Mum of four Kate Skelton swapped buying brand new for shopping pre-loved, and saved money equating to half a week’s food shop in the process. Here she shares how it’s done
It’s World Book Day tomorrow, and children across the UK are getting excited to dress up as characters from their favourite books and show off imaginative costumes to their friends and teachers. Children love World Book Day – but the same can’t be said for most parents. Despite being a book worm as a young child and being determined to install a life-long love of books in my own children, I must admit I used to dread it. As a busy working mum of four children (James, 14, Annabelle, 11 and twins Alex and Oliver, seven) it caused me additional stress – and money.
And I am by no means alone. As reports reveal that families spend an average of nearly £20 per child on costumes for World Book Day. I was one of them, spending around £80 on costumes for my four children that would be only worn once, then buried at the bottom of a toy basket. That’s nearly half my weekly food shop! It was a huge waste of money and terrible for the environment.
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Last year I decided I could no longer spend a fortune on children’s costumes that would never be worn again. My boys wanted to go to school dressed as Captain Hook and Peter Pan. Looking at the price lists in the shops, it was an expensive request – M&S do a Peter Pan costume for £24.95, while Disney Store comes it at £35. And a child’s Captain Hook costume on Amazon starts at £13.99. That’s a minimum of £40 – just for two costumes.
I wasn’t prepared to spend that – so a friend sent me her son’s Peter Pan costume that she had previously made herself from items around the house, and another friend lent me the pirate costume she had previously purchased. Both my twins looked incredible and received lots of compliments. I only had to buy my daughter a brand-new outfit.
But this year, I went one better – buying three World Book Day costumes from my nearest British Heart Foundation store for less than a tenner and putting the fourth outfit together from everyday clothing my son already has. I am very passionate about buying second-hand and always try to buy pre-loved books and jigsaw puzzles for my children so I visited my local Bromley branch in half term to see what I could find.
I was delighted to find an Indiana Jones costume for my eldest son James, who is 14 and a Red Riding Hood costume for my daughter Annabelle, 11 – particularly as Red Riding Hood is her favourite story (Annabelle has cerebral palsy and is non verbal autistic). I even managed to find a vampire outfit for one of my twins Alex, seven, while his twin brother Oliver is going as Burglar Bill (his favourite books are the Ahlberg’s Burglar Bill and Cops and Robbers.)
All of the costumes were in brand-new packaging and cost no more than £3 each. Instead of spending around £80, I’ve spent £8 – a tenth of the cost! Buying and making second hand costumes, instead of buying new has saved me 90 per cent of what I would have spent before.
I was so pleased with my purchases from the British Heart Foundation store in Bromley, my home town, which sells lots of second-hand clothing where many clothes are priced at £1 or £2 and I didn’t see any clothing items priced above £4. I would urge other families to do the same – rather than spending a small fortune on a costume which will never see the light of day again.
Buying seasonal items second-hand is a huge win as World Book Day costumes are often only worn for short periods of time so most people don’t want to spend loads. And it’s not just about cost – buying pre-loved is better for the environment too. I was amazed to learn that globally, the equivalent of a rubbish truck full of clothes ends up in a landfill every second. In a year, British Heart Foundation resells 11,000 tonnes of preloved clothes.
Buying pre-loved helps prevent perfectly usable items of clothing from being dumped and is a great way to live more sustainably. And I love that I’ve been able to buy from my local BHF store, benefitting the charity and raising vital funds, rather than making Amazon more money. I was also pleased to learn that I could donate my children’s previous World Book Day costumes to the charity, helping to pay it forwards and saving other families money too.
*To find your nearest British Heart Foundation store, see HERE
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