Frugal Muslimah: Boot Fair Bargains July 2020

We managed to make it to one or two boot fairs in July. The best one being Boreham boot fair in Essex. On this occasion there were a lot of sellers, not many buyers and a lot of bargains to be had. We went late and before long people started packing up, so we grabbed a few bits:

This was only £1, but I knew it wasn’t a good idea as soon as I bought it. I got it home and the kids argued over it then managed to get tiny sweets all over the place before I had to confiscate and hide it.

The Horrible Science books were 50p for the whole stack and the two at the bottom (picked by the Babies) were 20p each. My younger son loved the Horrible series and learned a lot from them.

These learning books were around 50p each, with the Crayola handwriting practice board £1

GCSE practice books for £1, my older son has missed so much school, hopefully these will be some help for his GCSE exams next year insh'Allah.

These books were for me and were 50p each, except for The Bone Clocks which was £2. I really love this writers first book (Cloud Atlas), so was keen to try another by him. I’ve just started reading We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler and have heard good things about it.

Somebody kindly gave these to me for free. I may not keep them and will either pass them on or donate to a charity shop, as I use the internet for recipes. But I think I’ll have a quick flick through for inspiration.

This was my fave bargain: a rope of glass crystal with a sparkly, rainbow AB (Aurora Borealis) finish for 50p. I have a project in mind for these (see next post 😊)

I really enjoyed bargain hunting. I hope to do one more boot fair before the summer is out.

Picture of the Day 16.06.19: Car Boot Fairs Summer 2019

As my husband is away in India at the moment and I don’t drive, my dad has been kind enough to take me to the boot fairs for the last few weekends.  It has been lovely spending an early Sunday morning with my parents on a long drive to the countryside and then a few good hours of bargain hunting in the fresh air amongst the greenery. We went to Boreham (which has been my favourite as it is very good natured and I always find something I like), Swanley (very big) and the Flamingo boot fair in Sidcup (which used to be great, but nothing much there now).

I have picked up some fab craft materials, party supplies, some beautiful jewellery and the kids got some new toys.  I also found a super light stick hoover (£2) and a carpet and flooring steam cleaner mop (£6), which hopefully will make my life easier.  The boys have taken turns to go with me and have bought a suitcase (they are both going Pakistan in summer), lava lamps (which Gorgeous is obsessed with), footballs and new trainers and football clothes (you get professional traders there too who sell new goods).

I am never failed to be surprised by the things I see at these places – there is always some antique or rare thing that you don’t see everyday.  I had to take a sneaky pic when I saw these:

I bought a big bucket of these dominoes for the Babies (for 50p), but Gorgeous has been having great fun with these:

I’m taking a little break from car boot sales at the moment, because it’s too easy to spend what looks like change until it all adds up, and I don’t sleep enough as it is.  But I hope to go to a few more when hubby us back.

Frugal Haul September 2018

We managed to go to a boot fair during September and find a few bargains.  The one we went to was at Chigwell Rise on Saturday morning and is one of the busier ones I have been to. 

I came back with some pretty and fun, but probably not very practical things:

Most things in this picture cost about 50p.  The makeup bags I save and fill with makeup and jewellery that I send to my six sisters in law once a year. The doodle books were really nice quality and the big blue post-it’s are sitting on my bedside table for when I need to remind myself of something in the morning. The key-rings are on the kid’s school bags.  The box with the peacock was my fave thing and Little Lady is using it for jewellery.

The haul below was all from one seller and including the bag, box and all of the craft supplies inside, cost me £2. The seller was so generous, that every time I picked up for things I liked, she would just put it in the bag and include it in the price.  I can tell you I was over the moon and it made me want to get crafting and card-making insh’Allah.

The bag included some really nice card stock and papers, glitter papers, sticker packs and embellishments.

The glittered DCWV Sweet stack is one of my all time favourite card stacks, you can bet I was pleased to see papers from this in amongst the rest.  

I can't wait to play with these:

I’m looking forward to making something with all of this. 

Thrifty Haul August 2017

Hubby is away until after Eid, so usually visiting boot sales would have been out of the question.  But my mum and dad are planning to go Pakistan later this year, so have been visiting boot fairs at the weekend to do some their shopping.  Last weekend, they called me soon after fajr (dawn) prayer and asked me if I wanted to go with them.  I didn’t need to be asked twice.  

