An Awesome August Recapped

August is the month when school holidays are in full throttle and you've already exhausted all your fun ideas in the last week of July. So with that in mind I was determined to try and win some fun things to do, or if possible win some of the back to school things we need in order to lessen the to do list. It also meant comping time was limited so I did more social media comps and purchase comps this month that were quick and easy to enter although we also spent a bit of time on an effort comp or two but they were ones where my son was involved with helping me or taking part too. 

Anyway on to the wins.... 

The first August win was for J from a kids mag and was a Lost Kitty blind box. J is obsessed with anything 'surprise' he loves watching the opening videos on You Tube so was excited by this. (I however didn't realise they had playdoh in them and had a mad panic when he opened it on my rug ha ha) a small win but a nice one to keep the boy busy for a few minutes. 

I also was lucky enough to win some Kidtropolis tickets which was an accidental win as I tagged a friend to let her know to enter and they took my tag as an entry. My friend is happy to be getting to take her son though so it's all good! 

I've mentioned last month and also on talking to people on Facebook groups etc how I've wound down the amount of Instagram competitions I've been entering. Even though it has previously been where I got a lot of my wins from I found it quite draining so I've only been entering the odd few I come across on competition listing sites rather than searching my own out. However if you need someone to tag feel free to tag me - danigraves87 just please don't be offended if I don't respond. I'm still adding pictures so my account is still active and I may get back into entering a lot again when the boy is back in school. We shall see. After all that I actually had an Instagram win of some fantastic Stem Quest books. They are brilliant and I've actually really enjoyed looking at them myself, they are a bit advanced for J yet but will put them aside for him for when he is ready. 

I then had a second Instagram win of a runner up prize from thegroovyfoodcompany which had a jar of coconut oil in as well as a make up bag and some lovely wee treats like Urban Decay make up. A nice treat for me. 

On the 3rd August I got a WTC to say J had won tickets to CBBC Summer Social Festival in Liverpool, it was happening that weekend so we decided to head over on the Sunday. We had an amazing time, J got to go on rides with his daddy, see favourites such as Mr Tumble and Hey Duggee perform and his absolute favourite CBBC star Andy Day performed with his band the OddSocks. J loves watching Andy and the Dinosaurs and so was amazed to see him up close and personal, this was only made better by the fact we managed a meet and greet with him and J got to give him a high five and tell him how he always watches him on TV when he goes to Grandma's house. He then rang his grandma to tell her he'd met Andy and he was real and it was such a precious moment for him that he is still talking about weeks later. 

On the way back from Liverpool we popped into a services station. Hubby got a can of Carabao and J got a fruit shoot. We won £5 on the Carabao and then there was a text comp attached to the Fruit Shoot and we won a family bowling game. 

One of the effort competitions I mentioned was to do with Disney and their 24 Hour Challenge to encourage children to be more active. You had to sign up to the challenge and try it out and then give your feedback on a post on Mumsnet. Now J is a very active little boy anyway but my mobility issues mean me not so much however we signed up and gave it a go and I left feedback and thought nothing of it. So I was super surprised on the 6th to get an email telling me we had won tickets to Disney on Ice, train tickets and a hotel stay! We've chosen to go to the Manchester show on the 14th October which is the day before J's birthday! The PR who organised it all has been amazing and we have our hotel stay the night before so that we can make the most of a weekend in Manchester. 

I received a tweet from Here Come The Girls to tell me I had won a Baby Jack-Jack plush. I mentioned last month how I had been eager to win goodies for J and had searched lots of comps out, this one was found with a quick twitter search and had only 3 entries!! 

Apparently there is a day for everything now, and August included Yorkshire Day. I was notified on the 9th of August I'd won the Seabrooks Yorkshire Day competition. 48 packets of crisps and a large bouquet of white roses. The crisps were sweet chilli and a bit too much of a kick for me so hubby took them to work and popped them in the staff canteen and was very popular, and I had to borrow a vase from my Grandma as I've never been bought flowers before so didn't have one. 

I received a winning text message from a Freddo competition to let me know I had won a Giant Jenga game. It's a Jacques London one and is fab quality. I never usually have much luck with text comps but I keep trying. The set is fab and although we've not played Jenga with it yet J has been using them as building blocks to make forts for his figures and things! 

J received a parcel of some Peter Rabbit puzzles from a kids mag win. They'd had to switch one of the puzzles out for a more classic Beatrix Potter version rather than the film version so that's been put to one side but J has had great fun doing the larger puzzle and he's getting quicker and quicker. 

I had entered a competition with Nigel Clarke TV for an Incredibles bundle and had an email to say I was a possible winner but there were a few stipulations - I couldn't post on social media, had to reply in a set time, had to agree to post photo's etc. I replied within minutes and agreed to all stipulations but didn't get confirmation we had won until the 9th! It was such a long wait and I was checking every day on Facebook and emails. The toys have arrived and J loves them! 

My next 5 wins were £5's on Carabao. I have seen some people buy excessive amounts to chase a win on this comp and it kind of puts my 2 at a time to shame but I still seem to be doing reasonably well with it so whereas I'm not actively chasing to look for the comps if the supermarket has stock when I am doing a shop or hubby pops to the petrol stations we will grab 1 or 2 cans. 

J had another kids mag win delivered of a little Tonka Tinies playset. 

