Being Lucky: Entering (and winning!) Competitions FAQ

I have a feeling my friends on Facebook may be starting to get slightly annoyed at the amount of competitions I seem to win. Everytime an email lands in my inbox or a letter arrives through my letterbox starting with the word "Congratulations!" I can't help but share my delight at yet another competition win.
I consider myself a very very lucky person. I have awesome friends and family, an amazing boyfriend, a job I love, and have had some amazing opportunities and experiences in my life. But when it comes to competitions I probably win so many because I enter so many, so the odds are pretty high. People say "Oh you're so lucky I never win anything" but if they entered hundreds of competitions a month like I do (yes hundreds!) then they'd probably win things too.

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People have asked me a lot of questions about comping (definition: the practice of entering competitions, especially those promoting consumer products.) so I thought I would answer some FAQs.

How long have you been comping for?

I started comping around 12 years ago when I got bought a subscription to Cosmo Girl magazine (those were the days!) Every month they ran competitions, and in the days before the internet was a big thing I would jot my details down on a stuck down envelope and my dad would kindly post them for me. I won quite a lot from there. My name must have been very familiar in the Cosmo Girl office! I then got back in to it seriously last year.

How do you find all the competitions?

I use a website called The Prize Finder. It's free to join and is a great way to find and track competitions. You can search for competitions based on prize or closing date. You can mark competitions you want to ignore or save for later and can mark them as entered which then gives you a nice total of how many you've entered that day/week/month. Also for competitions that require an answer to a question it provides that too which saves a lot of googling. How I usually do it is go to the Top Prizes link on the left and work my way down the list. (the comps advertised on the homepage are paid for adverts and may result in spam!)  Next to the competition promotor name it says "more competitions" when you click that you get any other competitions from that website too. You get to know the websites that are user friendly and don't require registering. 

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Does it cost anything to enter?

Some competitions require you to text/phone/post your entries and although the £1.50 text charge or 54p stamp may not seem like a lot it can soon add up. These prizes are often a lot bigger though so it can be tempting every now and again but I try and stick to the free online entry or email competitions. 

Do you have to do anything in particular?

90% of the time it's just a case of filling in a form. If you set up autofill for your web browser you can just type the first letter of your name and it will fill in the entire form for you. Sometimes you have to give an answer to a question too and fill in the Captcha thing that makes sure you're not a robot. Some websites require you to register and create a log in. If you do this once and always use the same password you'll know for next time, and you can unsubscribe from any newsletters you get. 

Some competitions involve sharing things on Facebook or retweeting things on Twitter and I don't usually like to do that but if you have an account with no one following you you could enter that way without annoying too many people! There are also other ways of entering such as on Pinterest which involves creating a board and pinning certain things which doesn't take very long but generally have fewer entries than form competitions. 

How many competitions do you enter a week?

It depends on if i'm having a busy week or not, it can range from 20-200!

How do you find the time?

I can enter around 10 competitions in 10 minutes using Prize Finder and autofill. I enter them in the morning when i'm having my breakfast and when i'm having lunch. I also sometimes sit on the train and enter them but I find it easier to use the websites on a PC. The more you do it the faster you get and the easier it is to work out the ones you want to enter.

But don't you end up with loads of spam?

It's not as bad as you would think. The key is to only enter your details on to websites that have another purpose ie. a magazine or shops website. Websites that are purely a page saying "Win a Mini" or "Win £3000" are probably just trying to get your details. I only enter my details on websites of companies I have heard of. 

If there is a box that says something along the lines of tick here if you do not want to receive emails/phone calls etc then tick it. If you dont have a choice then you will probably get a newsletter which you can unsubscribe from. Some people choose to make a separate email address for comping which is a good idea if you hate getting spam mail. In most cases your address and phone number are only used if you win a prize. Read the small print though!

How many competitions have you won?

When I was younger, (ie. the Cosmo Girl days) from what I remember I won 8 competitions. My prizes were:

• A denim goodybag including designer jeans, handbag, purse, shoes and perfume worth over £250 from Cosmo Girl magazine
• Golden circle tickets for Party In the Park 2004 (remember that!) from Bliss Magazine
• Another pair of tickets for Party in the Park 2004 from River Island which I sold
• A huge box of So! perfume and body spray from Cosmo Girl
• Book vouchers through a Teletext page
• DVDs from Cosmo Girl
• Trainers from Cosmo Girl
• Jewellery from Cosmo Girl

In the last year I have won 7 competitions with some much bigger prizes including:

• THIS trip to the Grammy's in LA courtesy of Beaverbrooks and Gucci
• A £250 voucher to spend on NotontheHighStreet.com (one of my favourite websites) courtesy of Period Living Magazine and Churchill Insurance
• A £75 Lipsy voucher through the O2 Moments App
• A full years Tastecard+ membership worth £105 from Sainsbury's Magazine

as well as some other smaller prizes including winning a Chocolate Hamper for my friend Jaymie.