We ended up driving about an hour away to the Chelmsford BootFair.  This was the first time I visited this site and it turned out to be one of the best boot fairs I have been to.  We left late morning to return home laden with bargains.  I found some really nice things for next to nothing alhamdulillah.

I bought the red alphabet toy and the microphone as soon as I got there.  Both were working with batteries and cost £1 and 50p respectively.  The assortments of purses, walkie talkies and wind-up torches were all 50p each.

Most of the items in the picture below were also 50p, everyone ended up with a pair of sunglasses, I kept the pretty necklace with the crystal hearts and Little Lady has already filled the acrylic butterfly with her earrings.  The grey mirror matches her bedroom.  LL also took the tin of post its and the naughty book.  The naughty book has been a source of great hilarity.  I come home from work and every day the days misdemeanours are recorded in it much to both Darling and Baby's dismay (ok maybe Darling, Baby loves to create mischeif). Even I and my mum-in-law get a mention.

The practice books were 20p each and the watercolour pad and book were 50p.

This was my pile for myself, varying from 20p to £1. I have been interested in NLP for some time, so look forward to seeing what I can learn from this book.

Thrifty Haul March 2017

I had an urge for some retail therapy this morning and not wanting to waste too much money, I decided to take a trip to the charity shops.  Gorgeous wakes up early like me and is the only one that will tolerate going anywhere near a charity shop, even the babies moan at me if I go into one, so I took him along with me.

I managed to find everyone something without wasting too much money.

The bag of little girl’s toys and the bag of balls cost 99p each, prompting Gorgeous to sing "Balls! Balls! Balls! Balls!" until I asked him to stop.  The acrylic paints were for Little Lady and cost £2, when I checked the Wilko website, I realised they cost that much anyway.

The two little dishes are to use for soap trays.  Both I and Little Lady have been using Shea Moisture Black Soap and the bars of soap are quite big and can get a little messy.  Normal soap trays are too small, so these will contain larger bars of soap.  Both together cost £2.

The two toiletry bags were £2 for both, the large one is a really good size to store stationary or make-up, but in the end I put small toys in it for the girls to play with when we go to my mum’s house 

The little kid’s books were 2 for 99p, with the Hungry Caterpillar for Baby.  The little green notebook was 50p and has dots inside.  It's perfect for a dots and boxes game I like to play with the boys, otherwise I will use it for taking rough notes.

I was looking for some engrossing fiction to get lost in, but the shelves full of chick-lit and supermarket thrillers didn't really appeal.  In the end, I picked three books which cost £5 altogether.  I really, really like the look of all three alhamdulillah.

January 2017 Thrifty Haul: Book Buys

I am missing the boot sales we get to go to in summer, so made a trip to the charity shop to pick up some books for myself and the boys. Someone had given away shelves of sci-fi classics and I picked a few. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes has been on my reading list for ages and it's the first one I started with. I am really enjoying it.

The yellow book is Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood who is one of my favourite writers, occasionally her books get too surreal for me, but this is a collection of short stories so should be digestible enough even for my short attention span.

The Gifts of Imperfection is by Brene Brown who was made famous by her TED Talk on the power of vulnerability. That got me interested enough to want to try the book.

The rest are also self-help books which I have a weakness for. The Barefoot Doctor's Handbook for the Urban Warrior is probably not I would have picked up, except that I opened it to take a look and came across the following:

"Death
As a warrior, you're already dead"

Something about that resonated so deeply with me and I have always had a longing to be a braver more fearless soul, so I decided to take this book home too.

The paints are part of a little paint set stored in a lovely yellow tin. I really wanted to keep it, but in the end I gave it to Little Lady who will make good use of it.

Enforced Minimalism

I have long been attracted by minimalism. It is one of my life goals to give away what I have and have next to nothing by the time I die. A nice thought, but in reality I find myself collecting all sorts of things: gifts, stationary, jewellery, craft supplies. Five children bring their own wealth of toys, clothing and school supplies. My mum-in-law visits every year, so keeps some of her stuff here and I still have bags and drawers of things other in-laws have left here. As time has gone by I have found myself feeling as if I am being buried under stuff and as if managing and tidying it takes up all of my time. Continuous attempts to declutter and dozens of bags dropped off to the charity shop or cargo’ed to family in Pakistan seem to have limited effect. My mum-in-law also dislikes waste and is adept at reusing and upcycling items, so I sometimes have to sneak things out to the charity shop before she spots them.