I won an Access All Awkward book on twitter from TeenBookHoots. 

J then had another kids mag win! This time a LEGO Friends bundle! We love LEGO in our house. 

OUPChildrens publishers on twitter did a comp for a bundle of their new releases which we won and received 4 fab books. We are really enjoying reading Bee Boy Attack of the Zombees. 

Another National Day was National Tell a Joke Day. I recorded Jake telling a joke and posted it on a couple of comps. He has a few favourite jokes but the one we used most was:

''Knock knock.

Who's there?

Narnia

Narnia who 

Narnia Business''

It won us a runners up prize from Brother Max of a Bath and Room Thermometer. 

I had a notification to say I won a picnic hamper from Aunt Bessies on Facebook. Perfect for days out with the boys and J is obsessed with picnics thanks to an episode or Mr Tumble. 

I subscribe to Compers News magazine and was really pleased to spot my name on the in-house winners list this issue. I've won a £30 H&M voucher from completing one of their puzzles. Although I've won competitions on their forum this is the first time I've ever won from the magazine puzzles. It's definitely given me the incentive to keep trying and I really enjoy doing the puzzles. 

Another Facebook win from Swizzels Love Hearts. You had to fill in the blanks of a song lyric they posted using only emojis. I wasn't sure what I would receive but got lots of sweets, a tea towel, lip balm, trolley token, coaster, and a tin of sweets. It's a really nice prize. 

I take part in the Disney Junior tea party every week if I can. They have a lot of different prizes based around themes or new shows. They were doing a back to school one. I won a Tangled Lunch bag set which I am going to give to my friend for her daughter. 

Speaking of lunch bags I really wanted one for J. We aren't sure how he will manage school dinners as he always used to finish school before lunch time and come home and he's such a fusspot with foods only eating certain things that I wanted to have a lunch box/bag ready just in case so when Di Coke posted about the Anchor Dairy purchase competition and that you could keep entering I made sure to buy a tub and enter and after a few days I received an email letting me know I had won one. 

Another thing I wanted for back to school was a car seat or a booster seat. We have one in our car and my grandparents have one in theirs but J will be going to a school nearly 9 miles away and although he will get transport (hopefully) there may be times when I have to taxi it to get him there or get him home so having something I can use in those instances was really important to me. So I was really pleased to receive a message from Muddy Puddles on Facebook to let me know I had won a Mi-Fold portable booster seat. This was won from a competition where you had to give a back to school tip and I posted a picture of a chest of drawers we use that are labelled Mon - Fri and have a full days uniform in each one. 

I received an email from another kids mag to say J had won another set of Peter Rabbit puzzles. The picture in the mag shows the same as what we should have won from the earlier set but which were substituted so we will have to wait and see if the same happens again. If we get the same puzzles they will go in the Christmas/Birthday cupboard. 

Cully and Sully Soup are running a competition for Souper Ambassador's and they said the more creative and fun the entry the better so I really pushed my boundaries to enter. I don't like pictures of myself much less video's as I get worried about what people will say about me or think of me and it causes me massive anxiety. However I decided to be brave and try something I had in my head. I rewrote a version of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air's theme and made it all about Cully and Sully soup. I set a tripod up in my living room and I did my recording. I had to do a few takes - crap memory (mine not the device I was recording on), J being loud during it, him blasting bubbles into my face and me nearly choking on a bubble, the usual. However I got an edit I was happy with and posted it on to the competition post and was really pleased to be notified a few days later that I had won a Fitbit Charge 2. 

I won a pint of Lager on the Carling football comp. I'm not a drinker but hubby enjoyed a cheeky beer while we were out for my birthday. 

I had 5 more carabao wins spread over a week and a half totalling £30 

A text comp win for cinema tickets came in at just the right time on the 28th as it was my birthday on the 31st and we always go to the cinema for my birthday so these combined with free drinks thanks to the leftovers on a cineworld voucher i won months ago meant we got to go see The Meg for free and my birthday night out cost nothing but petrol to get there and back. 

I had a fab email from Encore to say I've won 2 Merlins Magic Passes meaning me and Ant can go to London for a few days in November and have tickets to the London Eye, London dungeons, Sealife Centre, Shrek Adventure and Madame Tussaud's. We are going to try fit in a Harry Potter trip if possible.

I had an email from the Acorn books blog to say I've won a collection of Dinosaur Adventure books for J. You had to comment saying what your favourite dinosaur was. 

Jackson Reece do a regularly freebie Friday competition on Facebook. I won for the 3rd time this month and won their toiletry range which looks fab. We love their nose nuzzlers.

We closed the month on a couple of small wins. 

A delivery from a kids mag for J of some activity books. They both look really good having flicked through and will give us something to do on an evening. 

A crate of 12 bottles of Mango drink from Pago on twitter. 

Finally a Bikybiky vest on Facebook which I'm super pleased about as we are trying to teach J to ride his bike. 

Overall a pretty awesome and amazing month! I'm looking forward to September but at the same time I'm apprehensive as J will be moving schools and it's a big deal for him so it won't be just a case of back to school, feet up and comping, plus I'm hoping to sign up a learning course of my own to learn BSL. 

Monthly recap: 

Total prizes won: 45

Prize RRP: £1790

I hope everyone has had a fantastic summer.

Danielle x

 

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: