E: 14/04 Compers Comping Contest... win £50, 2nd place £25

EverDecreasingCircles

I'd been a member of the MSE forum for several years before becoming a 'compaholic'. I'd even dipped my toes in the comps forum in the past, but one day, 2 years ago, I decided to have another go. That was it, I was hooked.

Comping now takes up ALL of my spare time. Don't get me wrong, I love winning prizes, but it is totally addictive. There are thousands of comps of the forum at any one time, far too many for most people to cope with so there's certainly no need to look elsewhere for comps. And because the majority of them are free to enter the only investment is time.

I enter comps because it supplements our (very meagre right now) income. I know lots of people don't agree with this practice but I'm not ashamed to say I enter comps so I can sell the prizes. In the past I've sold prizes and used the money to pay for our annual holiday (a week on the Costa del Norfolk), my son's 21st birthday (presents and celebrations), decorating the house and little treats for us. For me comping pays for the things we simply couldn't afford otherwise.

Now my OH has been made redundant we use the money to pay toward our mortgage. For me comping is almost like a 2nd job. At first my OH would complain that I spent all my time on the computer - now he positively encourages it!

The rewards can be great, but can also be disappointing. I enter roughly the same amount of comps every month (around 1200-1500) and some months I do very well, others I win hardly anything. There are certainly no guarantees that you'll win.


The best prizes I've won in the past 2 years are:
A £1000 diamond necklace
A laptop
£980 on Dickinson's Real Deal
£500 on Tombola (free to enter game)
Wii
Flip Camera
Several iPods

The most bizzarre prize was of an adult nature We were stuck for a while wondering what on earth we'd do with it (apart from the obvious). I tried eBay but they took the listing off, couldn't give it to the local charity shops or church jumble, couldn't give it to the PTA for the school fete. Eventually OH phoned the local 'Adult shop' and they bought it from us. (for those who want to know what it is, Google Louisianna Lounger).

So, my advice to anyone thinking of joining us on the comps forum is this. Firstly, you'd be made very welcome. We're a friendly bunch
Secondly, be prepared for long hours sat at your PC.
Finally, don't expect to win, just be grateful when you do.

Oh, and good luck.

EDC x

Tulip

I found MSE in June 2005 where I came and joined up,I was bewildered at first as I didnt know anyone but once I had made that very first post I felt relaxed and at ease and everyone was so welcoming

I love to enter competitions,I do as many as I can,I dont keep count of them but it must be in their hundreds perhaps.Anyway I enjoy it as it gives me something to do to while away the hours and I enter online.

I just then sit back and wait for that winning e-mail to come or by post in a letter or a dvd being delivered by post as well and that gives me such a thrill and a surprise.

Basically just be you,just go for the competition you feel you want and go for it and see how you get on.

You will be welcomed when you join and I now have so many friends thanks to this site,so thanks Martin I have won lots of prizes inc:
Laptop Christmas 07 from Windows live website
dvd of Festen
Heart Mug from Heart Radio

Mystic dreamcatcher
Sky with a years free viewing

and loads more.


Katie

cmcconnell

Well, relativley speaking I'm still a newbie to the world of comping and thought it might be good to get the perspective of someone who hasnt been comping for very long... im 9 weeks in to 'serious comping' and have already had lots of small wins. Thanks to velvet gloves competition guide i came into the forum with my eyes open and didnt expect thousands of pounds or HUGE plasma TV's to start arriving the moment i started entering competitions. I sort my competitions by their end date ( which seems to cause blind panic on the last day of the month comps as there are ALOT more of them) i had my first win in a matter of days and that same week the prizes just kept appearing... which i put down to begginers luck, have recently had what lots of compers would call a 'dry spell' with no wins at all ( not even the freebie sample type giveaways) but i think that being part of the forum comunity ( The compers Inn !!! ) kept me going. the longer i spend on the forum the more i love it!
BUT it takes up LOADS of time!! and can be a bit disheartening at times....
as i said velvetgloves guide it really is a lifeline
HTH!! :money:

ThinkingOfLinking

I've only been "seriously" entering competitions for about a year and still haven't had any big wins as such, but the things I have won have all been things I wanted. I find them on here, as well as sourcing some myself from email newsletters I subscribe to, eg magazine websites, and I try to encourage comping karma by sharing any competitions I find by posting them on the forums.

