Why do I do what I do?

During the market research chat I did recently with a lovely lady called Charlotte, it really made me think about why do I do what I do?
Sustainability and eco-lifestyles are making the news more and more, and I'm so pleased that that's happening. (As a quick aside, I have to mention a fantastic book called The Sustainable(ish) Living Guide by the wonderful Jen Gale. I can't remember how I first found her facebook page and then group, but I quickly devoured all her blog archive and soaked in all the info about how she and her family went for a year buying nothing new. That was several years ago, her year, I mean, and she's continued to live in an eco friendly sustainable-ish way. She recently had her first book published - the aforementioned tome, and it is written in such an inviting way. One night the kids and I read bits of it rather than reading their school reading books, and even were quick to jump on board with the things she said, and how we can implement them in our lives). (Sorry, that wasn't a quick aside, but I think it was a good one!) (Jen's facebook group and her book)

But I think that my reasons for living the way we do - for example, reduced shopping, charity shop bargains,  not buying plastic tat..... probably started out for frugal reasons. I have loved charity shop shopping since as long as I can remember. There was a holiday we went on with my parents somewhere in Devon, when Sophia was little, that the number of charity shops and/or second hand shops visited within a fortnight totalled into the thirties. I've forgotten the exact number, it being nearly ten years ago (wow, that's a lifetime ago? Well, Soph's lifetime anyway!)
But I've been going in charity shops long before that holiday. My parents live very close to a charity shop, so close in fact, that when we went in during the Christmas break, one of the ladies who volunteers there was marvelling at how tall Sophia is now, and remembering her as a tiny baby!)
I love the hunt, finding the exact thing that was on my mental 'look for' list.

  (Another aside, have a mental list looking ahead for what you will be needing. Think of things like the next couple of sizes ahead for your baby or child, look for possible Christmas or birthday presents all year round, know what needs and wants are coming up, and you'll be so much more likely to find what you need, before or when you need it. I love looking out for things for my nieces and friend's children too, so if you're looking for something, I'm happy to keep an eye out for you too!)

As some of you who've been following my blog for a while will know, I love shopping for reduced food. Again, this probably comes from my love of a bargain, but also my love of maths and numbers! But actually, buying 'yellow sticker' items is good for the environment too. It's one that hurts my head a bit, as with reduced items I may end up with more plastic packaging than if I'd chosen a loose fresher item. But, I still think that saving food from the bin is a good option. And I do my best to recycle all the plastic and other packaging that can be recycled. This is also a good option for the person who wishes to eat in a way that's better for the environment, but can't necessarily afford the luxury of more expensive options. Because let's face it, options like free range, organic, loose or free flow (like from a measure out what you want store) do tend to be more expensive options. And sometimes it is definitely worth investing in those, but for those on the knife edge when it comes to finances, there isn't always wiggle room for more ethical eating.

This post was supposed to be about why I do what I do. And I'm not really sure I do know why exactly.  I guess I just feel things in my gut. Sometimes it's to do with no, I'm not going to buy that plastic tat item for £20, but if we see if for £1.50 in the charity shop we might (Specific example here - nerf and similar style guns. I refused to buy them in a 'real' shop, but when we saw one which Jaiden was extremely enamoured with, in the charity shop, I allowed him to spend his money on it!)
The kids and I regularly look at the RRP message that comes up on adverts for children's toy, and discuss how much that £19.99, or £49.99 might mean in terms of how many meals it would feed the family for! But also, how that much money is required for a toy which is single use or single purpose. That's why I love toys like brio or lego which are ageless classics! (Not necessarily the lego sets that are more single purpose, I'm talking about boxes of bricks and accessories, which you can rummage through to your hearts content, and build something that comes out of your imagination!)
And don't get me started on LOL and other mystery eggs. I hate them with a passion, and have done even before I was thinking more about what things are specifically made of.

