Fill the toy cupboard without breaking the bank – find cheap toys

Kids love toys, but they can get so expensive, so where did I get a monopoly set for 50 p, Scrabble for 30 p or Pokemon cards for 10 p each?

Well one place is the school fayre – either Christmas or summer, there is always a toy stall, where other parents bring in their used toys and you can buy them for next to nothing.

Get there early, or better still I have heard that the ladies who help set up the stalls often buy the best toys the night before….suppose they are first in the queue! Go to schools in better areas or private schools as the quality of some of the items is better, but expect to pay a bit more of course.

Car boot sales are also awesome for cheap toys. We’ve got scooters for £4, which would cost over £20 in the shops and most toys sell for less than £1. Either go early or towards the end as casual sellers want to get rid of the stock so I’ve got a bike for £1 too!

Get your kids to sell their old toys and use the money to buy new gear. So Pokemon cards are worth a fortune. I just sold a rare card for £7 and have a lot more to go. My child doesn’t play with them anymore. Lego is also a valuable toy that can be resold, but watch any postage costs.

In terms of stores, Argos and Tesco are great places to look. Don’t be scared to ask them when their next toy sale is on or if there are any discount codes they can provide if you are buying from an online retailer. If you know the make and model of the toy, you can always try eBay, but watch out for imitations.

I also have a stock of toys that people have given to my kids for birthdays. You know the stuff that they will never even open. You could re-gift it, but I hate doing that. If they can’t be bothered to give your child something nice, then I’d rather have nothing than some junk to put into my cupboard. Anyway, you could always sell that on eBay near to Xmas to make money to buy kids something decent, or have them on display when the kids friends come around and let them take what they want. Wow, I sound really ungrateful – unfortunately I can’t hide my child’s disappointment when they open a gift that isn’t right for them, but if they don’t get a present from a friend, they won’t miss it anyway.

Ah talking about re-gifting…..if the gift is good, but my child just happens not to like it or just hasn’t got around to playing it, I will offer to buy it from said child for the fraction of the price of buying a gift from a shop. I then do re-gift it. My kids are savvy and know the contents of the toy cupboard, so it’s a win win situation!

Image is a Hornby trainset available from www.countrybaskets.co.uk.