Shop for this Christmas with boon

Contactless payment is something I have been using for quick payment for as long as I’ve had the ability, however I had yet to try using it via Apple Pay. I had of course been asked by my phone to set up Apple Wallet and had seen the signs around, so when I was the challenge by boon to do some Christmas shopping, using their app, I couldn’t say no.

I wondered first off how easy it would be to pay using the boon app on my phone, I mean Lichfield is great, full of history, wonderful buildings BUT it is stuck in the past in many ways. After all it is only a city due to the cathedral and the challenge I was set by boon was to buy a number of items using the app and I’m going to start off by saying I failed. Now, this is by no fault of the boon app at all (the app is actually so simple to use, double tap the home button, pop your thumb on when asked and bingo), this is because many of the shops in Lichfield still haven’t upgraded to contactless.

One of the things I quickly found out about boon is they are all for charity shops, in fact they run a competition every month where you could win £100 credit for your boon app, by showing them your best charity shop find using #BoonForCharity via Facebook, Instagram or their website. So if you are good at finding bargains go enter!

Now since November I’ve had one disaster after another and we had finally into Lichfield on a Saturday afternoon around 4 to go hunting through the charity shops and I can easily say I found some great buys in many of them. However, none of them took contactless, I was just about to throw my hands in the air when my Dad who playing driver as the brakesf had gone on my car, said look the St Giles bookshops open let’s try there.

In we all trudged feeling a bit defeated and as though we would never find this perfect charity shop Christmas present idea. Before we started looking I quickly asked at the desk do you take contactless and with surprise; yes they replied.

At this point my Dad was rubbing his hands with glee; old books shops are his favourite so Ash and he jumped in with both feet to see what books they could find and with a limit of £30 I think they did quite well.

Next up on the list was some Christmas decorations to delight and I knew just the shop I wanted to check out; Bespoke Lichfield.

Bespoke Lichfield opened up August and I had been meaning to pop in for ages, but one thing after another means I only made it in for the first time this month, but oh it was worth the wait. They specialise in handmade beautiful gifts, many by people local to the city.

From their Christmas range I picked up Santa who is made by Dolly and Blanche’s Tea Time Adventures, isn’t it amazing!

As well as this fantastic glass Rudolph hanging ornament from Used and Fused.

Sadly I failed on the last two items a game and a Christmas hat; I had been counting on charity shops to pick up those as well. However, with that said, I did learn a few things about boon:

1) It is so easy to use, download the app, add some credit and pay.
2) As long as a shop has contactless payment systems in place, I can easily use it to help support charity and artisans.
3) I think I am definitely going to be using it more.

So if you are looking for a way to pay via your phone and fancy trying an app such as boon, download it I say!

What do you think of my buys, where would you have headed to try out boon?

*boon gave me some credit to try out the app – all my findings are honest.