jazzabelle's diary

*Satchel, charity shop, £4 *Tortoiseshell Audrey Sunglasses, giveaway win at Pretty Much Penniless
I had my first ever shift at my favourite charity shop today, I had such a wonderful time! I'll be working every WEDNESDAY (not Tuesday, sorry, haha!) from 12:30 to 17:00, so if you are in the area come on down, hehe. Though I would really insist that you pop by in the next few days, I have never seen so many clothes in stock! I don't have the confidence to get a proper job yet, but already I feel more comfortable working in a retail enviroment, I just can't wait for next week now, though I'm sure I'll pass by before then to buy a few more clothes! At first I was really shy to ask the lovely lady, Vicky, I work with if I could keep stuff back for me, but before I could ask she told me to go around at pick what I'd like. I ended up with a faux leather tulip skirt, a Harvard tee and two pairs of shorts. They would have cost me a total of £3.50, but Vicky told me to ring it through the till at only a pound, how kind of her?! Anyway, I thought I'd make this post quite charity shop related so below I'll be answering some of the questions from my previous post. Please do share your answers to these questions too, or comment with any more questions on charity and car boot shopping you may have and I'll reply below! I'll be answering the rest of the questions over the next week or so. Here we go...

Where are your favourite charity shops in London?
To be honest, I only really ever go to the same few in the Battersea area, but I always pop into every charity shop I pass as who knows what I might find? My favourite charity shop is definately the Wandsworth Oasis on Battersea Park Road, which is literally just around the corner from my flat and is now where I am volunteering (yay!). The majority of my secondhand clothes come from there, I usually visit about three times a week, hehe. This charity shop is quite touch and go though, some pieces are a tad expensive for my liking, but they have a lovely fifty pence rail where I have previously bought clothes from Zara, Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, Primark, H&M, Jil Sander, New Look and vintage to name a few. They stock lots of mens shirts and hobo jumpers, dresses and skirts, baskets of belts and scarfs for around fifty pence each, plus there are also bags, shoes, jewelry, bric-a-brac and furniture. I would really recommend that you search 'charity shops in London', or a more specific area or road into Google maps, It's really a great way of discovering new charity and junk shops!

Do you have any tips for haggling and cheap buying?
I personally don't like to haggle in charity shops, even the ridiculously expensive ones (ten pounds for a Primark top, no thank-you!), as it's for charity and all, so I would recommend that you get to know the people working in the shops. That way they will start to know what your style is and point out pieces they think you will like, hold stuff back for you, give you discounts and even stuff for free! It's great fun haggling at car boot sales, though. The most important thing is to have lots of change in various pockets on you and in your bag, if you carry notes with you then the sellers will know you have more money and may try and rip you off. I tend to pick something up that I want, ask how much it is and if the price is too high then I'll put it back down, nine times out of ten they will immediately reduce the price, if not don't be afraid to ask if you can have it for less! Sellers usually reduce their prices even more near the end of the car boot sale as they don't want to take everything back home, so hang around as I have often seen clothes that where £2 at the beginning of the day be reduced to 20p near the end. 

What is your favourite charity shop find?
Oh, now this is a difficult question! I actually can't think of one top charity shop find, I have quite a few but my mind changes practically every day, so here is a list of my favourite bargains which have been seen on my blog to date: tie dye dress for £3, hobo jumper for 50p, satchel for £4, vintage bag for 10p, floral skirt for £2, denim shirt for 50p, zara raincoat for £9.50, lace vest for 50p, zara plum dress for £7.50.