Teaching on a non-existent budget!

In the world of education, there is no budget for the day to day lessons you wish to plan and inspire your children with so like many others I do the rounds of the charity shops - hoping to find the resources I need for very little money as it all comes out of my own purse.  This week, my maths planning (inspired by  a New Zealand maths site) had need of a slavonic abacus to help children understand the difference between teen and tens numbers.  I found an interactive one on the web but as my group has to share one laptop between them - seeing things on a screen is difficult - so you can imagine how delighted I was when my last foray out resulted in a very sturdy stand up one for only £2.99.  However, in this life there is always a trade off and as I am also known by many of the charity shops for being the teacher who comes in to buy resources I was asked if I could make a request for donations at school as stocks were running very low in my local children's hospice shop.  This has led me to make today - bring a donation bag to school day - so I will be co-ordinating the donations this morning and taking them across in countless trips no doubt to the said charity store!  And this was supposed to be my free day (as I have reduced my hours!!)