June in a Nutshell, how it panned out.

It's the end of June already! We are already six months through the year and it's zooming by.

June has been my worst comping month so far this year. I've had 30 prizes so stuck to my average of 1 per day which is great but value wise it's my lowest value month and there are a few reasons for that.

The first week of June hubby was off work and we finished decorating then had lots of lovely day trips to places like Yorkshire Wildlife Park and Harrogate Valley Gardens and Grasshoppers in Tong. It's great when he's off as he can drive so we can go further afield but it also makes taking Jake out easier as I struggle alone and I can't do all the things he wants to do.

We've upped Jake's hobbies! He was doing gymnastics once a week at special disability classes but we are looking for other avenues for things he loves and enjoys too. So now I take him swimming one lunch time a week with the help of my Nan, leaving us both quite tired afterwards but he's showing such progress after just a month of sessions. He's also started quad biking, if you follow me on social media you will have probably seen pictures and videos of him in his full motocross gear zooming around my Dad's factory, it's a bit heart in mouth sometimes but he loves it so is doing that a couple of times a week.

Other reasons involve breaking my laptop screen - it's still a complete mystery how it happened but it rendered me unable to comp on the laptop for a week unless I hooked it up to the TV and used the TV as a monitor, although it's fixed now. The final reason is it's been so sunny we've been playing in the garden or in the paddling pool and snoozing or just too warm to be bothered to comp. I've gone from doing a couple of Instagram comps a couple of times a day at interim periods to doing a couple of Instagram comps once every couple of days and my wins definitely show that.

Anyway, enough waffling.

Here are my wins:

The 1st of June saw my first win from Annabel Karmel of a micro-trike, this was a purchase competition where you had to buy a children's ready meal and they had 50 a month to give away I think it was. I only entered in the last month but was pleased to win as it's perfect for my niece and nephew.

Jake had his first kids mag win on the 2nd. A Poopeez Toilet Launcher play set. It is as grim as it sounds. Poopeez are the new collectibles rage at the mo, delightful little figures in the shape of different poops, wee
s and even trumps such as Silent But Deadly! The Toilet Launcher came with two figures and you put them inside the toilet and then after a few seconds they pop up and jump out.

Lots of World Cup promos on this month and Coca Cola have a few including win a FIFA FUT code for the FIFA 18 game of downloadable content. I wouldn't usually class this as a win but as between us we've won about 8 I've decided to class it as 1 solitary win but I'm not valuing them highly.

I won two bottles of Fizzics Apple drink on Instagram it came in a lovely wooden box.

Finally after years of trying I cracked it with the Sun Puzzles and won £50 in their weekly wordsearch competition. They pay via BACS so do need you to send your bank details over which I know a few people are wary of doing but the payment hit my account and I've had no issues. Cash always helps!

John Adams was running a comp asking about peoples favourite flowers on Facebook and everybody was saying the typical ones such as Roses, Daffodils etc. My favourite is Senetti which is a beautiful white purple daisy. We won an Ezee Beads Garden Bugs and Flowers set which was a fun little activity for Jake to do.

Another copy of Maze Runner: The Death Cure arrived with no note or anything so I have no clue where from. I had entered a few before I won a copy last month.

The lovely Kate Eccles on twitter @KEEccles ran a giveaway for a copy of Monster in My Wardrobe and I tweeted a picture of Jake sat on top of one of my wardrobes saying we hadn't found a monster in the wardrobe but we had found one on top. It was a lovely read and the publisher wrapped it like a present which was a nice touch.

Another twitter win was a Femme Cup from the Powder Room. I was the only entrant and it was just a case of retweet and reply with a hashtag tagging a friend.

Jake won some Shopkins Cutie Cars from a children's magazine.

Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE Harry Potter. Bloomsbury Publishing have brought out some new special editions of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and they ran competitions on their social media to win a house special. I entered for Gryffindor and you had to say what password you would give for the Gryffindor house. I said Voldemort - because most are too afraid to say his name, but Gryffindors are brave, courageous and daring!

A Win It Wednesday twitter win of Halibo children's vitamins from twitter.

Frubes have a no purchase necessary competition to win colour changing goodies - I keep forgetting to enter (I am rubbish at dailys!) but managed to win a colour change wristband.

Jake had another delivery! (He's done bloody well this month from children's magazines!) This time it was some Mickey Mouse jigsaw puzzles. 

On Instagram I won a Sister gift box. I actually found this when looking for twitter comps that were ending soon, you could enter on both twitter and instagram and it was ending soon with low entry numbers. It's a nice gift box with necklace, hot choc, notebook, bath bomb and chocolate mallow treat in.

