Link to Hope
The theme on this month’s calendar is sweets and chocolates. They need to have a Best Before date of June 2026 or later, and they need to be of EU origin.
There are lots of options in the shops at the moment with various multipacks on offer ahead of Halloween. It is worth shopping around if you have a few supermarkets nearby as prices vary between stores. Asda and Tesco have 20 mini packs of Sour Patch kids sweets for £2.50 but are £4.00 in Morrisons or £3.00 with a More card. B&M seem to be the cheapest for Mentos – fruit or mint with 3 packs for 99p. If you’re planning on buying any multi packs that include chewy sweets like drumsticks it may be worth wrapping them in small bag, so they don’t melt onto other items in the box.
I bought some treat size packs of Skittles – 18 packs for £2.50 from Tesco, and was going to buy some packs of the Darkside Skittles but the best before dates were April 2026. Update as of 24 October Poundland have both the fruit skittles and the Darkside skittles with a best before date after June 26 and they are only £2.00 for 18 mini packs.
If you just need one pack of sweets, then an individual pack of Love Hearts are good value at 30p from Asda or Tesco.
If you still need to find more items to fill your shoebox then check out my £10.00 challenge 2025 pages for options for good value items, https://bramleybuttons.co.uk/10-00-family-challenge-2025, https://bramleybuttons.co.uk/10-00-elderly-challenge-2025 or my fill a shoebox for free page https://bramleybuttons.co.uk/shoebox-challenge-2025 for ideas to reduce the cost of your shoebox and add more items to make it the best possible box.
Don’t forget to have your shoebox wrapped and delivered to your area receiver by 7 November 2025.
The Farm Animal Sanctuary
As I mentioned last month The Farm Animal Sanctuary are desperately trying to raise the remaining funds to buy the land they have been based at for the last 30 years. The Sanctuary is the oldest Farm Animal Sanctuary in the UK.
The link below includes information about the sanctuary and some of the animals they’ve rescued, and the reason it’s crucial to secure its future.
https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/securingoursanctuary?utm_medium=CA&utm_source=CL
Please share with anyone you feel may be able to help.
The next event at the Farm Animal Sanctuary is a Halloween event and is on Friday 31 October and Saturday 1 November from 11.00- 3.00pm each day. Tickets available from the Farm Animal Sanctuary web site.
https://thefarmanimalsanctuary.co.uk/events/
The Christmas Festive Fair is on Saturday 22 November 25 from 3.00pm – 6.00pm. More details here
https://thefarmanimalsanctuary.co.uk/events/
There will be lots of stalls and a chance to see Father Christmas as well as meeting some of the farm animals. I’ll have a stall there with all profits going to support the sanctuary. If you live within travelling distance of WR11 8LN please consider attending 😊.
Bargain Buys
Tesco have some 30cm shatterproof rulers reduced to 20p and some children’s scissors reduced to 48p. My other bargain so far this month are some candle pots reduced to 50p at Dunelm. They are slightly smaller than the ones I’ve previously purchased but still have a burn time of up to 20 hours and come in either Apple and Cinnamon or Pumpkin.
As of 28 October – Dunelm still have the pumpkin and Apple and Cinnamon candles reduced to 50p and a pack of 3 tea towels for £1.00. Poundland have 18 mini packs of Skittles for £2.00 great to divide up between shoeboxes. Poundland also have the packs of 18 mini packs of Skittles for £2.00, and 4 screwdrivers for £1.00.
Have fun packing your shoeboxes.