An expensive mistake!

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I planned to make a donation to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to support their work with endangered species all around the world. But when looking on their website I saw that they also had a shop, so I thought perhaps I could buy something instead and ‘donate’ some money that way. I didn’t really want any of the items in the UK shop - I have more than enough T-shirts and shopping bags - but then I wandered to the US site and found they had different things. What caught my eye was a selection of cute animal socks - 45 different designs! For a $55 donation you could choose three different pairs. That is far more than I would normally pay for socks, but I figured it was a way of making a donation I was going to make anyway, and getting some socks into the bargain. So I 'bought' two sets. What I completely failed to realise was that these would be considered imported goods. When the packages arrived I had to pay import duty of £12.50 (about $16 US) - and because of a quirk in the ordering system I had had to order each set of socks separately, so that meant I received two packages and had to pay duty twice! That’s a mistake I won’t be making again. My only consolation is that I hope the money goes towards filling the enormous hole in our country’s finances created by Covid. And the socks are nice! In case anyone who is actually in the US fancies socks and wishes to support the WWF, you can see them all here: https://gifts.worldwildlife.org/gift-center/gifts/Apparel/Sack-of-Socks.aspx All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2020.