The Source - a Bargain Hunter's Guide

My immediate area has a wealth of charity shops to choose from, just around the corner, within walking distance there are four. Hastings town centre has eight and further along the seafront St. Leonard-on-sea boasts nine, with a couple of odd ones tucked away in the town's back streets.
From my experience the big High street shops like the British Heart Foundation, seem to spend more money on their appearance with regular re-fits, selling mostly last years seasonal fashions and brand names but the prices are extortionate e.g £1.99 for a washed out bobbly T-shirt from Primark, which costs the same new!
Whereas the smaller shops supporting local charities, such as St.Michael's Hospice and the Blind Association are a lot cheaper.
Don't forget to haggle, I know it's not very British but it works. If the item is damaged or has a button missing don't be afraid to ask for discount. e.g recently I tried on a beautiful fitted Fenn Wright Manson jacket, priced at £3.95 but the inner lining of the arms was ripped to shreds, asked for discount and got it for two quid...nice, especially as they're about £130 new!
Another point to remember is that Charity shops will split up a suit as they get more money selling them separately than as a set, so if you find a lovely jacket have a look out for the matching skirt or trousers on a different rail. Also sadly they get more money from selling donations as a job lot weight of rags to large companies, therefore their stock is on a time limit being displayed for a few weeks then chucked (re-cycled).

Of course it's totally pot luck what turns up in these shops, that's the fun and exciting part...you just never know.

Jumble sales are also great places for bargains but are truly scary events, bringing out the hunter/fighter instinct in people. The last one I went to was a year ago and I'm still emotionally scarred by the experience. Trestle tables heaving with mountains of clothes, brick-a-brack, books and toys. The crowd queued outside in a civilised manner....but suddenly turned into total anarchy the moment the doors opened, rushing, heaving, pushing, shoving with elbows akimbo....I was out of practice, too slow to get anywhere near the clothes so I squeezed into a space on the brick-a-brack table, nothing much of interest, fondue sets, table lamps and general clutter. After a while I managed to get to my goal, grabbing and sorting through, an odd glove, a squashed hat, the bedding had got mixed into this soup of wonders, the feel of nylon sheets, not nice!

The trick here is speed and bulk, grab an armful of likely looking garments ask "How much?" and pay (usually a quid or so) leave the hall and have a sort through outside, immediately discard anything that's rubbish by putting it back on the table. Another tip is to always carry your own plastic bags, the bigger the better and don't forget to look under the table for shoes, hat boxes and interesting oddments.

My favourite place has to be the local rubbish dump. Luckily for me it's close to my work so I'm a regular visitor, knowing the staff by name, we have a joke that I should have my own parking space there. Other peoples rubbish is my treasure and I'm not the only one, most junk shop owners get the majority of their stock here.

Go on have a haggle!