Competitions

I thought I'd write a bit about my main hobby, entering competitions.

My friends and family know I like the odd competition, but most of them have no idea exactly what that means. Some of them like to enter the odd comp themselves but I don't think they realise the scale on which I work.

I call it work, because in a way it is like a part time job. I probably spend more time on comping than I do at my 'proper' job!

So, a bit about comping.

I use a forum: www.moneysavingexpert.com to find most of the comps I enter. There are literally thousands of comps listed there, far more than I could ever do. On top of that, there are comps posted on Facebook and Twitter. Some of which are listed on the forum, but a lot are not.

On an average day I probably spend about 5 hours+ comping, possibly more on weekends. I'm not sure how many comps that equates to over a week but I would estimate it's in excess of 1200/1500.

So do I win? The short answer is Yes. I do win and quite regularly. Is it worth it? Sometimes.

My first big win when I started around 7 years ago was a diamond necklace worth £1000. That spurred me on to entering even more and I was hooked. Since then I've spent more and more time on them. There are far more comps around now than when I first started, but also far more people entering them! I think the economy and high unemployment rates has meant more people are looking for a way to make a little extra money and those who are unemployed have more time to sit entering them so there's a lot of people entering each comp. It can run in the tens of thousands for each prize sometimes.

My biggest win was £10,000, from a can of Pepsi Max. I've also won Dickinson's Real Deal twice and I know a lot of people who have won big on the ITV competitions (see this list: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4393093&highlight=itv+winners).  Wins aren't guaranteed though, it really is down to luck most of the time (and a lot of effort and time). I use a form filler (RoboForm) which saves a lot of time. Some of the forms can be quite long so being able to click one button that fills the whole form it really helps.

Comping has enabled us to have holidays, nice things for our home, gifts for friends and family, days out, money-can't-buy experiences and at times has supplemented our income. But don't think it's a get rich quick thing because unless you're extremely lucky, it isn't. It takes a lot of time and effort.

So give it a go, but be warned: you'll soon be hooked. My motto is 'The only comp you can't win, is the one you didn't enter'.