Another twitter win this time from KBB Ark of a Kohler speaker that goes inside a shower head! Super cool!

ANOTHER win for Jake from a kids mag of a DC Match game, there were 10 prizes up for grabs and my mag group managed to win 8 of them so I was super pleased, although a clean sweep would have been lovely!

I won a lovely stationery bundle on Instagram that I can't wait to receive as I love stationery and all the bits look super cute.

A local shopping centre ran a competition for Love 2 Shop vouchers. I always enter their competitions but this is the first time I've ever been lucky with them. I won £25 which we had to collect in person, they originally wanted to take publicity photo's but when I explained my anxiety of having a photo posted publicly and people being able to criticize me due to my physical appearance etc they were lovely and said I didn't have to. I used the vouchers to buy The Greatest Showman and Coco on DVD as despite lots of trying I never managed to win them. We've only watched Coco so far but it was so good! The other £5 I used to buy ice lollies in Iceland - much needed in this heat haha.

I also won a Darkest Hour DVD from a web comp.

Oh look, another win for Jacob, this time some Paw Patrol books.

I won a MojMoj toy on Instagram these seem to be along the likes of L.O.L Dolls and the type of opening a surprise.

I won a copy of No Guilt Pregnancy Plan  from Mumsnet, here's hoping me and hubby get the chance to use it!!!

Milkshake magazine had a twitter competition where they wanted kids to make a mask and send a picture with a hash tag, there were hardly any entries and we got ours in last minute and won a copy of Chicken in the Kitchen.

2 Scrub Daddy sponges and a stand were won from Instagram. I love how they are smiley faces but I've been sat using one as a stress ball all afternoon as I love the way it feels when you squish it, it's hard but soft at the same time.

Every Tuesday on Facebook Disney Jr have a 'Tea Party' with multiple prizes where you have to answer questions. We won a Mickey's Racers bundle on it this week. Two soft toys, a cup and a toy driving license.

You can tell I started to get back into Instagram a little bit towards the end of the month as I had two more wins on there. Some gorgeous leather sandals for Jake from Chipmunk Sandals and an Aquabeads set from one of their daily comps.

One last kids mag win for Jake of an Ookiverse book, we already have this so when this arrives we will pass it to my cousin.

My last win of the month was a fab bundle of DVDs from Movie Weekender. There are some classics in there and a couple I've not seen before.

So there you have it. In a nutshell my June has consisted of DVD's, Books and Children's prizes haha. It's almost as if the comping Gods know the summer holidays are on the way and we may need things to keep us busy!

Have a great July everyone, I hope the lovely weather holds up for us all.

Danielle x

 My stats for the month are:
Total Number of Prizes: 30
Total RRP of Prizes £664
Breakdown of Prize type:

My Marvellous May..

Another month is over with and we are now in the 6th month of 2018, June. Where oh where has the year gone? It feels like only yesterday I was writing a blog post about what we had won in January. Comping has been very hit and miss this month, other engagements have meant that there have been times where I've just not bothered with entering comps, in fact there have even been days where I've not even turned the laptop on when usually it's on everyday, even if just for a little while. Whilst I haven't won such big prizes like the Little Tikes bundle last month I've still had some fab wins and it's proof that you don't have to enter everything to win but just focusing your attention sometimes can be a big help!

My first win of May was a Willow and Wild box on Instagram. They are a craft and gardening subscription box aimed at children and Jacob received the Snapdragon and Radish box. We planted the seeds and they are currently on my kitchen windowsill. We haven't had chance to do the craft projects yet.

BookTrust have a campaign running this year called Bath Book Bed and so there were lots of blog competitions around to win bundles and we were lucky enough to win one. It came in a lovely cotton bag and had Peppa Pig shower/bubble bath, Peppa Pig toothpaste and Peppa Pig toothbrushes and then 3 different books.

One of Jake's little obsessive quirks are glasses; normal glasses, sunglasses, toy glasses, he loves them all. So he was really pleased when I won a pair of  Hulk 3D glasses in light of the new Avengers film. He was even happier when 2 pairs arrived so we could both be Hulk!

QVS Beauty on Instagram gave away bundles of make up brushes and I was lucky enough to win some.

Another Instagram win was from lauren_loves_xx she does regular giveaways and had posted she would be doing some random giveaways through the day where she would post a picture and the first person to reply tagging friends would win the item in the picture. I turned my notifications for her posts on so that as soon as she posted I could click on and I was lucky enough to win a Revolution Concealer.

Both me and the hubby won Pepsi Glasses and a Walkers bowl on the current purchase necessary promo. We keep trying for the tv.

On May the 4th there were loads of Star Wars comps about and I used tweetdeck to hunt some out. Although it's not technically a Star Wars prize I found a comp for a children's app called Peg and Pog which I won.

