Money Supermarket gave bloggers a challenge and this time it’s one I really approve of they’ve had various challenges but this particular one is to help a local charity. The challenge was to use a budget of £30 (Provided by moneysupermarket) that you must use in the best way possible to help your charity and see how much you can do for them within budget. You can see all details about the challenge and MoneySupermarket.com here
My chosen charity
I chose a very special charity who although they aren’t ‘local’ to me as such they support children all over the country and that charity is Post Pals! 
Post Pals is a small charity run solely by volunteers who are dedicated to making seriously ill children and their siblings smile by the sending of cards, letters, little gifts, support and friendship.
Everyone can take part, all you have to do is visit http://www.postpals.co.uk/ find a pal or choose a featured pal via the home page or the ‘TLC’ page for those who need extra smiles!
Write a letter, a post card (the guide to writing post may come in handy here) or if you choose to purchase a gift based on the child’s like/hobbies listed on their page, use the address on the page (which is a forwarding address) and pop in the post! Simple, you just made a very poorly child smile and that matters.
Challenge Accepted!
After I received confirmation of the challenge I set out to find pals on the site to see what interests they have, you can also search the site for pals via interests which is handy.If you know me, then you know I love books, I decided I was going to try to send books to pals who like reading themselves or having stories read to them for those who cannot read.
I already knew of one pal who is very poorly and in hospital at the moment, his name is Lewis and I put him on my list. I then visited the TLC page and made sure all of the children on there at the time were put on my list, from there I set out to find some bargains and make some smiles!
I initially went to the Disney Store and Waterstones but their were no bargains that would stretch my budget far enough for the amount of smiles I wanted to make.
I had noticed many people taking part had contacted large stores/companies and received some amazing donations for their chosen charities, I found out about the challenge very close to the end date but I still decided to contact a few companies explaining the charity and the challenge incase I could get any great offers to stretch the £30, two of the larger companies I contacted (Disney and Lego) did respond but unfortunately they only support selected charities of their own choice each year. 
The majority of my budget was spent in The Works, they do great deals on books for children of all ages and many themed around popular characters, I managed to find an item for each of the children I had selected in this one store.
I bought this great little baking set and recipe book for the very low price of £2 in sale reduced from £6.99. Robyn H enjoys baking and I thought this would be perfect for her. They also had a really nice Dr Seuss book for £6.99 also in sale suitably titled ‘Doctors Orders’ I decided this would be a nice book for Lewis while he’s recovering from his operation. Dr Seuss makes everyone smile and I know Lew’s parents read to him a lot. 🙂
Overall I spent the £30 on books and gifts for the children and credit for cards on sending future smiles.
Here is what I bought how much I paid and how much it would have cost at the RRP! –
Dr Seuss Book – Sent to Lewis J – RRP £19.99 Paid £6.99
Harry Potter Book – Sent to Daniel RRP £14.99 Paid £6.99
Louise Rennisson Books x2 – Sent to Milly and Sapphire RRP £10.99 each Paid 99p each
Fireman Sam book – Sent to Poppy RRP £4.99 Paid £1
Zhu Zhu Hamster toy – Sent to Poppy RRP £6.99 Paid £2
Baking book + baking equipment – Sent to Robyn H RRP £6.99 Paid £2
Horrid Henry books x 2 – Sent to William S RRP £5.99 Paid £1 each
Little Bear Book – Sent to Finley G RRP £4.99 Paid £1
£7 Funky Pigeon Credit to directly send cards to pals.
The overall cost of the books without the sale prices or being purchased from a store with great offers would have normally cost up to £109 but I only spent £23 on them thats a total saving of approx. £86! It really does pay to shop around a little.
Postage on all items came to a whopping £18 for standard 2nd class, I would usually do 1st class signed for but wanted to reduce costs, the price of postage is obviously not within the challenge budget but is something I was willing to cover myself. Just remember if you want to start taking part and making children smile a one off parcel will cost you around £3, mine was only such costly as I sent weighty books and a lot of them all at once.
I really hope the children enjoy their gifts as much a I’ve enjoyed taking part.
I also hope this inspires you to pick up a pen, purchase a stamp and make a poorly child smile.
