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Thursday, April 04, 2013

The nice thing about British Summer Time is that if you're brave enough to walk through a blizzard in your lunch break, and shake snow off your frostbitten fingers whilst trying to speak with a frozen face, you'll often find that the local charity shops are selling their winter clothing at knockdown prices. I bought a nice thick cardigan at lunchtime today, which was both Next and next to nothing. And I didn't even need a bag. I told them I'd wear it home. Along with any balaclavas they might have.

As luck would have it, I was also able to buy everything I need for this year's summer holiday... with the exception of thermal underwear and snow shoes. One of the problems with taking my family away for more than one night is that they each pack enough stuff to fill a skip (which is ideally where I'd like to put it), and I struggle to get it all in the car. When we went to Devizes last month, Big Sis was forced to borrow a cot and a buggy from a friend, as we couldn't fit either in the boot. Although it worked out quite well, as both were better quality than we're used to.

Amelie starts school in September, which means that this summer is the last chance we'll ever get to go on holiday without first robbing a bank. So despite money being pretty tight at the moment, we've managed to scrape together enough funds for a low budget week in Devon at the end of June. We're hiring a cot from the five star hotel cheap holiday park we're staying at, but they won't supply us with a buggy, and I can't afford the roof box we'd need to get our one down there in the car.

So the choice is either to use the baby carrier for a week, thereby causing myself permanent spinal injury and limiting our movements to the distance I can stagger unaided on a single dose of morphine, or to buy ourselves a much smaller, lighter and more compact buggy for the holiday. I've been on the lookout for one for the past couple of weeks, but today I was in Hassocks, which is home to the only charity shop I know which specialises in stuff for children.

They had five buggies lined up outside today (plus the same high chair we've just bought brand new - I could have wept), one of which was just what we needed. It was slightly snow-damaged, but other than that seemed fine, so I picked it up for a few quid, and used it to wheel my cardigan back to the health centre. Now I just need to find a second hand bikini for Lisa, and we're ready to go.

1 comments:

Phil's Mum said...

I wish I could find such bargains in charity shops.