Replacing buckles

Its been a funny few days.  OH downloaded me a book about backpacking repairs (available here).  I sat and read it all day yesterday and today i feel inspired to buy seam grip and repair the buckles on my old rucksack.  Now i know they are called lock ladder buckles, and upon looking on ebay i found they were £2.99 EACH!

OMG my budget don't stretch to that and it doesn't have sentimental value, why should I pay that much for them?

Luckily, I thought of sewing and haberdashery suppliers ... Sew Simple in Taverham ... Maybe they will have them, so I called the number that was online and I got the answer machine- so no help there.

Next shop on my list? Anglian Fashion Fabrics in Anglia Square, Norwich ... I phone up, they have them (we think as we are not sure we are talking about the same thing).

So I rush to the city and pay the £1.20 for parking, walk through Anglia Square to the fabric shop .... 

Wrong type of buckle! 

 Oh what the waste of a day!  

Try Go Outdoors or a camping specialist they suggest ... Ok  but first to spend some money in the 99p shop.

Back to the car with 2 mins left on the ticket .  

At Go Outdoors they don't sell the right type of buckle either, but they do sell socks, and seam grip and lots of other nice things!  

I want to put pics of the products on here but I'm not sure if I'm allowed.

You see, I generally take pics of the stuff I want so I remember the price and the container.  

Would it be helpful if I posted these pics? I'm not sure as the price would change over time and I am really bad at blogging let alone updating things.

Anyway, back to what I was talking about ... What do you mean you can't remember what we were talking about .... My rucksack of course!

I remembered while in the camping shop about another product which has the slip adjusting buckles, my daughters toddler reins - you know the one, they have a loop at each end which is adjustable to fit the wrists, well a while ago I got some out of Poundland, I still have a pair and NJ will stay when we walk so they are surplus, I'm gonna repurpose them!  

First things first, locate the straps.  Are they in the cupboard downstairs? No.

Are they hanging on the back of the kitchen door? Yes! 

Step two, cut the seams on the backpack so I can get the buckle on.  Loop over the newly procured bits and it's done! Yay I have saved my bag for a few more months and now know where I can get some more buckles from .

Do you like to repair your things or do you like to buy new?  Have you ever repurposed anything in this manner? Please comment below!