cute, and so cheap, and noone else will have one, rest assured.
And for the snobs... If you still need convincing, hear this. My local pound shop has CLASSIC novels (you know, like proper classics) at 2 for £1 at the moment. Whaa? You can build up a properly impressive bookcase at that price. AND they have CDs for various tastes, and even TOBLERONEs.

Now if that's not class, I don't know what is...

Comments

The Liebster Award!

The Liebster Award is for bloggers with fewer than 300 followers. A blogger nominates 11 fellow bloggers and asks them a set of 11 questions. The rules state that a nominee must link back to the blogger from whom they received a nomination. The nominee will write 11 random facts about themselves and then answer the 11 questions which have been set for them. They in turn will nominate another 11 bloggers and pose 11 questions to them. This is a really fun way to discover and connect with new bloggers and help us all gain some new followers along the way. Lovely Hannah from Make, Do and Push has nominated me as one of her bloggers so I will do my best! Thanks Hannah! If you like crafting, and a slice of positivity to balance out the cynicism you hear from me (!) you should check out her blog. She is up to wedding planning too so is bound to have lots of ideas up her sleeve! OK, first of all, 11 random facts about me! Crikey that seems a lot! 1. I used to deliver mil

Now we are Five, and going to school!

I have no excuses, my blogging has totally dried up. I kept thinking of LOADS of ideas for blog posts, but didn't want to write because either nobody would read them, or because there are already a ton of "mummy bloggers" already doing it. Well, SCREW that. I love writing and talking shit, so I need to get it out, regardless! SO... Time has gone by and this little dumpling: has grown sooooooo much into this rather smart schoolgirl: And I'm sure I'm the same as every mother in that looking at those two photos makes me want to cry! She is a completely different person! Oh how I miss those chubby little cheeks and huge eyes! It seems like a world away, and also only yesterday. School has brought with it a whole new set of worries, achievements and well, confusion. I thought I'd know it all as a teacher, but nothing prepares you for THE OTHER SIDE. When I was teaching and parents dropped their kids off at school and insi

Panda cardigan! Toddler jumper refashion

My little girl is nuts about most animals, but at the moment she is quite keen on pandas. It's bound to change by tomorrow. But she had an old black jumper which just seemed to be just waiting for a funeral, so it made me sad, and I had to turn it into something else... Here it is before.... Funeral anyone? OK, so I cut up the front to make it into a cardigan... I love this part - snip! Then stitched on some white lace (sticking with the black and white theme see...) and attached a big black button and popper on the back. Can I just say I did this in about 10 minutes so it's not my finest work! You've got to make sure the stitching catches all of the fiddly jumper edge so that it doesn't fray. OK, so that was the front. And I decided because it was a v-neck, the panda would have to go on the back as there was more space. Sooooo, then I cut some panda face shapes out of t-shirt material and stuck them on the back with bonda/wunda webby stuff. You COU

The Daphne Tree

Search This Blog