The Farm Animal Sanctuary
The first event on the site in 2022 will be on Good Friday 15th April from 11:00am – till 3:00pm and will be A Day of Hoppy Easter Fun. It will mean you will be the first explorers to see who’s out and about after winter.
It will include the Farm Animal Sanctuary hoppy explorer’s trail, Easter games, colouring, quiz, and decorate an egg competition! Wear an Easter bonnet to be in with the chance of winning an extra special prize!
A great family day out!
Prices Adults – £5.00
Children under 14 – £7.50
Please remember to wear outdoor footwear as it is a farm! They will have tea and coffee available throughout the event.
To book visit – https://www.thefarmanimalsanctuary.co.uk/hoppy-trail
Link to Hope
The leaflets for this year’s shoebox appeal are now being posted out so if you haven’t already registered now is the time to go on line and request some leaflets. The shoeboxes will be even more relevant this year. The requirements are the same as previous years. You are asked to put 6 essential items in each box and at least 5 other items- there are some suggestions on the leaflets but you aren’t limited to those suggestions but there are some items you can’t put in.
Decide if you are filling a shoe box for a family or an elderly person/couple. Each month I provide information on bargains or the best deals that I’ve found to fill the shoeboxes. Although prices have gone up since I set myself the challenge in 2020 to fill a shoebox for £10, the article in the link below is still a good starting point if you don’t think you can afford to fill a shoebox, or would like to do more than one but need to be canny to make your money go further. https://bramleybuttons.co.uk/march-2020
The theme for April is Accessories – and the suggestions on their calendar are – Hair accessories, jewellery, small bags/purses, umbrellas, sunglasses. You could also look for belts, folding shopping bags, small folding school bags, and I sometimes add a pair of shoelaces. A pack of 12 shoe and boot laces is available for £1.00 from What Stores.
The calendar is another tool to help you spread the cost of filling a shoebox.
Best buys this month
I’m not sure I’d say they were a bargain, but I bought two cute fluffy bunnies from Poundland for £1.00 each. They won’t take up too much room in a shoebox, and are great for a cuddle. Poundland still seem to be the cheapest for pencils and biros. They have packs of 30 pencils with erasers on the end or 32 biros for £1.00. I split the packs between several shoeboxes – but remember to add a pencil sharpener.
If you are just doing one shoebox and don’t have anyone to share and swap contents with then What! stores have some stationery packs reduced from 89p to 45p. There a various combinations but a couple of examples are one with a pencil, two biros, a small ruler, eraser and pencil sharpener, and another with 4 pencils, 4 biros and a pencil sharpener, there were other combinations in my local store. What! stores also seem to be the cheapest at the moment for felt pens, either 8 for 39p or 16 for 69p. A double pack of playing cards with 5 dice are £1.00.
Playing cards are a great option for the essential small game item particularly in the elderly boxes, but also an option for the family box as the parents as well as older children may want to use them. I will use the dice in snakes and ladder games. There are ones free to print out on the internet, then just add a dice and something to act as counters. (You could use buttons or even cut out small thick cardboard counters.) I buy small packs of mixed colour counters – just make sure they aren’t too big for the squares in your printed game. I then put them all in a zip lock bag to keep the parts safe, and that can then be used as the essential small game in the family box, or as a small game as one of the additional items.
Reduced items
Morrisons currently have 100ml toothpaste reduced to 49p. In addition to the price it’s Leaping Bunny approved and Vegan 😊. I bought several items in the clearance section of Hobby Craft – some Sun Catcher kits, 4 mini canvases to colour in, a sticker book and stickers, mini plastic cars, and a packet of dinosaurs – all were reduced to 50p.
Until next month