Blog challenge

Retail Royalty Challenge: When MoneySupermarket offered to give me £30 to spend on a local charity of my choice, I jumped at the chance. There was only one caveat: I had to save as much money as possible by bargaining!

The charity I chose was Freshfields Animal Rescue Centre. This charity is close to my heart because we adopted Rocky from there.

Many moons ago, after being heartbroken at the loss of our first dog Meg, we waited a few years and eventually decided to get another dog, so my dad and brother went to the animal rescue and brought back Rocky - a timid dog, so skinny his ribs were showing, who had been abused and locked in high rise flats when his owners disappeared and abandoned him, leaving him without food or water. Dad and Joseph said he was the quietest dog in the rescue centre and they just couldn't leave him. 

They had to take him back to the rescue whilst our home was checked to see if it was suitable. Meanwhile, Rocky decided that he couldn't live without us and managed to escape twice from the rescue centre, ran for a good fifteen minutes and appeared outside our front door (to this day, nobody knows how he managed to do this). He'd only visited our house once, in the car. 

We couldn't live without him either - It was obviously meant to be and he was the best dog we could have ever wished for. He brought us years of happiness and hopefully we did the same for him. 

Psst...Wearing fake fur here - totally against real fur! 

Rocky is the bigger dog :)

Sadly, Rocky passed away a couple of years ago but we still have Millie- my little dog is a cheeky little monkey. She loves watching TV, sitting on a warm lap and trying to sneak upstairs and jump on us when we're in bed. My brother just turned up with her one day and I'm so glad we have her.

If you can, it's amazing and rewarding to adopt a dog and give them a second life in a loving home.

Getting back to the challenge; with my £30 I bought:

Two beds for dogs or cats

Four food/water bowels

Two large packs of dogs food

Two toys.

Lots of edible treats 

I looked around online and found the best bargains. By getting all the items at least half price or more (the bowels and toys were 75% cheaper) I saved a massive £46 so I got £76 worth of goods for £30. I then had a sudden brainwave that lots of dog and cat food companies often send out free samples so I emailed and tweeted lots of companies and thankfully, a few kind hearted souls got back to me!

Top left: Monster Pet Supplies 

Top right: Company of Animals
Bottom left: Cat blanket from Purina Pet Care  
Bottom centre: Vet's Kitchen 
Bottom left: Charlie & Derek's Dog Treats

Because of the huge generosity of the companies who sent treats, I made huge savings of approximately £60.

So, in total I got £136 worth of goods for £30.

Thank you SO much to MoneySupermarket and the companies that got involved and helped the charity! it's going to an amazing cause! Without donations, rescue centres wouldn't be able to exist and we wouldn't have a chance to give an animal a second chance in a loving home and we wouldn't experience the happiness that they bring to our lives.

You can find out more about the challenge here.