Grand Days Out

This week we had two very lovely family days out for very little money. The first was absolutely free! We packed a picnic and went down to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyards. There are some really good activities and sights that you can pay to see, but it's still a good day out if you don't. You can walk through a lovely thoroughfare and see both historic ships and commissioned naval vessels in harbour and dry dock. There are lovely picnic areas, cafes, gardens and facilities, and very tempting shops. You can also walk around the corner to the Gunwharf Quays complex, which has a lovely seafront where you can watch the ferries and admire a variety of boats, as well as lovely shops, restaurants, and a cinema. Sausages really enjoyed the whole day, and there was definitely enough to entertain him without having to do the charging activities. However, I'm really looking forward to going to the new Marie Rose museum when it opens.

Our second day out was a trip around all the charity shops in the Outlaws' town. There must be about eight, and the change in our wallets brought us this little lot:

Please note the working Black & Decker children's workbench for 99p. Score. Quite how it's going to travel from the South Coast to Cambridgeshire in our tiny tiny car, which was already full to the gunwales on the way down, is another issue entirely. Sausages is having a great time playing with it, and has filled the shelves with books. That's my boy! 

Charity shop shopping is a real art form. You can find some really good things at good prices, but there is also a lot of overpriced stuff too. Oxfam bookshops are notorious for this, and for some reason charity shops always seem to ask higher prices for Primark clothes than you might pay first hand. D'oh! What's your favourite charity shop bargain? Where have you found good charity shops?

Happy hunting!

E