Money Supermarket #RetailRoyaltyChallenge

As part of our fundraising efforts, we run several ‘Queen of Shops’ challenges where we hand each participating member of staff £30 and challenge them to buy as many goods as they can with it for charities in our local area.

But now, to mark her Majesty the Queen’s official birthday on June 15, we are throwing the challenge open to all bloggers!

We’ll give every blogger who enters our aptly-named ‘Retail Royalty Challenge’ £30 to spend on the most appropriate gifts (this could be anything from clothes, toys, food, toiletries, books etc) for a registered charity of their choice that’s local to them.

Why not go and apply to join the challenge and help a charity of your choice too? The details can be found on the Money Supermarket site.

With Elizabeth having leukemia and the ward we stayed on in desperate need of everything and unable to accept second hand items I knew exactly where my money was going too. Ward 84 in Royal Manchester Childrens Hospital. The ward needs lots of things from dvd players to arts and craft materials. They need low cost supplies that they can place in the isolation rooms for the child to use because after they leave the items need to be destroyed. The children have a few toys to play with but most of them are unable to make there way to the playroom so need things to do at their beds.

The day case unit is no better, they have the same old books and toys out every week, the dvds on site have all been donated by patients and the arts and crafts materials consist of all the colours that the children don’t like. The felt tips have all gone dry and the pencils have lost their points.

Ok so I may have maybe cheated just a tiny little bit.

For those of you that shop at Tesco you would have heard about the clubcard voucher exchange. As my vouchers fell through my letterbox last week and I had £32 worth of vouchers I decided that what better way to get value for money for my chosen charity than to buy the vouchers from myself.

So my £30 turned into £60. I had to plan what I was buying though. You cant use the doubled up vouchers on just anything and so after careful consideration and lots of talk with Hubby we decided that not only to the children need arts and crafts supplies but that the parents kitchen could really do with some crockery and cutlery as it was really hard trying to find a fork to eat with and the parents have more important things to worry about. The other issue the parents have is getting the kids to eat and drink. Hopefully some coloured crockery and cutlery will help them too.

I went online and planned my shopping. I didnt want to pay the delivery charge and I still had to exchange my vouchers so today I headed into my local tesco extra. I change £15 into toys vouchers and £15 into Cook and Dine vouchers. There isnt much bartering to be had in Tesco but by doubling my money and sticking to the value range where I can i actually managed to get quite a lot for my money.

Arts and craft supplies for day case and isolation rooms – £29.80

Large pack of white paper – £2.35
20pk of felt tips x 10 60p each – £6.00
12pk of crayons x 5 50p each – £2.50
10pk colouring pencils x 10 35p each – £3.50
10pk Chalks x 8 30p each – £2.40
Coloured paper 70p
Colouring book x  65p each – £2.60
Dot to dot book x 5 75p each – £3.75
3pk Card games x 2 £2 each – £4.00

6pk Bubbles – £2.00 (For distracting the children during unpleasant procedures)

Kitchen equipment for Parents Room – £29.50

Crockery set 4 plates, bowls and side plates – £15.00
4pk Glasses x 2 £1 each – £2.00
Cutlery set 4 forks,knifes,spoons and teaspoons x 2 £1.75 each – £3.50
4pk Childrens tumblers – £1.50
4pk Childrens plates x 2 £1.50 each – £3.00
4pk Childrens Bowls – £1.50
Childrens cutlery set 4 forks, knifes, spoons and teaspoons x 2 £1.50 – £3.00

So there you have it, you cant do much with £30 but I hope that I will have made a difference to not only the children but also the parents who have to stay on the ward with their children. It certainly made me think some more about what they need and I will do what i can to try and send more stuff into them.