ms-havachat's going to a car boot sale

No I'm not selling boots.

Nor am I selling Squirt (the car)

I'm purging AGAIN.

The kitchen in the new house has very few cupboards and we'll need to buy a pantry and probably a small buffet to fit all our bits'n'bobs.

While unpacking I realised that there is a fair bit of crockery that if I'm really honest, like I am with clothes and toys, I actually don't ever use, so WHY am I keeping them? The other thing was that some of our kitchen stuff has been in the attic for the past two years as the landlords had part furnished the house in Dublin - I figure, if we've managed for two years without some things, we don't need them, or we've replaced them.

Who needs two gravy boats? I don't use one all that often, so why have I hung onto two?

Three white oven dishes, all different sizes (all oval) but only one large lid. I seldom use them - they are either too big for G and I, or too small when we entertain.

Tall drinking glasses that have seen better days. The glass is cloudy and scratched. I replaced with bright shiny ones last year - why do I still have the old ones?

Two glass trivets and 3 metal trivets. Never use them! We have stunning placemats that are heat resistant plus, once set to entertain, our table is too narrow to put hot dishes on for people to self-serve.

White tea cups and saucers! Other than MrsH who loves her tea served in an old fashioned cup'n'saucer, or when you're out, does anyone use cups'n'saucers?

Several brand new photo frames in their original boxes plus a lot more that are not being used since we merged the photos into a lovely multi-framed wall stand (We did this to save space).

Four sets of placemats! Reduced it to two; one good one (wedding present) and one every day (washable).

Numerous glass vases. Now that Ikebana is the preferred flower display, do we need so many vases?

A BOOT SALE, you may be wondering is an event at which people gather to sell preloved goods from the boots of their cars. I guess this helps keep the items for sale small and manageable for people to buy and take home while ensuring the sellers stick to the rules of preloved small items.

They are a great fundraiser! If you charge £20 per car, and open the school playground on a Saturday think of the number of cars you could fit; sell a few hamburgers and hot dogs, cold drinks and voila! Money in the kitty.

Cheers to Google Images for this great pic.

Some car boot sales are run by professionals who do all the marketing and advertising, secure the area the sale is to be held (anything from school playground, church car park, local car park etc) and hold them maybe once a month or every 6 weeks.

In addition to the kitchen stuff we don't need there's several handbags that haven't used for years; pieces of jewellery not worn; a few more games grown out of and other bits'n'bobs we honestly don't need or use.

What's the saying? One persons trash is another's treasure.

Now you know I LOVE a good purge, and we had one before we moved a few weeks ago. I just didn't take an honest look at the kitchen stuff and now, as I unpacked it and wondered where to put it in the new kitchen I realised there's still a bit more purging to do.

As we need to buy a pantry cupboard for the kitchen I figured they money we make from the boot sale could go towards that and what ever's left over, be it cash or goods will be donated to a local charity towards their next fundraiser.

Have you ever been to, or sold stuff at a boot sale?

Was it a success?

Any tips?

Have a good look in your cupboards - do you use everything??????

Fundraising Ideas: How A One Yen Drive Becomes a Copper Coin Collection

The senior kids in our school in Yokohama went with HOPE INTERNATIONAL each year to Cambodia to build schools and libraries. The trip wasn't cheap, and the senior students held several fundraising events each year to help offset the costs.

The entire school community got involved in the Annual One Yen Drive.

A barometre was placed in the front foyer of the main building so that everyone could see how the Drive was progressing.

Each grade, from the kindy kids to IB seniors were invited to participate. Each class had a container to keep the yen in, and at the end of each term the grade that collected the most yen were given a merit award by the Parents Association which was worn proudly by everyone in the year.

All the money was then added together and the barometer updated. At this stage it became a whole-of-school goal.

EVERYONE was contributing and chasing the target! Each year, the school community wanted to 'beat' last years results.

At the end of the year, the grade that contributed the most was given a party by the Parents Association, and the rest of the school, 600+ students were shouted an ice cream for the efforts.

For the 3 years we were involved in the school, the One Yen Drive target was blitzed. It was fun to do, easy to participate in, required no skill and the results were on show for all to see.

Knowing how successful the One Yen Drive was, I tried (and sadly failed) to introduce it to our school in the UK - a Penny Drive. I can't remember the reasons now, but suffice to say, the answer was no. They did like the International Food Fair concept (another chat for another day), and modified it to Festive Fare for the Christmas Market (another chat for another day)


We wanted to have a NEW aspect to our Charity Bazaar for International Women's Club, and I thought why not change a YEN DRIVE into a COPPER COIN COLLECTION?

Everyone has oodles of little coins taking up precious space in purses - and they get heavy. Most of us dump them into a jar anyways, so why not collect them?

Euro Copper Coins 1c, 2c and 5c pieces.

We launched our first ever Copper Coin Collection this way:

• Everyone was invited to participate, tho it wasn't mandatory
• Each participant was given a ziplock bag (or similar) to pop coins into
• We put a plain, white sticky label on the bag, and noted:
• Organisations details
• Date bag is to be returned
• Allocated space for them to write their name/contact phone number
• We nominated a collection period (we did a month) and drop off point (ours was the next monthly meeting)
• Advertise a thank you for for everyone who returns a bag with coins as incentive
• Scratchy lotto ticket
• Complimentary raffle tickets if you have one coming up
• Small bag of chocolate or a pop-cake ( try to have this donated)
• Rather than counting the coins, WEIGH the bags!
• Heaviest bag declared overall winner
• Have a small posy of flowers, or offer a larger number of raffle tickets

There were a few things we didn't factor into this 'great idea' (which it is) 

1. Copper coins are HEAVY!
2. Banks need you to sort them into little plastic bags of the right currency/amount for depositing ( We could have put them thru the currency counting machines at the supermarket but they charge a % fee each time, and as the bags were so heavy it would have taken a few trips. Plus, our members had given the coins to charity in goodwill, we didn't want to 'waste' money, no matter how small an amount on fees)
3. It takes ages to sort into 1c, 2c and 5c (If we do it again, we'll give everyone 3 bags so that they are sorted when we receive them)
4. It takes more time to count the individual coins into €2, €5 and €10 bags.