The downsides are the time it takes to enter competitions, and having to find some difficult answers (eg the Radio Times ones), and also often having to sign up for newsletters from various websites as a condition of entry. I've also received marketing phonecalls.

The "biggest" and certainly best prize I've ever won was the chance to be part of an AC/DC video shoot last year. I love that you can win some money can't buy experiences. I also won a £100 cheque. Other than that, I've only won smaller items, such as books, CDs, DVDs, makeup but it's things I can't afford to treat myself to at the moment so all welcome, plus I sell my books on Greenmetropolis.com when I'm done with them as I have limited space and never read fiction books more than once.

It takes tenacity to start winning things, and I admit there's times when I get annoyed that I don't seem to be winning big, but it'll happen one day, and in the mean time, it is what it is, a bit of fun with the bonus of the odd little surprise turning up in the post.

CONTINUED AND UPDATED IN MY NEXT POST 2 DOWN FROM THIS ONE.

cavycrazy_2

I fell into comping accidentally; I never set out to be a comper. In 1998, I saw a competition in Woman’s Own, which was sponsored by Tetley Tea. All you had to do was write a short story featuring the Teafolk characters. First prize was a fortnight for four in Antigua, a year’s supply of teabags, your story made into a pop-up book, original Tetley artist-signed artwork created from your story and a pile of Tetley merchandise.
Second prize was a year’s supply of tea, your story in the book, and the Tetley goodies.
Well, I loved tea and Tetley was my brand, so I dashed off a quick story about the Tetley Tea Drinking Ghost. I wanted second prize. I didn’t fancy a holiday – I know, I know – but I didn’t. I just wanted the tea. I posted off my effort and duly forgot about it until a letter arrived asking me what dates I was available to fly to the Caribbean! When the shock wore off, I went on my holiday and loved every minute! The framed picture has pride of place on my living room wall and the tea came in very handy.
But now I had seen that ordinary people DO win big prizes and I was well and truly savaged by the comping bug. I began to hunt for competitions on the internet, and the prizes began rolling in. Some completely bizarre ones – I remember two little pieces of wood for being the only contestant to get every question wrong and was declared “as thick as two short planks”! and some fantastic ones – a Fanta games room – twice – comprising a TV, Wii, mini fridge and more cans of pop than I could drink, a Samsung G600 for being stupid enough to make a Leap Year proposal in a national newspaper, and countless books, hampers, DVD’s, games and vouchers. So far this year, I'm up to £1738.00 pure profit!
My tips:

Go for the ones that require originality. Anyone can use Google to call up the answer to a question, but tiebreakers require work. Poems and limericks have netted me, amongst other things, a £150 Millennium Falcon, a Nokia 5800 and a £500 pre-paid credit card. Yes, they take more work, but most people can’t be bothered to put in the effort.

Double-check your answers. Don’t rely on the first link you see when researching; check it’s a reputable site.

Don’t get disheartened when other people seem to pull in all the biggies. Take it as proof that ordinary people DO win and know that your time will come.

Don’t be overwhelmed by the staggering amount of competitions there are. Set yourself a goal – say, 25 a day, then flick through and go for the ones you really want. You’ll find time later to enter for the others.

Keep an eye out for competitions on products in the supermarket. Have a pen and paper to scribble the details down if you don’t want to buy.

Most of all enjoy it! It’s a hobby, not a chore.

ThinkingOfLinking

You're so right, Cavycrazy. Postal competitions and ones requiring effort and creativity attract less entries so you are more likely to win; in fact, that's what happened with the AC/DC competition I mentioned before; entrants had to send in a photo and answer a tie-breaker about why they should win.

