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October 2023 – Time to start packing your Shoeboxes, and there’s a Halloween Fund Raiser at The Farm Animal Sanctuary.

Bramley 23/10/2023 no Comments

Link to Hope

The theme on the Link to Hope Calendar for October is Sweets and Chocolate. The calendar says, “Who Doesn’t love Sweets and Chocolate, (EU origin BBD June 2024)”.

Sweets and chocolate are one of the essential items to add to each shoe box whether it’s a family box or one for an Elderly couple. I tend to put a mixture of sweets in the family boxes, and a bar of dark chocolate in the elderly box with potentially some mints or boiled sweets, however the latter are getting more expensive so this year I will probably add a packet of Polos rather than boiled sweets. Morrisons Savers dark chocolate is 43p per bar, and B&M have a pack of 5 rolls of polos for £1.25, so 25p per roll.

My other best buys for sweets are a 4 pack of Fruitella for £1.00 from Tesco so 25p per pack. In Asda a 4 pack is £1.25 so 31p per pack and in Home Bargains, and One Beyond it’s £1.00 or 99p for a pack of 3, so 33p per pack. Home Bargains have a multi pack with mini love hearts for 89p, or 4 standard size packs of love hearts for 79p so only 20p per pack. There are lots of multipacks around of small sweets for Halloween, which can be divided up between several shoeboxes, but if buying chews make sure to put them in a paper or plastic bag to stop them leaving a sticky residue on other items in the Shoebox. Prices do vary between supermarkets, but B&M seem to be fairly competitive.

. I like buying the multipacks of fun size Skittles. They are good to squeeze into small spaces, in B&M they are £2.50 for a pack of 18 fun size packs. Other major supermarkets were selling them at higher prices, but they all seem to have reduced them to £2.50. Just check the dates to make sure they have a long enough shelf life.

The Farm Animal Sanctuary

The Sanctuary are holding their Spooky Halloween event on Saturday 29 October.

“Dress yourselves up and join us for a spooky day at the sanctuary, with plenty of fun for all the family and lots of treats on offer!

Including our Farm Animal Sanctuary ghost trail , colouring, loads of games and opportunities to win treats , and of course extra special prizes for the best dressed!

A great family day out!

Day – Saturday 28th October

Time – 11am – 3pm

Adults – £5

Children under 14 – £7.50 (goodie bag FULL of treats included)

Golden Glaze Doughnuts will be joining us with some new Halloween doughnuts “

The Festive Fair is being held on 25 November from 4.00pm – 7.00pm.

“Come and join us for a festive evening of fun at the sanctuary! Join us for a festive evening at the sanctuary, with plenty of fun for all the family and lots of treats on offer! We will have vegan food from The Boxx n Bar, craft and gift stalls, a grotto scene with sweets.

Tickets are £2.50- £3.00”.

I hope to be there with my stall selling gifts to help them raise funs towards the running of the sanctuary and also to help them purchase the site.

They still need to raise funds for their crisis appeal. Their website also has details of other ways to help including sponsoring an animal or purchasing items such as Christmas Cards, or other merchandise.

www.thefarmanimalsanctuary.co.uk

Bargains for Shoe boxes.

Most of my bargains come from an on-line company called Temu. Delivery times do seem to be a couple of weeks, so depending on when you read this it might be that you buy items for next years shoe boxes. Prices do vary a lot over a few days and even between sellers on the same day. (One item I was watching started at £4.50 and over the course of a week went down to £2.93 and then shot up £12.47)

I’ve bought several bracelets, necklaces and brooches ranging from 27p -38p. Scrunchies – I bought a couple of packs of 12 silky scrunchies for 67p which was great value but a couple of weeks later the same scrunchies were 27p for a pack of 12!! I couldn’t make them for that price. I also bought a pack with just 2 scrunchies for 7p ! A pack of 6 scrunchies with a bows/tails was 67p. 100 hair bands for 37p, hairbrushes 67p – 71p. Men’s belts for 57p, packs of 5 pairs of socks for £1.27, bum bags 49p – 69p, back packs 89p, and hand crank torches for £1.57 – £1.98.

In stores Home Bargains have Signal Toothpaste for 39p for 52ml, which is great but not as good value as the own brand toothpaste in the 4 major supermarkets which is 50p for 100ml. But would have been good for my £10.00 challenge 😊. Home Bargains also still have flannels for 29p again would have been good for my £10.00 challenge, and a pack of 3 lip balms for 99p. And finally, Asda have their own brand shampoo which is 75p for 500ml. Ideally that would be decanted into smaller bottles as the leaflet states 300ml max.