This week we started building work in our home to create bedrooms in our loft. Initially this was mostly external and we were supposed to carry on staying in the bedrooms. My husband decided he wanted to lower the ceilings of our bedroom and gave us a day to pack up all of the bedrooms so that the builders could bring down the ceilings the next day. This was the day before the kids were due to go back to school.

We spent the whole day and a good part of the night packing everything up. I gave the kids two boxes each, one for two weeks worth of clothes and the other for all of their school stuff.  I kept a box for my work clothing and one for the rest of my clothing. The babies got a box each too and one for Baby’s nappies. As we packed one wardrobe or drawer at a time, I took out items to send Pakistan and some for the charity shop, reducing what was left to what we genuinely used and wanted.

The eight of us are currently in the two rooms downstairs. We are sleeping on mattresses and in sleeping bags and I am being very strict about putting things back in our boxes as soon as we are done with them so that the kids don’t lose their school things. It might sound horrible, but in truth I have found it very cathartic and liberating to move most of our stuff into storage and it has been very freeing to have so much less to manage. I and hubby are both clear that we will not move it all back in after the work is finished. 

Our stuff:

My house with the roof off, you can see the stars and the dust flying around:

It sounds ungrateful to complain about having so much when so many have so little. That is not my intention. I feel incredibly blessed and sometimes in awe of the sheer amount that seems to come our way. Gifts from friends and family, freebies that my husband brings home because of his job, some of the amazing bargains we have found for next to nothing at boot fairs in the past, and the more we give away, share and gift, the more seems to come back. What comes to mind is being careful about what we buy, consume and hold on to.

I hope I can hold on to the principle of owning and buying less, giving away the best of what you have and not the junk you don’t want and not equating worth and value with material possessions.

I would love to hear from readers, are you a minimalist? How do you remain clutter free with children? Do you find that the modern world means you are surrounded by unnecessary things?

Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) said: “Will you not listen? Will you not listen? Will you not listen? Verily simplicity is a part of Iman. Verily simplicity is a part of Iman. Verily simplicity is a part of Iman” (Abu Dawood).

Boot Fair Haul May Bank Holiday 2016

We took the whole family down to the Dunton boot fair this past bank Holiday Monday. We didn't leave home until about 10am and the bargain hunters get the best things at about 7am, so I wasn't expecting much. We didn't end up getting much of anything useful, but I did find a few really nice things:

We always seem to find great art materials, the box of Reeves acrylic paints and paint by numbers were 50p together (the paints are RRP £11.45 on Amazon), and the three little canvasses were £1, Little Lady has a really nice idea for a kind of triptych for these. The orange book is the exercise book that Little Lady uses at school for maths (30p) and the A3 paper is 100 sheets for £1 which the kids can use for school projects.

I had a quick flick through the recipes in the Flavours of India book (50p, but £8.95 here) and they looked quite good, I am wary of buying cook books for recipes I would never try, but this one looked like it had some reasonable suggestions at first glance.

The Sweet Poison Quit Plan by David Gillespie (50p, £5.59 on Amazon), seemed very relevant to my attempts to eat healthier and cut sugar at the moment and the promise on the blurb at the back ("David Gillespie cut sugar from his diet he lost 6 stone - and it kept it off) had me sold, it remains to be seen how good it is.

The third book is Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman.  I think I am ok with my EQ, but I read my degree in Psychology 16 years ago and recently decided I would like to pick it up and start reading around the subject again.  This was £1 (£6.99 for the paperback).  Can someone tell me when I am going to read all of these books I keep buying?

Little Lady was very clear that she did not want to go along, but I dragged her along anyway.  We ended up spending a few hours chatting about her school and friends and I bought her a few things: The little blue storage baskets (50p for three), the golden coloured bracelet (50p), the very pretty gold mirror (50p), I bought the black mirror for myself (20p), but will give it away.

The big box that looks like a hatbox, is actually full of little books: The Sugar & Spice...& All Things Nice (Box set) by Keda Black.  Each book has a different ingredient or has two ingredients, one on the front and when turned around one on the book.  The whole book then has recipes based on that main ingredient.   They are full of lovely pictures and the ingredients are luscious: chocolate, mint, lemon, lime, green tea, orange flower water, cinnamon, white chocolate, strawberry, chestnut, apricot, mango, summer berries, cherry, vanilla, caramel and nougat.  The recipes don't seem easy and have few ingredients.  It cost me a whole £1.  I really don't have space to store this, but I am going to read all of the little books just to learn about food and also see if the recipes are any good (there is one for a Mango shrikhand dessert that looks lush).  Amazon don't seem to have this new anymore except for various used sets from £1.18 to £90 and a new set for £112, I have no idea what the original price might have been.