I like saving money, I like providing my family with what we need, within the funds that we have. I don't agree with getting into debt for things like Christmas presents, or buying stuff for the sake of buying it. And recently, my mind has been made even more aware of what we can do to help save the world. It sounds a bit corny writing it like that, but that's basically what it comes down to. If we want our children to experience all the animals and bits of the world as we experienced them, then we need to act. Things are changing at a too rapid speed, and we need to work together, small changes making big differences.

Anyway, this post got very long and rambling. But maybe I've given you some food for thought, I've certainly given myself things to think about!

Brio - Everyone can get in on the act!

Our collection of brio must be one of the longest lasting toys in this house (although that's quickly followed by Jaiden's clicky things aka zoob)

I have happy memories of playing with brio when I was a child, and it's one of the toys that has stood the test of time at my parent's house too - now being played with my grandkids. I remember the little boy my mum used to childmind, playing and making loops, and then after he went home, my dad would work on the track, developing and extending it to be even bigger and better! I also remember we used to buy Daddy bits of brio from the Early Learning shop for his birthday.

Our collection mostly came from hand-me-downs, charity shops, and from a lady I connected with through a wonderful facebook group called Enfield free for families - which is based in Enfield, Middlesex and the surrounding area, which my lovely friend established, and I've been a part of since the very beginning.

I know I go on and on about charity shops, but I LOVE them.  They are so good for so many reasons.
Money! The environment! One of a kind items! And much more.
If I could only shop in charity shops from now on, I would probably take that challenge on. I can probably count on my fingers how many times I've bought brand new clothes/toys/etc in the last few months.

These memories surfaced in my brain thanks to watching children at my work playing and loving brio, and reminded me how great it is for some many age groups and people. Plus I was looking at old pics on my computer and just couldn't resist this one of my favourite people.

A few more notable charity shop sourced outfits

 Angel costume! Soph grew out of the 'angel' costumes that most people wear for nativity shows, but we didn't let that stop us letting her be an angel in the church nativity. A top and skirt from the charity shop, along with tinsel pinned into her hair. Job done!

 This dress came from a charity shop, and all I had to do was shorten the shoulder straps a bit. Smart enough for a wedding, but without spending a million dollars. I believe it cost about £1.50 and she already owned the cardigan.
Likewise the jacket Jaiden is wearing. I found that in a charity shop for £5. And he loved it (It's always a bit hit and miss buying Jaiden clothes if he's not there, but at charity shop prices, it's worth the risk!)

 This was the Room on the Broom witch costume we made for World Book Day. The top was a red school cardigan she already owned, the skirt was made from a piece of purple cord material. I can't remember if I got this from a friend who was having a clear out, or from the charity shop. Either way, it was using what we had!
The hat and broom were borrowed from a friend, and the cat was cousin Phoebe's special Kitty, which was borrowed and carefully returned before she missed it too much! And the wand was Sophia's already too.

Finally, I have to mention some of our Christmas jumper finds. These were both acquired in charity shops, as have almost every Christmas jumper we've ever owned as a family. They cost between one and perhaps three pounds, and they've been passed on responsibly after we were done. This photo was from a few years ago, and Jaiden actually wore the penguin one this Christmas just gone. And I think the reindeer was passed on to a cousin. 

Charity shop sourced dressing up

One of the things I love/hate about the school my children attend, is the opportunites they give the children to be submerced in a particular era or event. They ask the children to dress up according to the topic they have been, or about to study. And then spend the day doing activities connected to that topic. I believe they also often work with portals to the past, who are a company? group? who come in to the school in character and lead the children through activities.

Most of the photos I have here are of Sophia, as she's older, and done more of them! But I thought it might be helpful to share how we have put these outfits together fairly cheaply, and mostly souced from charity shop finds.

Here is the latest outfit we need. It's not totally finished, so here are a couple of work in progress photos.
We started off looking for white dresses or tunics, however the charity shop didn't have anything suitable, but I was not deterred by this. Sophia took a little persuading, but with some more googling, we found some images of 'Egyptian people' wearing colours other than white, and decided that blue might work, with gold. We found this long dress, and I will need to take the shoulder straps up a bit. But it won't need anything fancy, I'll literally fold the strap over and hand sew some stitches. If you really don't want to sew, you could use tape or safety pins.

