My £10.00 Shoe Box Challenge for Link to Hope
Welcome back to my second blog which will hopefully help you find good deals to fill shoe boxes for charity as economically as possible. A few years ago, Link to Hope produced a poster with a £10.00 shoe box challenge to show it was possible to fill a shoe box for under £10.00. As you’d expect prices have now gone up, so the contents they included would now cost more than £10.00, however, I have found that it is still possible to fill a shoe box for under £10.00. The following pages show you were you can source items to fill either a family or elderly shoe box for under £10.00. The challenge is also based on the assumption that you are only filling one shoe box so doesn’t include an multi buy options. If you are doing more than one shoe box, or can share/swap items with a friend or relatives, it is possible to include even more for £10.00. All the items are purchased in high street stores and doesn’t rely on shopping on line. (If you can shop on line, more options will open up but watch out for postage charges.) Some of the stores suggested may have fewer stores in some parts of the country but for this challenge I have excluded local independent stores. (The items I’ve listed for Bargain Buys should also be available in Poundstretcher.)
I have also managed to include more than the suggested minimum of 5 additional items suggested by Link to Hope. The Family Box contains 9 additional items and the elderly box contains 7 additional items.
Bramley Buttons – Family Box
£10.00 Shoe box challenge 2020
For – Link to Hope
Bramleybuttons
Bramley Buttons – Elderly Box
£10.00 Shoe box challenge 2020
For – Link to Hope
Bramleybuttons
The soap from Tesco is the cheapest I’ve found at 15p for an individually wrapped bar and it has a pleasant scent – and has the bonus that it isn’t tested on animals and has no animal ingredients.
Alternatives for the toothpaste are 55p from Sainsburys, and they also have packs of safety razors for 30p. Home Bargains had some small candle jars for 39p each, and Home bargains, Bargain Buys/Poundstretcher and Primark all had gloves for 75p. Poundland had 2 diecast metal cars for £1.00 or one larger London Bus or Taxi for £1.00 – may depend on how much room you have in your shoebox!
If you are doing more than one shoe box or can buy contents with a friend or relative and share multi packs then an alternative if you don’t have a Tesco close is to buy a 4 pack of soap for £1.00 – £1.20 – available from most major supermarkets, but they tend not to be individually wrapped. I always wrap soap in the flannel – but I have previously put unwrapped soaps in brown paper or cellophane before wrapping them in the flannel to help stop the scent transferring to any sweets in the box.
Poundland do 48 short colouring pencils for £1.00 – and they come packaged as 4 packs of 12 pencils, so great if you are doing several shoe boxes, as they work out at 25p per pack and would be great to replace the 6 small pencils from Wilko. Poundland also seem to be cheapest for HB pencils – currently they have packs of 32 with an eraser on top of each for £1.00 – again means I can put a few in several boxes and save some for next year.
Home Bargains and Bargain Buys (part of Poundstretcher) have had packs of 5 or 6 erasers for 69p and I also got 6 Lego shaped pencil sharpeners for 69p from Home Bargains and Bargain Buys, and they are slightly larger than other single sharpeners, so easier to hold and less likely to get lost. Wilko have the combined eraser and sharpener capsule for 50p or metal pencil sharpeners for 35p.
Another option for both the family and elderly boxes is a stationary set from Bargain Buys/Poundstretcher which costs 69p. The set includes 3 biros (red, blue and black), 3 HB Pencils, an eraser, a pencil sharpener, and a highlighter.
If your local Morrisons doesn’t have playing cards for 50p then Poundland does a set of 2 packs of cards for £1.00 – great if you are doing more than one shoe box, or can swap contents with a friend.
Happy Shoe Box shopping