It is safe to say i'm addicted to comping, but I have gone months at times without winning anything at all despite entering hundreds of competitions. The key is patience and persistence, and the moment you win your first prize it will make all that time and typing completely worthwhile.

Good luck and don't give up!

Abbie x

Lunch Break Holiday

It's at times like these, when the sun decides to show it's face for more than a few days that I really appreciate working so close to Regents Park. That hour between 1 and 2 is usually the highlight of my day (as much as I love my job!) so I love to make the most of it. I have recently acquired a pretty good tan thanks to the unusually sunny weather we have been having, I usually have to pay good money for one of those in the form of a beach holiday so i'm pretty chuffed with that! 

I spend my lunch breaks with my work colleagues that happen to be mostly male and prefer to be throwing a frisbee or a ball around, I just have to be on guard as I recently took a frisbee to the face (thank goodness for my sunglasses or that would have cost me my right eye) As you can see from the following photos from a picnic we had this week i'm happy to watch from the side lines stuffing my face with food!

You may be wondering what all the #lunchbreakholiday stuff is all about. Well the lovely guys at Travel Supermarket recently got in touch with me to share the details of their new campaign. You can watch their campaign video here

I love their idea of trying to encourage people to make the most of their precious lunch hour.
They are asking you to share a photo of what you get up to in your lunch hour and the person with the most original photo will win a summer party for all of their workmates worth £4000!
To enter simply Tweet or Instagram your images with the hashtag #lunchbreakholiday adding @TravelSupermkt on Twitter. One of the lucky party attendants could even win a summer holiday of their own, so get entering! (All details and T&C's can be found here)

Abbie x

We went to The Grammy's!

On a random Thursday in October last year and on a huge downer from discovering the flat Mitch and I wanted to buy had BURNT DOWN (fortunately no one was hurt and we hadn't signed anything) I received the following email from Beaverbrooks the Jewellers....

All I saw were the words LA, Grammy's and flights and completely freaked out. I sent a screenshot of the email to Mitch with the word "AHHHHHHHHHHH!" and then phoned the number at the bottom of the email. Aimee explained that I had entered the competition on Twitter and had won two FIRST CLASS flights to LA in February of this year, three nights in a 5 star hotel, VIP tickets to the Grammy's to walk down the RED CARPET and then seats in a private box. I was so overwhelmed I burst in to tears in the corridor at work. Happy tears obviously! I got off the phone to a load of messages from Mitch along the lines of "OMG", "What the..." "When is it!?" "Wait, it is for two people, right!?"

We counted down the four months from October to February, planning our outfits and checking the Grammy's website to find out who would be performing. I bagged myself a bargain in my dress, a Forever Unique beaded number half price in the ASOS January sale and watched a dozen red carpet make up look YouTube tutorials! Then on Friday 6th February we met the people from Gucci who were accompanying us on the trip in the first class lounge at Heathrow. We enjoyed a few pre-flight G&T's in the company of Robbie Williams. We chickened out of talking to him but took a sneaky photo with him in the background!

Then it was time to board our Air New Zealand flight to LA and we were in absolute luxury. We were handed a glass of champagne as we sat into what I can only describe as pods! The staff were really excited for us as they could tell this was not our usual mode of transport! Mitch had never even been on a long haul flight before and i'd only ever flown economy. This was something else!

I was excited by everything, the table cloth and real cutlery and crockery at dinner time, the fact we could order chocolate and champagne from our TV screens completely free, and the fact I was lying down, in a bed, on a plane!
We arrived at our hotel, Mr C in Beverly Hills to find this lovely surprise waiting for us.

The next day we went in to Beverly Hills and were treated to a private performance by the awesome Aloe Blacc (of "I Need a Dollar" fame) He was so lovely and even came to say hi afterwards.

The next day was Grammy's day! I woke up early to get my make up and hair just right but obviously my usual fail safe curly hair style wouldn't go right and I smudged my winged eyeliner! And then an hour before the car was due to pick us up Mitch realised he'd forgotten his cufflinks! We were staying in such a posh hotel they got their "house car" to drive him to the shops to fetch some but we were staying in such a posh hotel their usual clientèle would be happy to shop somewhere where a pair of cufflinks would set you back $400! Needless to say Mitch didn't plump for those ones and found an alternative shop, and got back with 20 minutes to spare! We scurried down to the lobby with just enough time to get a few snaps and boarded the luxury minibus to take us to the Staples Centre.