Next we needed to find something metalic to make the outfit more impressive. We though gold might look better.And with some more rummaging, we found this gold top. I scrunched it up here, for Soph to be able to see what it might look like once cut.

When we got home I cut the bottom half of the top off, then used a giant bowl to get the shape of a curve, and trimmed to make the piece that will go over her shoulders. I don't know what the technical term is! Then the bottom half of the top we put around her waist for a belt, just to see how it will look. There's about twice as much length of top than we need, so I plan to cut it in half and sew, so that she has a belt, and then the other piece we will use to hang down off the belt.

For the sandals, Sophia remembered that she has a pair that she can wear, but we did find a couple of posibilities in the charity shop, that we could have bought if she didn't have any.
Total spend was I think £2 for the dress and £1.50 for the top. And I will add to that maybe an hour of hands on sewing/cutting/thinking.

This white outfit we actually found in the charity shop on the same day, after we had already chosen the blue dress. I bought it for £1, and we passed it on to a friend for her daughter to use for the same event.

This outfit took a lot of time, well, actually it took less time than the one we made for me, which I started off hand sewing, until my lovely sister came to the rescue. Hopefully you can see it's the rainbow fish! Not for a day at work, although my costume was for the end of year party which was under the sea themed! I had lots of fun wearing it. The top Sophia is wearing was bought for 50p from the charity shop. Much of the material for the scales was from clothes that we'd grown out of, or from the charity shop too (I say 'the charity shop', we have a few around here, and we like them all, for different things!)

This outfit was for Roman day at school. The sheet was an amazing find by my mum - that's another handy tip for you - if you know what you're looking for, get your friends and family to keep an eye out for you. I told me mum we needed a white sheet, and she'd found it within days! It's now gone on to be repurposed again, but that's for another post.
The cord was from my mum's string bag, and the sandals and white tshirt we already owned. Total cost for the outfit was I think £2 for the sheet!

Here's the rainbow fish again, along side a dinosaur. This gets a mention because it was a Kermit the frog costume that a friend passed on to me for Jaiden. He asked to be a dinosaur for World Book Day, and thus an idea was born. We cut off the feet and sewed them onto the wrists, to serve as claws. We added eyes and teeth to the hood. And opened the back seam, and added in spikes (I'll have to see if I can find a photo of those). I say we, because my lovely mummy helped me with much of the sewing on this one.




Viking day at school. This one was included some fantastic charity shop finds. The main piece was a brown sheet, which I believe I paid £1 for. The belt we also got in a charity shop, probably for 50p or £1. The hat, I was in a charity shop and mentioned I was looking for one or other element of the outfit, and the lady told me she had a Viking hat out back, and sold it to me for 50p. The boots were quite worn, but for £1 I didn't mind too much. I think we actually bought them for her stone age outfit, but I couldn't find a photo of that. For the stone age costume she wore black leggings, a lady's top which was worn inside out to show off the animal print lining, and these boots. All we bought for that outfit was the boots and the ladies top, which was around £1.50

I love this outfit because it came together so well. We had bought the coat for Sophia earlier in the year for £5 and I realised it would be perfect for the outfit. Usually she wears trousers for school uniform, which I knew wouldn't look right for this era. But I found this dress in a charity shop I had popped in feeling somewhat poorly, after a trip to the doctors and pharmacy -  I think it was when I was off last year with a sinous infection and was off work for a couple of days. Anyway, I found this dress and was delighted. I believe it cost about £2 or £2.50.
The suitcase we already owned, and it made a perfect addition to the outfit. Otherwise I was going to sugest she take a sactchel style bag I own. The gas mask box was made from a box covered in some brown paper (I cut up a large envelope we had). And we added some prints out I found from a quick internet search for something like gas mask printables. Socks and shoes she already owned!


(This is my 1212th post, I like that number, so thought it deserved a mention!)