I was happy enough with my haul and it will certainly keep us entertained.

Thrifty Haul January 2016

It has been quite some time since I found a good thrifty haul (like this, this, this or this amazing craft haul), especially as the boot fairs I enjoy so much don't start until near the end of March. So instead I made do with a trip to my local charity shop to hang out by the book shelves and see if anyhting caught my fancy.

I found a few treats for myself and the children and came away happy.

The books below were £1 each and two of them: Social Butterfly by Moni Mohsin and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston were ones on my reading list. The Leapfrog Leappad toy was discovered by Litte Man for Darling. It usually costs about £25 with the books for about £8, this one cost £3 with the batteries included. I am a big fan of this brand and she has really been enjoying playing with it.

The rainbow box sets below caght my eye immediatey and turned out to be Coaching Academy training DVD's (costing £3 per set).  I have long had an interest in coaching, so if I can make the time to sit through these, insh'Allah I hope they will benefit me personally and also help to determine if this something I want to pursue in the future.

The little set of books was new and nice for Darling and Baby to share.  I usually avoid ornaments or anything that is slightly chintzy or has no function, but this little bowl of fruit caught my eye and just enchanted me as I love miniatures.  The fruit is made of stoneand I can't tell if it is dyed in some way or the marble is coloured.  I have found a few similar on the internet (Etsy, eBay and antique shops) variously described as vintage Italian alabaster, onyx marble or dyed quartz carved fruit and selling for anything from £15 to £50. This little set cost £3.

I was quite happy with my finds and I am thoroughly enjoying the Social Butterfly book, this should keep me happy until the boot fairs start again.

August 2014 Boot Fair Finds

This weekend one of hubby's friends from the masjid wanted to visit a boot fair with his wife and daughter, so he invited me to come with them.  Little Lady was still awake from fajr (dawn prayers), so invited herself along too.

I have only been once or twice this year, so was very keen to go.  We ended up at Dunton Boot Fair which is enormous and also visited Barleylands Boot Fair on the way home which is smaller but my favourite for craft materials, jewellery and children's books and toys.

These are the books we bought, all of these were between 20p and 50p and the kids have been enjoying reading these.

The three fashion books were 20p each, I have bought versions of these for Little Lady before where I have found them discounted and they cost around £5 (on Amazon they cost between £5 and £11).  The little knitting tool was 50p and the Star Wars Story Studio £1.  I try to look for things that keep the kids busy and mean that they have to use their imagination or own initiative.

This was one of my favourite finds.  The box of acrylic paints was 50p (they are £3.99 each in the shop).  The lady then threw in the watercolour paints for free (the smaller tubes).

The pencils are half watercolour pencils and half regular colour pencils.  I love how pristine they are.  I have been wanting to try and learn some simple art with watercolour pencils  (inspired by images like this).

Little Lady took some money of her own and enjoyed doing her own shopping.  This was her haul (bag, fingerless gloves, purses x2, packet of silver loom bands and Jacqueline Wilkinson 2014 planner all 50p, mini Miffy stationary 20p and Tatty Teddy (her favourite) pencil case full of stationary £1).  The snaps she bought for her brothers who then dropped them all over the house.

She also bought this rainbow loom band for £1 as it was a different design than she usually makes.  The little rainbow crystal bracelet came with the sparkly bangle I bought for myself in the image at the bottom, both were £2 together.

The peacock feather locket is a Past Times Art Nouveau range one which was £15 in the shop and which we paid £1 for and Little Lady absolutely loves it.  The ring was 50p.

It was nice to pick up some treats at bargain prices and it means that we'll all have lots to keep us busy and for us to play with.

Thrifty Craft Haul

I haven't got long to go with this pregnancy insh'Allah, with my due date at the end of the month and I don't like to leave the house too much.  I thought I'd make a short trip into town and get everything we need while I am holed up.

I needed to get the kids some scrap books and glue sticks.  Also as Little Lady has been so crazy over her loom bands, I thought I'd buy her a crochet hook and knitting needles.  She has been using YouTube tutorials on the tablet her granddad bought her to make things out of the little rubber loom bands and I thought she could try the same with some other types of crafts.

