Link to Hope
This month the Link to Hope Shoebox Calendar focuses on gifts for men. The calendar states – Men enjoy gifts to e.g. work gloves, DIY tools, tape measures, belts, handkerchiefs.
If you are creating a family box it’s easy to become distracted by finding things for the children in the family. The shoeboxes I create are certainly heavily loaded towards the children in the family, but I always try to include things for the parents (though whether teenage children claim those items in another matter.)
As well as work gloves and DIY tools suggested on the Link to Hope Calendar, I always add in some safety razors which feature in the leaflet as one of the possible additional items. I tend to buy supermarket or chain store brand packs with 10 or 20 razors and add about 5 to each shoebox. Home Bargains had packs of 5 Bic safety razors for 59p but I haven’t been in store recently to see if they still have them.
Larger Morrisons have a 6 in 1 DIY tool (the same brand as Tesco which are £1.50 or 2 for £2.00 if you have Tesco club card). If you live near north Bristol or south Wales – What! stores have packs of 4 pairs of cotton work gloves for 90p. My local Asda store had a few pairs of Rigger gloves reduced to £1.23. The other gardening gloves and hand tools weren’t particularly cheap, but they may come down in price over the next couple of weeks. If you are filling a few shoeboxes, you may be able to get some multi buy options on eBay or Amazon.
Ties can be another option – though they seem to be quite expensive in my local charity stores, though I got a bag of ties a couple of years ago on Freecycle.
And the classic gift for men when you can’t think of anything else is socks 😊. I try and find thicker socks, but if not suit socks or trainer socks can be bought relatively cheaply. Amazon currently have 10 pairs of work socks for £8.49 (85p a pair), or 12 pairs for £9.99 (83p a pair.) I bought 20 pairs from Temu earlier in the year for £8.43 which worked out at 42p a pair. If you have a Poundstretcher nearby they have a variety of packs of men’s socks ranging from 3 pairs of trainer socks for £1.49 (50p a pair), 3 pairs of work socks for £1.99 (67p a pair), 5 pairs of suit socks for £2.99 (60p a pair), and a variety of other socks ranging from 60p to £1.00 a pair.
The Farm Animal Sanctuary
The Farm Animal Sanctuary is hosting the Freedom Fields Festival from 24 to 26 July. The event will feature workshops, speakers, music and stalls, plus the chance to visit the animals! Visitors can camp for the weekend or come for the day. Full details are available on their website or Facebook page.
https://thefarmanimalsanctuary.co.uk/event/freedom-fields-festival-2026/
https://www.facebook.com/FarmAnimalSanctuary
Bargain Buys
I haven’t found many bargains in store so far this month, but Ikea had 30 berry scented tealights for 50p. Rigger gloves reduced to £1.23 in Asda.
I’ve continued to find bargains on Temu – 8 pairs of reading glasses for £2.49 (32p a pair), 24 Christmas pens with 4 in1 colours of ink for £3.12 (13p each.) 50 mini screwdriver keyrings for £2.37 about 5p each. 10 pairs of ladies Christmas socks £2.45 (25p a pair), 20 pairs of children’s transport themed socks for £3.77 (19p a pair), 10 pairs of children’s gloves for £3.93 (40p a pair) and 5 pairs of ladies/teenage gloves £2.05 (41p a pair).
Update
Asda have candles in jars with 24 hour burn time reduced to 80p and 50 scented tealights for £2.50. My best deal when I popped in today was on children’s gloves, they had a pack of 5 pairs of multicoloured gloves reduced to £2.00 (40p a pair) and a pack of 5 pairs of black children’s gloves reduced to £1.00 (20p a pair)!
Till next month