We had a small Copper Coin COUNTING morning and managed to sort them in a few hours, after I'd spent a few evenings sorting the 21.68 kiloss of coins that were donated. The heaviest bag donated was just over 3.5 kilos Who would have thought!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We raised €194 in coins which is a great start to our Bazaar.

Several people forgot to bring their coins in, and others have simply continued to collect, so we'll be receiving more coins over the next few weeks.

So, two really easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy fundraiser ideas.

Hope you find a way to incorporate them into your next fundraising drive.

Any other suggestions for quick coin-oriented ideas?

What ideas have you seen done somewhere that you modified to suit your needs?

Fundraising Ideas: Penny Sale, But Not A Penny In Sight

November/December could also be known as the Charity Bazaar/Fundraising time of the year as schools, churches, clubs, associations, charities and others host Bazaars, Fetes, Shopping Nights, Marketplaces or social get togethers where money is raised thru any number of ways to aid and support given recipient/s.

Maybe it's more to do with 'end of the year' feeling that permeates the air, rather than Christmas, but there's tonnes of Goodwill to All in most places. Shame it doesn't last all year round.

These events are usually organised months in advance, as opposed to disaster relief type events that are typically thrown together with short notice in direct response to a disaster.

We've all supported markets, bazaars (same thing really), trivia nights, casino nights, wine tastings, auctions and dinners all in the name of fundraising. There's walk-a-thins, jog-a-thons, read-a-thons and anything else a-thon. A few friends have done bike marathons, or extreme sports challenges all in the name of fundraising - nothing is sacred these days as fundraising marketers seek to find novel ways to raise much needed funds from an exhausted and often over extended community.

But, up until last month, I'd never been to a Penny Sale!

Have you?

I was assured it was a lot of fun, and you didn't have to spend more money than you wanted to as the entire thing is done very quietly. There were no vendors, only prizes to be won. How curious, I thought.

I was also told it's a 'very American style of fundraising' ........ fair enough. Another cultural 'thing' to experience and learn from. A few American friends didn't know what a Tombola was. Swings and round-a-bouts, eh!

Penny Sale -

The complete opposite of a raffle.

In a raffle (like a lottery), you buy ticket/s knowing you probably won't win anything but are happy to be 'in it to win it'. When you're ticket is called you squeal 'OH I never win anything!'

With a Penny Sale you have control over which prizes you can potentially win. Let me explain.

The success of a Penny Sale is in the amount of prizes on offer - you need LOTS - lots in terms of variety and lots as in quantity. Vouchers work just as good as products.

The organizing committee decides on price points of tickets, usually based on your audience attending your Penny Sale. The one I went to had prepared envelopes for €20, €30 and €50.

The sign up sheets were numbered and allocated in groups to each purchase amount and were placed in front of each box.

I bought €20 and signed my name against 368 (from amongst the numbers allocated to €20).

My €20 gave me 50 tickets each with 368 printed on them. (Organising these is the most time consuming aspect of the event, and needs to be done by someone who is very organised, with a team to help cut each numbered ticket and place them into the corresponding envelope).

Prior to the open time of the event, all the donated items were placed around the room on tables (as above) with a small black bag behind each. On the bag was a small description of the item. As you entered the room to buy your tickets you could SEE how much was on offer, which was a great motivator to maybe spend a wee bit more than you had intended.

The 3 price points is a great idea, as it allows people to choose and doesn't discriminate. Not everyonen who wants to attend a fundraiser feels they can afford to 'keep up' and so don't go (G and I have been invited to some very high profile fundraisers and don't go for this reason, we write a cheque for what we can afford and send it off to the organisers with a note of apology - gosh, how our secrets out!) as it's done quietly and no one needs to know what you've spent!

Once inside, take your time walking around the tables, dropping as few or as many of your tickets (in my case No.368) into the little black bags next to the items you WANTED a chance to win.

There was no point me putting tickets into baby/toddler items; or artwork so I didn't. But I did quite like the Coach purse, the facial/pedicure vouchers, massage vouchers, Christmas Hamper, a several pieces of jewellery.

If you really REALLY wanted something you put more tickets in to increase your chances of having your ticket pulled out and declared the winner. I dumped numerous tickets into the Coach Purse little black bag (still didn't win it)

Placing 50 tickets was actually a lot harder than you'd think! The friends I went with also found it difficult to 'spend' all their tickets so we ended up walking around the room several times, sneaking a peak into bags to see how many tickets were there, and making decisions close to the time the LAST CALL was made and throwing caution to the wind and putting several more tickets into the items we really, really wanted.

Once TIME was called, we went into another room for a coffee'n''chat, then sat down and listened to the announcements of WINNING TICKETS.

Each item was announced, and the company or person who donated it was mentioned, then the winning ticket announced - it seemed to go for ages. A few of us think there has to be a better way to do this part ..... the more items you have the longer it takes to announce winners. Still, people's reactions were fun to watch.

Without a Penny in sight, the group who hosted the event raised several thousand Euros in a few hours!

There are so many different ways to raise money.

Over the next few weeks, I'll share a few with you that I've come across, and invite you to share your ideas too.

Share your Fundraising ideas!
What cultural differences have you noticed?

Let's create a reference folder of great ideas!