Carboot Sale Finds

Well its the weekend and in the UK when the sun is shining on a lovely Sunday morning you can find people up and down the country, parked up in fields setting up their tiny boot sale stalls from as early as 5:30am! Carboot sales usually run from April-ish to August-ish (I have to add on 'Ish' as like most things in the UK the weather does dictate) and of course we LOVE them. You all know I love a bargain and a carboot sale is THE place to find bargains. I'm not sure if you have carboot sales in the US, I am guessing they are like a garage sale but a huge one with loads of different sellers...please let me know though?

Last week with it being a bank holiday we had an extra day of boot sale hunting so we set off as early as we could, obviously Finley wanted to eat everything in the fridge that morning so we arrived a little later than planned but still early enough to beat the rush of buyers....a good boot sale tip...arrive as early as you can, you stand a great chance of picking all the best things up before the late crew arrive.

We ended up going to two different sales that day, we are at an advantage living in/very near to the countryside, as loads of fields = loads of carboots. The first was a little pants if I am honest, not many stalls and the ground wasn't very forgiving, it was all shingley rocks which Finley wasn't impressed with. But we still managed to pick up a few items...with a little haggling. Don't be scared to haggle, Matthew hates it and thinks why ask for 50p off, its only 50p? Well all those 50p's and £1's add up so it is worth a go. Plus remember, those people selling all their stuff don't want it anymore, they don't want to have to re-pack it all, drive it back home and put it back in the downstairs cupboard...and because of that I'm 99% sure you will get a bargain.

We didn't find anything mind blowing there but we got a few good bits and wanted to show you our 'steals of the day' :D

A little bit of a random purchase but we just had to have it. Finley loves and I mean LOVES our washing machine and if we let him he would happily sit all day opening and closing the door, pressing every button and of course pulling all the washing over the kitchen floor! The seller must have thought Mathew and I were mad because we were like 'wow look at that' all excited about a tiny plastic washing machine...they saw Finley's cute little face and we explained his love for kitchen appliances and they gladly parted with it for one golden pound! It is sitting proudly with his other toys and has been scrubbed within an inch of its life with Milton....another tip...scrub and spray everything with soap and antibacterial spray, you might want these peoples second hand goods but we do not want any of their second hand germs! 

 Mummy's one and only purchase and I splashed out on this dainty little ring holder for my new dresser...once it arrives! It caught my eye on this little old couples stall and they offered it me for a pound, how could I refuse. Looking back I wish I had picked up a few other pieces, they had some lovely glass pieces perfect for make up brushes and little cotton pads, but hopefully I will bump into them again when we next pop down.

Books, Books and more Books! There were sooo many books for sale but if I bought all of them I would have been able to open a little children's library. The majority of them are all board books as Finley still hasn't grasped the idea of 'no ripping' so until he realises why 3 pages are missing from Mrs Tiggywinkle we are sticking to the sturdy variety. I picked up a little potty training book for when the time comes, a cute little pop up book and my fave is the Oxford Picture word book. Its like a little dictionary type book and it has some seriously retro illustrations! It was published back in 1979 :D These were bought off two different sellers but casting my mind back for all of them together we paid £3.50.

Plastic plates were on my shopping list already for Finley as he currently using my Little Mermaid selection and although the tail of Ariel and Eric is the greatest of all time I felt Finley needed more of a variety and a few boy options to choose from. So when I saw these lot I snapped them up for a pound....oh yes! They are all in great condition and after a blast in the dishwasher they were as good as new. 

A massive car mat...for £1!!

We bought this from the same stall as the washing machine so no doubt they knocked the price down a little for Finley but to be honest we would have paid a little more. It is double the size of that above as I had to fold it in half to fit in in the picture. It is definitely an item for him to grow into but for £1 I don't mind storing it away for him :D You can see a theme to our carboot trip...more like a 'shop for Finley' day! To be honest that's how I find my life nowadays, I am meant to be buying a pair of shoes for me and I'm scanning the boys section on Next! I cant help myself!

Our most expensive purchase of the day but is defo my favourite. I first caught sight of this on a stall and a lady was fishing through it, grrr I said to Matt 'Oh I would have had that' next minute he walks over with it :D the lady wandered off and we gazumped her and paid up. It is a huge massive box of jigsaw wooden train tracks, cars, people, trees...anything and everything. I have seen these online and always shyed away because a huge set can be close to £30-£40 but for £5 Finley is all set and ready to go. He can even team it up with his play mat...

That was the sum total of our morning and we even enjoyed a sneaky butty before we headed home. I hope you have had fun looking through or treasure (does anyone else always say treasure in their head in a pirate voice? I don't think I say it normally anymore?)

I hope you are out looking for some bargains this summer and if you enjoyed this post let me know and I shall share more of our boot sale finds in the future.

Thanks for reading everyone

Love Kayleigh x