Link to Hope

The suggested theme to concentrate on for July is men’s gifts.  The Link to Hope shoebox calendar says ‘men enjoy presents to e.g. work gloves, DIY tools, Tape measures, belts, ties, handkerchiefs.’    

I’ve purchased gripper gloves from Temu for 38p per pair, and if you can afford to bulk buy there are options on Amazon that work out about 50p per pair.  Larger Morrisons have some thick work gloves for £1.00 per pair, or I bought some gardening gloves from Poundstretcher which were 93p for 2 pairs.

Last month I got several bargains from Morrisons including a small spirit level for 30p, and packs of 50 screws for 10p per bag.  Home Bargains have sets of 8 screwdrivers for £2.99 which works out about 37p per screwdriver so they can be split between shoeboxes. If you have a Tesco club card you can a 6 in 1 screwdriver for a £1.00 (if you buy two items from their basics range) or Morrison sells the same 6 in 1 screwdriver for £1.00. Morrisons and Tesco both have 5m tape measures for £1.00 in the same ranges. 

I’ve managed to buy one belt from Temu for 78p, and a tie from a local pound shop for £1.00.   Last year I found one tie in a charity shop for £1.00 but they tend to be more expensive in my local charity shops.  I’m planning to put a wanted post on Freecycle and Freegle for ties and belts. 

Previously I’ve purchased cotton hankies from Ebay and Amazon  – just check the sizes as they do vary.  This year I’ve purchased a pack of 12 for £4.94 from Temu – which works out about 42p per hankie. 

I always put safety razors in every shoe box –  Home Bargains and B&M have packs of 5 safety razors for 59p, and Tesco, Sainsburys have packs of 10 for £1.00 and B&M have a pack of 20 for £1.99.  I usually divide up the packs and put 5 in each shoe box.

The other fairly predictable gift for men is socks!!!!  Poundstretcher have packs of 3 men’s trainer socks or sports socks for £1.00.  I’ve bought some mens socks from Temu – 5 pairs for 97p and 5 pairs for 69p – so between 14p and 20p per pair. 

Door of Hope

I’m also filling 3 Bags of Education again this year for the charity Door of Hope who work closely with Link to Hope.  Most of the items needed to fill the Bags of Education mirror items I’d add my shoe boxes, except for A4 drawing pads, slim A4 plastic folders (not ring binder inserts) and plastic water bottle.  I bought some A4 drawing pads from Proper Job for £1.00, and 1 from One Beyond which was meant to be £1.00 but I was charged £1.25.  I bought 10 clear A4 wallets from Temu for £1.37 – roughly 14p each.  I bought several water bottles from B&M – a pack of 3 for £2.00 roughly 67p each and 3 other bottles for £1.00 each. The suggested contents leaflet mentions a packet of crayons as well as a set of coloured pencils so I assume it means wax crayons for the set of crayons. Home Bargains have been the cheapest I’ve found with a packet of 8 Paper Mate wax crayons for 39p and set of 8 longer Bic wax crayons for 49p.

The Farm Animal Sanctuary

The Farm Animal Sanctuary have 2 more Sheepovers planned over the summer.  The first is this month on Saturday 27 July with Golden Glaze Doughnuts and The Boxx n Bar providing refreshments – and the option of yoga on Sunday morning.

The second Sheepover is on 24 August. 

They are also holding an Open Weekend on 14 and 15 September.  I will have a stall on the Sunday to raise funds for them.

Tickets and further details of their events can be found on their website.

https://thefarmanimalsanctuary.co.uk/events

Bargain Buys

My local Morrisons reduced items further to just 10p.  I managed to get several more packs of hair grips, make up brushes, and children’s paint brushes, and managed to get another paint pallet, double pack of bamboo toothbrushes, and nail buffers for 10p. I also found a couple of different items for 10p – sisal bath mits and packs of 50 screws.

My other buys aren’t quite such good deals – but as mentioned previously I found 2 pairs of gardening gloves for 93p at Poundstretcher.  They also had 18 poster paints for 75p and a pack of 3 cars and a shooter for 75p.

Tesco currently have their pack of 10 mixed colour biros for 40p, and 10 single colour biros for 50p, and bubbles with a mini puzzle on top reduced to 20p.

I also got a few items in Asda, – 4 popper bracelets, 4 small tubs of scented slime and 9 small high power balls, all 80p per pack, –  Plain paper A5 pad 50p and A5 spiral notebook 30p.  The plain paper pads have one lined sheet so I presume they are meant to be writing pads, but they can be used as drawing pads.   

B&M have solid shampoo bars reduced to 79p though they don’t have them in stock in many of my local stores. 

Till next month.

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