You're also right that on here, there's proof that ordinary people DO win so it's very encouraging. I thought I was the only miser/loser/moneysaver to scribble down competition details when out and about. Thanks for making me feel like less of a loser/scrounger/nutter.

Edit: If you needed more proof that you never know what's around the corner: After a dry spell of a few weeks, I just got 2 emails today, telling me I've won Liz Earle skincare and Vans shoes. I'm off to redress the karmic balance by posting some more competitions. Since then, I've also now won an apple pie and porridge through McDonalds instant wins on their current Monopoly promotion, another Galaxy book, another Liz Earle skincare set, and had 7 wins from the Cosmo Big March Giveaway. You may well have won stuff that's on its way to you; you just don't know it yet. I've just won another dubious prize: My bum now has its own postcode thanks to the current Magnum competition where you need a code from the stick; I can eat up to 12 in 24 hours...oh, the sacrifices I make for comping. Now, I need to win a gym membership/gym equipment/liposuction.

Nicky63

It started quite innocently on a bright spring morn
There was something I wanted but I was quite forlorn
We have been to the IOW Festival year in year out
But this year we were broke, so I said with a pout
Perhaps I could win some tickets and still go to the ball
Dear Hubby, he laughed, and said that’s not likely at all
To prove him wrong I sat down at my PC
I gooogled and googled and then found MSE
There were hundreds and thousands of comps for all things
TV’s, cookers, consoles, watches and rings
I searched for the tickets and to my utter delight
There were enough competitions to keep me up all night
I entered and entered and entered some more
Then my mobile phone rang and my jaw hit the floor
It’s The Sun Newspaper here, the voice said to me
And you are the winner of two tickets for FREE!
I was over the moon, I could hardly take it in
And that’s the story of my very first win
The story’s far from over though, you see winning is a bug
I started entering other comps, it took over like a drug
For hours and hours every day I was comping like mad
My Mother thought I’d lost it, she told me I was sad
But next came some Cider then vouchers from Virgin Vie
Then one morning a biggie! A case of Whiskey!
Then DVD’s a bikini a hamper and some books
As the prizes rolled in I was getting less of “those” looks
She began to take an interest and wanted to have a go
Asked me to help her, well I didn’t say no
She just did a few odd ones to try and get a feel
Within a matter of weeks she’d won on Real Deal!!
She shared the prize with me as she felt that was right
I was thrilled and elated as things were pretty tight
Mum still does a few but doesn’t like to put in the time
But I am worse than I ever was, my life isn’t mine
I love doing my comps and my fellow compers are so kind
But if you are going to start comping, please bear this in mind
You won’t win them all, in fact sometimes you’ll win none
You have to put in the hours but it still is great fun
I’ve now had a phone and a laptop, 2 cameras and Shampoo
In fact presents for Christmas 08 were all prizes too.
To end my tale I would like to give thanks to MSE
And to the board guides that keep order and give their time for free
And most of all to the posters that find all the prizes
Here’s to 2009 and to some lovely surprises.

:beer:

pandagirl03

Well I stumbled across comping whilst looking at the quick grabbit and freebie sections. I started comping the end of May 2008 after I got married, I only started doing the odd one here and there. Then in June 2008 I got ill and started getting panic attacks. So then the comping became an escape for me.

I won my first prize within 2 weeks tickets to sex and the city premiere, this then made it even more of an escape for me. I started entering as many as I could, then I got roboform and was well away.
Lots more wins started coming in and my best win of all was my dishwasher, I LOVE my dishwasher.

MSE comping forum is great, everyone is friendly and all helping each other out. Never forget iconic Britain comp everyone was willing on poor cg to win a camera, she got there in the end and won two I think everyone was over the moon when that happened.

Well I think I can now say I’m addicted to doing comps but most of all it was a fantastic escape for me from my illness. Even my daughter sits playing on her computer saying mummy I’m doing competitions for you, bless her.

