September 2025 – Link to Hope – toys and games month, and ideas to reduce the cost of filling your shoeboxes. Urgent fundraising for the Farm Animal Sanctuary.
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’.
You can see some of my suggestions from previous years in the September blogs, but the prices will have changed. As in previous years my go to option for a small game is to add a pack of playing cards. If you saw last month’s blog you’ll have seen the tip from Mags that some Tesco stores had reduced some of their Keep it Handy Range including the double pack of playing cards to 50p. If you missed them the sad news is that although they still sell playing cards you now only get one pack instead of 2. Some larger Morrisons have the identical cards and at the moment still have 2 packs for £1.00. If you have a Proper Job nearby they also have double packs of playing cards for £1.00 and their packs also include 5 dice. (Useful if you want to make some snakes and ladders games.)
I use this link to print out snakes and ladders games, and add small buttons or counters along with a dice. I fold the printed sheet and add to a plastic zip lock bag along with the counters and dice to keep them safe. https://classplayground.com/shared/pdf/Snakes_And_Ladders_US_Letter2.pdf
As mentioned in my July 25 blog I’ve got some toys for free from Freegle. So far they’ve mainly been cars, though I have had some building blocks. Some of the cars/trucks are quite large so it could be challenging to fit them in a shoebox and fit other items in 😊.
I like to add skipping ropes, (you can sometimes get packs of 4 from Asda or Poundland as part of their party bag ranges.) To keep costs down you could make a glove puppet, either knitted/crocheted or made from fabric. (Just don’t add any stuffing or it won’t be compliant with customs regulations.) Any padded toys that contain stuffing either need to have a CE label to be put in the shoebox, or if they don’t have a CE label need to be left outside the box and are used as stuffing.)
Colouring pencils, felt pens and paper are always good to add to the shoebox and can be shared between several children.
Free items to help fill a shoebox
I haven’t been able to do a complete shoebox with free items yet, but you can get a lot of suitable items using sites like Freecycle and Freegle.
I’ve received several bags or yarn and big bags of fabric from Freecycle and Freegle. I’ve knitted beanie hats and mittens as well as knee blankets, and a hand puppet, and still have lots of yarn left. I’ve used some of the fabric to make pencil cases, and the fleece to make hats and scarfs. I’ll also make some tote bags and dolls clothes with some of the other fabric, (and still have lots left.)
Recently I picked up some tea lights and sewing accessories, and a month of so ago collected some reading glasses and other sewing accessories, including small scissors, and from another recycler picked up about 30 screwdrivers, they do need some cleaning but are all sound. Earlier in the year I picked up a couple of shampoo bars, soap, body puffs, and shower gel, and large toy cars, and puzzle blocks.
In previous years I’ve received, hats and gloves, exercise books, 90 pencil sharpeners, mixed bag of stationery including felt pens, biros, pencil cases, rulers etc. A bag of men’s ties and several mugs. As well as Freecycle and Freegle (Trash Nothing), you might also find items on Gum Tree in the free section. I recently saw several Paddington Bear toys which were originally given away as MacDonalds Happy Meals being given away on Gum Tree.
I’ve put together a family and elderly box made from free items on my £10.00 challenge page. They aren’t completely full but hopefully it might give some inspiration of where you could obtain items for free to help fill shoeboxes.
https://bramleybuttons.co.uk/shoebox-challenge-2025
The Farm Animal Sanctuary
They are on the final stages of the fundraising campaign to raise the funds to buy the site they’ve been based on for the last 30 years. At the time of posting this blog they’ve raised about two thirds of the amount they need, but they still need to raise another £300,000 and time is running out, so if anyone reading this can donate even £5.00, please do consider it. The link below takes you to their capital appeal to raise the funds to buy the site, (they still have to find the money each month to pay for feed and vets bills for over 600 animals.)
The link 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.
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/
This month’s bargains
The only reduced items I’ve found so far this month are reading glasses from Hobby Craft reduced to £1.00. They had a few different strengths, but I just bought 1.5 magnification glasses.
Not reduced but still good value Proper Job still have small hot water bottles for £1.20, 5 pairs of ladies’ ankle socks for £1.00, 2 packs of playing cards and 5 dice for £1.00 a set of dominos for £1.00, and a calculator for £1.00.