When we arrived it was chaos, and we realised that the red carpet was split in to two, one side was for the celebs and the other side was for the guests, the "normal" folk like us! The security guards did their best to usher everyone along but we couldn't help but stop every few metres to have a glance over at who we could spot, the first celeb spot was Ed Sheeran who is one of our favourite artists so we were completely star struck! We got to stop and have a nice professional photo which we will treasure forever and will always be a talking point.

After the madness of the red carpet and being with in touching distance of Pharell Williams, Gwen Stefani and Annie Lennox to name but a few we stepped in to our private box and were greeted by a personal bar man who poured us a drink and pointed us towards the huge spread of food that was laid out! It was insane, how the other half live! The performances were out of this world, we saw Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Katy Perry, John Legend and ACDC and many more! This photo came from the Beaverbrooks website as I was too excited to get a good one, but this shows the scale of the arena and the vast number of people that were there!

It was a money can't buy experience and we were so grateful to Beaverbrooks and Gucci for offering this amazing prize, and to whoever randomly selected me out of the thousands of entrants, we are eternally grateful!
We were lucky enough to be able to extend our trip by a few days and after checking out of our hotel we picked up this car from the car hire (it had to be done!) and headed down to Anaheim via Santa Monica and Venice Beach.

I have always wanted to go to Disneyland and have never even been to the Paris one before so to be so close to the original Disneyland we just had to go! Mitch was a bit sceptical about it but the moment we arrived we both had huge grins on our faces and had the best day ever! (The matching outfits were totally non intentional!) 

We picked up a lovely leather bound notebook in one of the many shops along with some over over priced but totally necessary souvenirs (the mickey mouse shaped salt and pepper pots are my personal favourite!) and used the notebook to create a lovely scrapbook with all of our photos and tickets in.

We also visited San Diego Zoo before we left as we had never seen pandas before so it had to be done, it was a scorching 40 degrees that day and a little too hot but it was another zoo to tick off the list (we are up to 9 now I think!) 

We flew back in equal luxury to the flight out there and arrived home having created many memories that will stay with us forever :)

So the next time you see a competition being advertised just remember, someone's got to win it, and why not you! I will write a post about how to better your chances of winning competitions and my comping tips, I actually enter around 500 competitions a month, and obviously this time it paid off!

Abbie x

Naughty Blogger

When I started this blog last April I vowed to keep up with weekly posts. That didn't happen and I now have a new found respect for the bloggers that create bogs that I read regularly. So much thought, time and effort goes in to those, and last year life simply got in the way and I totally failed at blogging. I have had one of the most eventful and exciting years of my life and I really wish now that I had dedicated some time to document and share with you all of the amazing things I have been up to. Instead I will use the next few posts to get you up to speed on said things and then will do my very very best to keep this up...I can and will do it this time! Plus I just treated myself to a lovely new camera (the Olympus Stylus 1 if anyone is interested) so I hope to adorn these pages with some pretty pictures.

I would roll right back to June last year and pick up where I left off but I want to start with the most exciting thing that has happened to me probably in my entire life...my next post will reveal all!

Abbie x

Primark Statement Necklaces

Every month is the same story... I try to resist the urge to go to Primark before work, during my lunch break and after work...EVERY DAY! To be fair since my office moved a further ten minutes walk up the road it's not as easy but when pay day arrived I thought i'd treat myself and take a wander. I used to spend hundreds of pounds in there and the majority of my clothes were Primark but since the prices have gone up without the quality changing (in my opinion) I've stopped buying many clothes in there other than basics. Instead I go straight to the accessories, footwear and homeware departments. 

I love their statement necklaces and they're a fraction of the price of other stores versions. They instantly liven up an outfit and Primark's ones are so inexpensive. I recently went a little mad and bought four necklaces. I'm not sure if they're truly statement in that they're not that big but they're really pretty and I wanted to show you. I may do a more general Primark haul post soon as I have acquired quite a lot from there during various visits. 

 

Pastel Flower Necklace £3

I love wearing pastels so this pretty flower one will go with most outfits and add a bit of girliness.

Large Bead Necklace £3 

I think this one will look great with a black tshirt or dress and can be dressed up or down.

White and Gold Necklace £3 

This white and gold necklace reminds me of bunting. It looks really nice with a white vest top and was also available in black which I think would work for a night out. 

Flower Necklace £4

 

Saving the best til last I am in love with this white pearl flower necklace. It goes with so many things and instantly livens up an outfit. I couldn't believe it was so inexpensive, you'd look to pay at least four times the amount in any other shop. 

I bought all of these in the Tottenham Court Road branch of Primark and it's by far the best I've been to. I go before work when everything's tidy and I feel like the only person in the shop! Bliss!

Abbie x

Mini Break On a Budget

On Thursday Mitch and I went on a road trip for a few days. He rarely has weekends off and so I booked two days off work during the week so that we could spend some quality time together. We had a lovely few days together exploring the south including the New Forest, Southampton and Winchester and it didn't cost much at all. 