The Star Wars prizes didn't allude me though and we had some fab wins!

A Star Wars Block book from Abrams Chronicle Books

A fab double sided cushion from Character World that I loved so much I've bought a second one!

A brilliant bundle with Central Retail Park that had a light saber, a Storm trooper back pack, an R2D2 night light teddy and a BB8 Alarm clock!

I also won some Star Wars pin badges after saying I'd love them for my back pack and sending them a picture of it in its pink storm trooper glory complete with Porg key-rings.

Our first kids mag win of the month was a Bizzy Bub. It was an entry form from Mixit Magazine and they'd missed the space for the competition off the entry form so I wrote it on a post it note and stuck it to our entry form and we won.

We won a book from Scholastic Kids called Dinosaur Firefighters and J has really enjoyed it so it's become our current bedtime story.

Another book win was Iguana Boy Saves The World from Toppsta. I thought it might be a good introduction to chapter books for Jake but he's not hundred percent taken with it at the moment.

WKD picked me as a winner of a crate of their bottles on Instagram, I expected them to just send a coupon out in the post but they sent the actual crate of glass bottles!

A small prize of baby socks on Instagram have gone in the baby box in the spare room.

I also won a Too Faced Lipstick on Instagram from greencatbeauty

I won a personalised Carafe on Instagram from smartphoto and chose to have the quote 'It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live' which is from Harry Potter engraved on it and then I have filled it with fairy lights. The photo doesn't do it justice. It's lovely.

My first Facebook win of the month was a Mowgli Street Food book. You had to say what your favourite street food is and I said a slice of pizza from dough boys. There is a recipe in for butter chicken which I'm looking forward to making this weekend.

I won a make up bundle on Instagram which was a simple comment and tag and then I won a £15 credit for next of kin apparel and I ordered this cute bodysuit as I love that it's similar to The Offspring lyric, I also got a romper with a different design too.

Jake was off School ill and so it was lovely to receive two parcels for him from Kids Magazines to cheer him up, one was a book called Emmeline The Cheeky Pup and the other was this awesome Grossery Gang Bug Strike bundle!

With the new GDPR rules coming out in May there were lots of promotions to opt in and sign up to newsletters and 'clubs'. A lot of people question if anyone ever wins from newsletter sign up competitions. Well I'm happy to say I won a gorgeous Minnie Mouse Chamilia necklace from signing up to the Chamilia club, I think I saw the advert on Facebook. It's worth £95 and is super pretty, although possibly a little bit too delicate for a klutz like me.

I won with Peter Rabbit Magazine on Facebook again, for the second time this year, this time a DVD which will come in handy for rainy days and make a change from Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 which I have watched 17 times this half term as it's what Jake wanted on!

It was Coeliac Awareness/Gluten Free Awareness week and I was lucky enough to win a bundle of Pieminster Gluten free pies. I'm not sure if you've ever tried to do gluten free baking, but I have and it wasn't very successful so I was a bit nervous about what the pies would be like but Oh My Days they were delicious! We will buy them again but they are quite pricey (isn't all dietary needs food?) so they will be for a special treat.

I received another 2 copies of Big Bones books this month although I'm not sure where from?

Another two small Instagram wins came in as we headed into the last week of the month. A craft bundle from Nu who usually do notebooks and a tub of Oppo's new flavour ice cream from guessing what their new flavour was.

I had a nice bank holiday win of the new Maze Runner film on DVD which we are looking forward to watching at some point over the next few days.

I also won some Scolaquip goodies on Instagram which are paint sticks (similar to Little Brian ones) as well as some which you can use on fabric and some which are for using on your face!

I managed to tick something off my wish list this month too! I've been trying for ages to win with Colour Freedom and I finally won some hair dye! I miss having bright coloured hair so I can't wait for it to arrive.

Then it seems the comping fairy decided it's about time I start looking after myself as I had the following wins:
A Tefal Optigrill from Muscle Foods
A Nutribullet from the Belvita purchase competition. Which as well as making smoothies will be used for it's ice crushing abilities to make cocktails with the Cocktail Recipe book I won on Instagram.
Reveal Magazines top 25 beauty buys
and finally,
a crate of bottled water and a bundle of skincare products, again from Instagram.

As you can see Instagram really was my friend this month. My partner has the first week of June off so I won't be doing much comping as we are in the middle of redecorating and also hoping to enjoy some days out with Jake as well as trying to find him a new school as it's been decided a mainstream school isn't suitable and he needs a specialist school.

 My Stats for the month are:
Total Number of Prizes: 38
Total RRP of Prizes: £1018
Breakdown of prize type: