September 2024 – Farm Animal Sanctuary Open Weekend, and Toys and Games month for Link to Hope.
Link to Hope
The featured items on the Link to Hope Shoebox calendar for September are Toys and Games. The calendar says, ‘Send fun in your shoebox with a yoyo, skipping rope, toy cars, draughts, dominoes and playing cards etc’.
My go to items for the essential item of a small game are playing cards, or a snakes and ladders game. 2 packs of playing cards are available for £1.00 from Proper Job, Yorkshire Trading, Poundland, larger Morrisons stores, and Tesco if you have a club card (though you have to buy two items to qualify for the discount). The packs in Proper job also have 5 dice as well as 2 packs of cards which are great if you want to make a snakes and ladders game.


A set of dominos is also a good option, but I haven’t seen many reasonably priced options recently except at proper job for had a set for £1.00.
I usually add playing cards or dominoes to the elderly boxes and playing cards or snakes and ladders to the family boxes. I create snakes and ladders games by printing out the game from this site for free https://classplayground.com/shared/pdf/Snakes_And_Ladders_US_Letter2.pdf and then add counters or small buttons and a dice (this is where the dice with the playing card sets come in). There are other versions available online some even include counters and a dice to print out (I’m not sure how successful a paper dice would be, but may work ). I fold the printed game and put it in a zip lock bag along with the counters and dice. Amazon have 10 dice for £2.75 or the Works have 10 for £1.00.
Home bargains have 4 yoyos for 99p, and Poundland seem to be the best value for skipping ropes with 4 for £1.00. One Beyond sometimes have wooden skipping ropes for £1.00.



I always try and add a small soft toy to the Family boxes. Charity shops are a good option but make sure they have the CE label. I’ve also bought some off eBay. I recently got 18 small soft toys for £8.50 including postage.

The other item I add to the family box is small cars. Charity shops sometimes have second hand toy cars but condition can vary. One Beyond sometimes have packets of 36 die cast cars for £5.00, or Temu sometimes have smaller packs. Poundstretcher have a pack with 3 cars and a shooter to propel them for 75p, or a single car for 59p.



The Farm Animal Sanctuary
The open weekend at the farm sanctuary was successful with over 700 visitors over the weekend. I had a fund raising stall on the Sunday to help raise funds for them.

They have a spooky Sanctuary event on Saturday 26 October, and the Christmas Festive Fair is on Saturday 23 November. More information is available on their website.
https://thefarmanimalsanctuary.co.uk/events


Bargain Buys
Not many this month. Home Bargains still have 4 face clothes for £1.00 and they seem to have restocked their single facecloths in several pastel shades for 29p each. The single face cloths seem to be located next to the soap and other toiletries, but the packs of 4 are with the towels. Asda have 2 face clothes for 80p which are thicker than the ones in Home Bargains.



Staples have 45 erasers for £2.15 which unusually includes postage. Poundland have 18 felt pens for 75p but they only seem to be in a few stores.
Until next month