CHALLENGE - can I make a living from comping?

Treacle1983

So here's the sad jist of why i'm trying this:
Made redundant yet again - Entitled to no more job seekers or any benefits as my partner works and earns a fairly decent wage.

So my current income = zilch.

This challenge has been set by my partner whilst I jobhunt to see if it can be done.

Can comping make me a living?

Monthly I need to try to cover my rent and bills which are about £350
Then there is my food, bathstuff, clothes and xmas costs etc...

I am aiming to comp for approx 35 hours a week and will keep a spreadsheet of the number of hours comped each day, number of comps entered, and of course wins.

Wish me luck and feel free to join me if you're in a similar financial black hole.

update:

YES I CAN
But not in the way I expected. Lol
Had a call from a genuine magazine company - wanting to pay me to update a new site, facebook page and twitter page for them.
I was headhunted - through twitter and my website compingqueen.com

Def genuine as they are arranging for me to go see them - expenses paid.

Will update when I can.

But how cool is that - my job will be my hobby.

ginjim

comp for 35 hours a week??????????????? surely it can be done quicker than that

well it boils down to luck really
one win could pay off for a whole year

i'd never retort to trying to make a living out of comping
it should be fun-
not to try to pay the bills which are better suited in finding real employment

luckily you have a fairly well paid bf who can help you out when you get stuck in the money situation.

id rather spend time filling out application forms etc etc

passlady

A very interesting challenge. Good luck with your comping. Also you would probably have to factor in your reselling time to "earn" your money.
Again best wishes!

Savvybunny2009

I'm going to wish you every luck on your challenge. I think the majority of us would agree that 99.9% of us could not make a living out of it unless you are in the minority who have a big cash win. Plus it truly does become work and not fun if you expect to win, but that is just my opinion. As luck has a big part to play you could enter 5000 and not win a thing or enter 12 and win 4 etc so you may find your time better off reviewing and doing surveys etc

I think if you have money worries you are much better off using 35 hours to job hunt and meet potential employers or retrain. If you are entering competitions to win prizes to sell you may find you have to register yourself as self employed too (please don't quote me on that but do check).

Wishing you all the best.

little_dumplings

Sorry to hear about your job treacle, back to square one again

I probably rattle off 30 hours per week of comping and that's with a full time job! In the summer hols I was doing it night and day, lots and lots of small wins but no biggies. I give most of my prizes away so I'd never make a living from it

Like ginjim says, it's down to what you win, not how much you win. Last month I won 21 things.....15 of which were frusli bars (I suppose that might keep a parrot or a hamster for a month) :rotfl:

Good luck tho....you gotta be in it to win it, and more time means being in more comps...especially the day ones like the robinsons netbook, I can't enter that one as I'm at work x

40somethingmum

Wishing you the best of luck . Looking forward to reading about your wins.

love

40Smxx

Dunners

Hi Treacle, sorry to hear about your redundancy - have you thought about doing some volunteer work whilst you're jobhunting? I recently advertised for an admin assistant and was flooded with reponses - the candidate I ended up hiring was someone that had used their out of work time to volunteer for a charity - they had been able to learn lots of new skills and keep their CV current without any gaps. Just a thought, even if you only did a few hours per week somwhere and used the rest of the time for comping?

Good luck!

Short-n-Sweet

Interesting Topic...

I got into comping because of having no jobe and no local work. If i sold every single win then it may JUST be possible a few months a year but there is no consistancy with Comping and i always end up finding a home for Wins. So dont make any money from it anyway..Like someone said above one win could cover the year..but then you could have horrid luck and only win little "worthless" items.

However Christmas is a fun time to do it, with loads of excellent Competitions on offer.

Im currently trying to WIN Christmas!! lol

How has your Comping luck been so far and how many wins, best wins?...

Sorry to hear about your Job and Goodluck with the challenge, i wont say its impossible. You might get a call from ITV saying you have won £100k lol all the luck of the draw. xxxx

kimmy393

Hmm what an interesting challenge. Well £350 could be done if you won a couple of really nice items each month. I reckon I could of made that each month if I re-sold what I won. But I do it for fun, and just like to enjoy what I win. Plus I dont like the 10% ebay take off you plus the paypal fees:(

Would be great to hear that you could, so goodluck and let us know how its goes. xx

dooby

Sorry about your redundancy. My OH got made redundant this time last year out of the blue and it is really is a right sh1tter.

Good luck with your challenge, it's something that has crossed my mind from time to time as my job wasn't/isn't safe but it's bad enough when I don't win for ages as it is, to not win for ages when i'm relying on the income would probably drive me mental it would just be so disheartening.

I think it's a good idea to not put all your eggs in one basket though, anything could happen, I noticed there was a lull in comps/the value of comps when the recession hit, if we had another one then it could really effect you and tbh, i'm not sure how it would look on a CV if you said you'd spent your time comping whilst not being employed, some people might not understand how it works and think you're a bit of a gambler or a dreamer. Just saying how it might look.

cathelen

if you win as much as i've won this year, i'm afraid you will starve ,my total winnings are £60 on walkers crisps.But i'd love to know how you do over the year GOOD LUCK.