Ooooh, she's cheap! #1 - Toddler Bedding

Right. You all know I'm totally addicted to thrifting already. But I'd just like to make it clear. I'm not tight,ok? BUT.... I do resent paying full price for anything, especially when I KNOW that I could make it myself/buy it secondhand for a fraction of the cost.  I could blame this inherent thriftiness on the fact that we seem to be permanently on a very tight budget  But I'd be lying (not about the budget part though unfortunately!). It's really not about necessity. I can't really remember having ever been any other way. I seriously suspect if I won the lottery...I would still thrift. I enjoy the hunt and the buzz I get when I unearth a total bargain or a complete treasure. There's often also a uniqueness to items made or thrifted that I love much more than some of the "identikit" stuff available on the High Street. It makes sound financial and ecological sense to me to shop this way. I also quite like it when my friend's jaws drop when I tell them how much I actually spent on something ;)  So in this spirit, here begins a new series that compares what you could've spent on, say, a High Street purchase, with a thrifted or self made alternative, and just how much cold hard cash it's possible to save as a result!!!

First up, toddler bedding. Yikes! Considering a toddler bed duvet is about 2/3 the size of a standard single, you'd think the price would reflect that wouldn't you? Less fabric, lower price, right? Nah! I found that prices ranged from £15-£50 (Yes! £50!!). Now I'll admit, I have a bit of a hang up about pure cotton for bedding, and you could probably get cheaper poly or poly cotton covers for slightly less. But I wanted pure cotton. Elliott's room is baby blue with a beach/nautical theme. So this set from John Lewis is pretty much what I had in mind...

After biding my time and keeping my eyes peeled for a bit, I found a 100% cotton double duvet set for £2.00 in my local charity shop. Beautiful colourway, in gorgeous as new condition, with a really decent thread count. Two pillowcases and a double duvet cover. A few snips with the scissors and just four straight seams later, I'd managed to make TWO toddler size duvet covers from  the one double duvet cover. Since the set came with two matching pillowcases, I now have TWO identical toddler duvet sets which essentially cost £1 each!

So depending on how you look at it, that's a saving of £24 for one OR a whopping £48 when you consider I would have needed to get two sets (one in the wash, one on the bed!) and it only took me an hour. Yay!  Now, what to spend that extra £48 on......;)
Px