A Real Whinge ....

Hmph!!  I know I have lived in England for a very very long time but the greediness of these Brits I live with sometimes floors even me.  If you are British please don't stop reading because at the end of this post I have something quite interesting for you guys to know.

What's my whinge you ask?  Well I know the price of cotton has gone up because I remember reading about it.  So what have the British Quilt Shops done?  They have upped the yardage price, in general, to £13.00 ($20.60) a meter.  Yes I know they have to pay shipping and taxes on what the bring in and it used to be Pounds for Dollars all the time.  Like if it cost $10.00 then it would cost £10.00 - about half as much again.  I had a slight problem with this, okay I had a huge problem with it but I still supported the British stores because I didn't want them to close like most of the Cross Stitch shops have in this country.  But this is ridiculous!!!  I will not pay $20.60 a meter for cotton.

This is what I bought yesterday from Stitch Steals which I only just found thanks to a new American friend (at least I hope I can call her a friend):

It is Lost & Found by

Riley Blake

and yes I know it isn't a new line but it is still being sold in loads of stores in the States and how much did it cost me?  Well excluding postage it was $34.99 (£22.00) and for this I get 21 fat quarters which is just over 5 yards of fabric.  And what's more I really love it.

If you went to The Fat Quarter Shop which is a favorite of mine they are still charging $10.00 a yard as is Twiddletails which is another favorite store of mine.  Now I know you have to pay postage.

What about VAT and the darn Flat Rate Handling fee you are charged if you now bring in more than, I think, around £15.00 but nowhere on the British Governments website could I find anything relating to this.  The only thing I could find was you can import £230.00 worth of goods if they are a gift but don't bank on it because a friend of mine from New Zealand, hi Danielle, had her mother mail Danielle's wedding invitations to her here and they were marked as a gift and the Post Office seized them and held them hostage until the VAT and the darn Handling Fee were paid.  

So how do you get around this?  If you want to know please email me and I will tell you.  My email address is patreeshal @ gmail dot com.  I would gladly pay the tax, I pay it here and really don't have problem with it.  It's the handling charge for charging me the tax that I have the problem with.  So what about you?

Until next time ...

Lots of Love Patti xxx

American by birth and MOUTH but British in every other way