But on the other side of it my house isn't as clean now, opps. But i can now do plenty of washing with my years supply of washing tablets that i won this month.

This forum is great and I just want to say a big thanks to everyone who puts in so much effort in making the comp board work. :beer:
Some of my wins to date, cant list them all as far too many:-
Sex and the city premiere tickets
dishwasher
makeup
Digital camera
dvd's and cd's
cinema tickets
fake tan
m & s vouchers
years supply of washing tablets
John lewis vouchers
And lots more... All my wins from last year totalled £1400 which is excellent because i only started comping end of May. :j

djmouth

Ladies and gentlemen there is a new drug in town, this drug will keep you up all night, , will put you in a repetitive state every day of every week of every year.
This drug can leave you in a with a permanent BUZZ or a downward spiral of disappointment.
This drug can be as much as £50,000 or as little as 99p, and can come in large boxes or small envelopes, and can come in a variety of different colours.
This drug can also be there one minute and gone the next.
So what is this new designer drug in town you will ask, well is still on the market and its street name is MSE COMPS or to those not in the know it is moneysaving expert.com competitions forum.
So then I first found MSE back in 2007 , when like a lot of people I was searching the freebies forum getting something for nothing then beginning of 2008 found the holy grail of subjects “competitions” and then I could feel the drug pumping through my veins as the first competition I entered was for some male skincare, I mean always thought the winners where made up and there was just one man who works at these companies and comes up with ideas with prizes that no one will ever win,
well I was wrong, I was so wrong because I think it was June 2008 I had my first win the prize was tickets to T4 party on the beach. When that winning e-mail arrived in my inbox I think I actually wet myself with excitement , first off I read the message mmmmmmm? 17 times and then got my wife to read it 17 times and then if my dog could talk I think I would have got him to read it to. There it was in the most boring font in all the world but I didn't care it just said you're the winner.
So a couple of small wins I found myself slowly shying away from my social life spending more time drinking coffee, spending more time eating junk food and spending more time typing my name and address over and over and over again almost 100 times a day just to get that winning buzz.

Jackpot another win !!! this time to see Elton John will live at the o2 Arena on New Year's Eve 2008 that was an adventure in itself I'll save that for another time if you don't mind.
So here`s a little tip to you lot out there, all you non-believers and all you dreamers enter as many as you can, make as many friends as you can here on the forum and last but not least keep them fingers crossed and don't forget to thank those lovely people who like myself spend too much time surfing the net and then post those all-important competitions , Ahmen.

BenhamsLC

Hi Martin,
Have as far back as I can remember entered competitions. Won my first big competition 31 years ago a fitted kitchen, the letter was waiting when we returned from our honeymoon, one major problem we were living in a rented flat. We managed to sell it and save some money towards our first house.

My favourite prizes are a VIP trip to Paris in 1997 staying at the George V hotel with lots of extras and the millionth copy of the Guinness book of hit singles which was presented by Tim Rice at Sticky Fingers which lots of stars attended.

I stumbled across MSE while looking for the answer to a competition, was a lurker for quite a while then took the plunge and joined, have never looked back. Since being a member have enjoyed the friendly chat made lots of lovely friends and now spend to much time chilling and chatting.

I cancelled my membership with a comping magazine that I used to pay for, saving me money. I do admit its a hobby with not all ups, it takes up a lot of time and can be very addictive, you can go months without a win, but you can totally drop the comps then have a win turn up from months ago and this gets you started again.

Last year I was very lucky thanks to the lovely ops on the comping site and won lots of birthday and 80% of my Christmas presents, gifts that we wouldn't of been able to afford. I find it hard to find new competitions (but am always looking), but help with answers when I can.
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The one thing I have always done is to keep all my winning letters however big or small in a folder, I always try and thank the promoter. When on holiday I look out for cheap postcards, I try not to get upset if I miss a few competitions. But 'm addicted I love the thrill I get when a winning parcel, letter or phone call. Don't forget the only prize you can't win is the one you don't enter. :j


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