You often find knitting needles and wool in charity shops, so we thought we would have  a look whilst we were out.  We didn't find the knitting needles in the charity shop, but I found some really nice stationary and craft materials:

All of these came to just over £15 and included:


Two Pukka Pad project books (usually about £5 each) - I remember using a different version of these at university and really loving them.  So Little Lady is going to use these for high school.

A plain canvas for my artistic neighbour.  This was £1 and I saw the same size in the shops for £6

A bright pink moleskine style lined notebook with really nice quality paper.  I have a thing for notebooks and stationary, so this is mine.

Crate Paper 12x12 Paper pad in Pink Plum, I have seen for £20 online and a reduced version for £8 in TK Maxx and paid £1.25.  Not sure about this paper set as not what I am usually drawn to, but I like some of the blossom prints which remind me of Japanese prints.

DCWV The Glam Rhinestone Stack in Brights.  DCWV along with American Crafts is one of my favourite craft brands.  This pack costs about £20, although I couldn't find it online in the UK any more, I ended up paying £1.25

American Crafts Glitters in Iridescent  - I've been eyeing up these and the Martha Stewart version for a long time, but couldn't justify the cost (around £30 on various UK sites), this cost £4.

Probably our favourite find was this very small unlined notebook by Paperblanks which we are both a fan of, but which is normally outside of our budget.  This is the Nodding Blooms Micro (£6.99) and cost us £1.  The sparkly cover is so pretty and Little Lady asked for it to keep in her school bag.

In the end I bought her some knitting needles and a crochet hook from the high street along with two balls of wool and she has been practising with her grandmother who used to knit.

Updating My Wardrobe on a Budget

I don't usually buy a lot of clothes for myself, apart from work shoes and occasionally replacing my black abaya's (they seem to rip at the shoulders and get threadbare at the bottom where I tread on them a lot). After a few years of wearing gifted clothes however, I started to feel really dowdy, so I thought I would update my wardrobe a little with things that are to my taste and not blingy, or baggy, or too bright.

When I buy clothes I have to make sure they are comfortable because I am always on the move, semi-smart because we often have people coming and going though the house and I want to look nice for my family and also modest.  They have to also be accommodating for when I make wudhu (ablutions) and do my prayers - so sleeves that are easy to pull up and trousers that are long enough to cover to my ankles when I pray.

My idea of updating my wardrobe is by no means going on a spree, I am on a strict budget.  So I was quite pleased by what I found in the end of sale racks last week.

This dress was from M&S's Autograph range which I really like.  It was reduced from £45 to £18 and has ruching across the stomach to hide some of the baby weight I have yet to shift.  I really like the print of this.

I found these trousers in the same shop reduced from £35 I think to £6.  They are a super comfortable warm fabric with a herringbone print.  I normally never wear prints with prints, but these trousers went really nicely with the dress above.

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These very wide-legged trousers were also from M&S and were reduced from £35 to £7.  They are nice and light for summer with a satin waistband and go with the upcoming trend for shorter tunics and very wide palazzo-style pants that is coming though in Asian clothes.

It has been ages since I bought a new coat.  I have been wearing hand-me-downs from my sisters (which I very much appreciated and didn't mind at all), but they are all slimmer than me, so this is the first coat I have had in about two years which lets me close the buttons - which feels a bit strange (I can stop telling my husband when he asks why I don't shut my buttons, not to worry because it's not that cold).  It's also from M&S and was reduced from £100 to £48 and is a cashmere mix.  It's a little boring, but it is nice and warm and it's kind of  a classic shape.

This week I found this lovely dress which was reduced from £30 to £18 (the website says £20, but I found it cheaper in a local department store).  It's warm and comfortable and I like the houndstooth check print on the sides.

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In the same shop I found this David Jones clutch reduced to £10.  It's quite big (almost the size of my weekend cross-body handbag and I like the colour.  I've never heard of the brand before but there is a black version here for £30.

In all I'm quite pleased with my buys and I have been enjoying wearing my new clothes.  The other little find that I have made that I would share is the hair serums from Hask that I found for £2.50 at Primark.  The Argan oil smells pleasantly of oranges and really helps to make my hair manageable. 

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This is the Keratin Protein version and doesn't have the scent and is very, very light when you pour it out.  If you have slightly dry hair like me, I would definitely recommend these.  There are Macadamia and Monio oil versions too, but I haven't been able to find these.

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