 Lovely drive through the New Forest. Be sure to make a good "Road Trip" playlist!

Here are some top tips for planning a trip away in the UK if you are on a budget. 

Where should you go? 
A map is your best friend.
Decide on a distance that you would be happy to travel for the amount of time you will be away for. Travelling early on the first day and late back the following day will mean you only need one nights accommodation which will save pennies but if you're spending a lot on transport it seems a shame not to make the most of the journey and spend longer there. Google places to visit and look at the UK with a fresh set of eyes. Quite often there are places right on your doorstep that you've never visited but that hold some true gems and many people would travel far and wide to visit. 

 Winchester Cathedral was only an hours drive away yet I had never been

How you travel will greatly effect where you can go. 
If you have a car you could effectively travel anywhere in the UK within reason, if you're restricted to public transport you're a bit more limited and it's worth checking out a train map to figure out where is most easily accessible. 
Also even if you do drive sometimes it can be cheaper and easier to travel by train, especially visiting large cities where parking is hard to come by and expensive. 
Definitely do your research and if you're under 25 and travel regularly by train it may be worth investing in a young persons railcard.

 Driving seemed the best bet until a horse blocked the road!

When you go away can effect the cost...going away in the week will usually be less expensive than at a weekend (and less busy) Also avoiding school holiday times will generally be cheaper and quieter too. 

Reviews are so useful
Trip Advisor is my first port of call when looking for information on an area new to me. You can search for a whole town or city and then look at the top attractions, restaurants and hotels in that area. Reviews are invaluable in making the right choice for you but on a budget you may need to compromise. Cheaper hotels are cheap for a reason but they may just be slightly more basic rather than terrible, reviews will help you figure this out.

We stayed in the beautiful Wayside Cottage in Burley and it's 5 star reviews helped us make our decision

Shop around 
Deal websites such as Groupon, Living Social and KGB deals have great offers on hotels in the UK (and abroad) but be careful to read the small print. Quite often there are restrictions on dates the deal is valid for and if you have a specific date in mind it would be worth calling ahead to check the date is available before commiting to purchasing the deal.

Spontaneous last minute trip?
There are often good deals if you are booking quite soon to the date you want to go. No hotel wants empty rooms so quite often you will find good lasts minute deals. As it's name suggests lastminute.com has good prices, and if you're up for a surprise the top secret hotels are normally a great price. Expedia also have a similar thing. You don't know exactly where you will be staying, just the rough area, but the prices are normally a fraction of the usual listed price.

Getting snap happy at the New Forest Wildlife Park

When you get there
Make the most of being in a new place and go outside. Taking photos is free so get snapping all the glorious sites. Pick up leaflets in the hotel reception or local shops to see what attractions the local area has to offer. These sometimes contain vouchers for money off admission.

We enjoyed some tasty tapas at El Sabio in Winchester

Eating out
Eating out can be the expensive part so you could try to stick to one really nice lunch and one really nice dinner and then save a bit the other times. Lunch can be a few sandwiches from the local supermarket turned into a picnic in the park, or a British classic... fish and chips. Do however try to make the most of being in a new place and pick quirky independent restaurants rather than chains.

Enjoy
A break should be just that, not stressful. Planning is the key, researching the area before you go will save valuable time when you get there. Pin pointing what you definitely don't want to miss when you're there will mean you leave feeling like you can tick that place off your list, although it might be that great that you keep going back.


Abbie x

Making Lemonade [Part 2]

On Saturday my gorgeous friend Jaymie held a charity party for Cancer Research UK. I thought i'd share some of the photos with you (photos taken by the lovely Laura Jane Young..website to follow)

If you haven't read THIS blog post yet have a look to make a bit more sense of this one :)

On what would have been her wedding Jay did an amazing job of "making lemonade" and using her venue and guests to help raise over £2000 for a charity close to all of our hearts. I am so proud and inspired by her and know she will keep fundraising until she hits her £3000 target.

 

 

 

 

 What I wore:

Dress: Lipsy VIP

Shoes: Aldo
Hair clip: Primark

My hair:
I did this myself using curling tongs, lots of clips and LOTS of hairspray!
It's loosely based on THIS tutorial and I put my own spin on it by twisting the front piece round to the side. Surprisingly it didn't take me to long to do and stayed in all night.


Abbie x

Ps. Sorry the blogging schedule has gone out of the window this week, the Easter Weekend was a hectic one and Bank Holiday Monday came and went before I realised it was blog day. I also chucked my phone down the toilet (by accident) which hindered my life slightly! I'm off to the New Forest tomorrow so think this will be the only blog post this week but I should have more for you next week :)