Charity shopping: the guilt free way to shop

Inspired by this week's focus on sustainability, I took some time to remind myself of the joys of second hand shopping.

Charity shopping allows you to get a whole outfit for less than £10, while helping charities to continue their amazing work. What could be better? Yet there still seems to be some stigma attached to buying second hand clothes, which I think is ludicrous.

This week I went on a charity shop crawl around Manchester city centre and I have to say, I was delighted at what I found and how little I paid. There are so many pros to reusing and recycling old clothes as it is a sustainable and economically friendly way of giving your wardrobe a boost, and as they say — one man’s trash is another man’s treasure!

I started off at Oxfam on Oxford Road, which is just a minute's walk from the University of Manchester campus. I was delighted to find a haul of autumnal jumpers, skirts and boots here, which makes the approaching season a whole lot more exciting.

Pictured is a Topshop jumper that I picked up for just £3 and some Clarks boots which I paid only £8 for in Oxfam. Next, I went to the RSPCA charity shop located just off Tib Street, where I found some major high street brands such as Topshop, H&M, and Urban Outfitters. The pick of the bunch was a Julian McDonald dress which would've cost a small fortune originally.

The dress seen in the picture is the perfect autumn piece which I got for just £5 and the accompanying bag was just £3. Finally, I went to Barnardo’s near Piccadilly, which was equally lucrative, and I left with a new bag and some lovely real silver jewellery, all for less than £10. So, I think that anyone who has yet to discover the joys of charity shopping should give it a try — you never know you might find your new favourite item of clothing for a fraction of the retail price!