My favourite ever thrifty find… and some car boot tips

A couple of weeks ago, I found this old school map
at a Sunday morning car boot sale.

I’ve been looking for an old school map for longer
than I’ve been writing this blog. And still…
I wasn’t sure. I looked at it, put it back down,
and walked on. Three minutes later, I had a mild
panic that someone else would buy ‘my map’
and rushed back to buy it.

I paid £7 for it. I’ve seen similar (and worse)
condition maps going for £180.

Looking at it now, I can’t believe I almost
didn’t buy it – but it sums up my first tip
of car boot sale or charity shop thrifting…

1. You’ve got to be in it to win it.

This might sound silly but if you’re not in the mood
to rummage, give people some chat, barter, or yes
even get elbowed by some woman trying to knock
£2 off a £2.50 shirt… (ah the glamour)
then wait until you are. Or have a serious
amount of caffeine and cake before you go.

Tip 2 I think is summed up
by the little Meakin set above…

2. Know what you’re looking for
(but be flexible about it)

I can this the ‘new car theory’.
If you decide you want a certain make of car,
suddenly you’ll start seeing that car everywhere.
Same is true (sort of!) of vintage things…
once you have what you want in mind,
then you’ll start seeing it.

Until I found my first Meakin set last summer,
I would have sworn that I’d never seen any before…
which seems unlikely now I think about it!

(As a complete aside, I now have a tea set that matches
my fav typewriter… how cool is that? Also the tiny
milk jug from this set… might be my favourite ever!)

My third tip can definitely worked for these cameras…

3. Go super early or go at the end

Car boot sales start early. Very early.
And usually on Sundays.

I’ve written before on here that I’m not
a morning person. But the allure of
thrifty finds does drag me out of bed.
(Sometimes.)

However, the vintage cameras above
(my Super Colour Swinger Polaroid Land Camera
and a very old Kodak Brownie camera)
where bought in the last 30 mins of the sale.

Basically we slept in, but thought we’d
pop in anyway on the way elsewhere.
The guy who sold us these had been up
since 6am. He sold them us for super cheap
just because it was two less things to take home.

I can’t remember why I picked up this book
of song sheets. I can’t play any musical instruments.
But I really rather love it… I’m half tempted to do
some crafty projects with it, half tempted just to
keep it as it is. But anyway, it’s my 4th tip…

4. Expect the unexpected.

One of my favourite things about thrifting
is that you can’t know what you’ll find.

Just keep your eyes open. Look for colours,
shapes and styles of things you like…

I once did the wardrobe for a 1940s short film.
There were about 100 extras and at one point
my entire living room was filled with rails
of hired, borrowed and found vintage coats,
hats, dresses, shoes, bags and delicate gloves.

Yup, I don’t mention it often but
I have a vintage clothing obsession too.

I got this blouse and skirt recently…
they need adjusted so if anyone has
seen any great skirt tutorials, I need one.
Which brings me to tip 5…

5. Don’t be afraid to customise.

If you’ve found something you like
but it’s not quite right, can you change it?
Especially if you’re getting something for
a bargain, it’s usually worth having a go.

I was really rather excited when I found
the above book… good friends of ours
got engaged next to a volcano so
it made a prefect little present for them.

On the same day, we nearly bought some Christmas
china, which I’m slightly regretting not buying. So…

6. Think off-season.

It’s summery outside now. So it might
be a great time to find a vintage winter coat.
Or get a present for a friend’s birthday…

And don’t try and find a vintage picnic hamper
when it’s sunny, people want to charge you so
much for it! (Lesson I learned last summer!)

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Want more tips? I did a wee feature on
how to get the best from car boots here.

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Does anyone have any other tips they would add?
Or if you know of any easy skirt diys, do let me know!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend my dears.
(And thank you SO much for all your Japan tips!
You guys are honestly the best-est!)