Have you ever won anything?

[PrimRoseLaffington]

Just that - have you ever won anything? I don't mean things where you're guaranteed to win so you keep spending. And I don't mean achievement awards or similar at work. I mean like prize drawer type of things.

I won £100 in the school raffle when I was 11.
I got a few £10s in the little blue packets in Walkers crisps when they did them.
I win something every month on the premium bonds.

But apart from that, I don't think I've ever won anything. I dabble on competition websites but never won anything from there.

I always wonder who does actually win on these things!

I used to enter hundreds of free competitions as a hobby, many online & some in magazines or just an entry box in a shop. I don’t have the time to do that very often now but still love entering prize draws wherever I can find them, buying raffle tickets, scratchcards, you name it. Listed are some of my prizes:-
A holiday to Brittany ( holiday park) with ferry tickets
A weekend at The Ickworth with flights from Cornwall
£50 lingerie voucher
£50 restaurant voucher (twice)
Bouquets
Chocolates
Champagne,roses & chocolates
Box of teabags! The main prize was a spa break!
Mini bath jacuzzi
Perfume
Loads on a Facebook charity raffle page - it adds up to quite a few thousand pounds & I recently won another £450.
Bottles of wine
A cream tea voucher
The best was a trip to The Proms in Hyde Park with Renault Magazine. DM & I were treated like royalty. A car to take us around, backstage tour (amongst others we met Terry Wogan & Bryn Terfel), a night in a Kensington Hotel & at the concert we had VIP tables overlooking the stage with superb food & enough bottles of Veuve Cliquot to sink a battleship!
I need to start entering big time again!

I love that you enter competitions as a hobby! How long per week do you spend doing it? Do you always use the same sites? Do you search them out or see aht drops into your inbox? Sorry, nosey!

The only thing I've ever won was 30 years ago when I won a beautiful hand knitted baby's Aran cardigan in a raffle. I didn't/don't have a baby.

I didn't get the chance to pass on it because we'd had to leave before the raffle was drawn, and so - excruciatingly - it was brought to me in person by the lovely lady in the village who'd knitted it!

She was justifiably proud of it, so was very pleased when I told her about my pregnant friend who I knew would be delighted with it.

I'd say I spend about 1-2 hrs a day entering magazine competitions which have daily comps. I then go onto the comp section of the money saving expert forum where avid compers post links to lots of competitions and with the answers etc too. It can get a bit boring but I just look at the prizes on offer and it keeps me going! Especially when you start getting the winning emails through 🙂

I have been comping for 20 years. It used to be really lucrative back in the day and I've won holidays, cash prizes (the most was £1500), electrical items, hampers and lots of small prizes. It's not as good nowadays but I still give it a go. You've got to be in it to win it!

I won the game of life when I bagged my wife. She was fabulous.

I won a 2k bike on the radio a good 30 years ago now, and.... I think that's it.

Dd1 does well on the premium bonds.

Dd2 won ds a kellogs football top. K)

Yes. A huge chocolate Easter egg when I was 9 or 10 as I made an Easter bonnet and entered it into a local newspaper competition. Years later a Tiffany bracelet (silver, lots of tiny hearts) in a company raffle at Christmas. And a luxurious Christmas hamper at a local solicitors firm’s party a few years back via a raffle.

One won a lifestyle that you rabble can only dream off. (Orf with his 'ead - no we don't do that anymore...hmmm)
Just the luck.of one's mummy and daddy. I suppose.

I wrote an “ode to New Look” and won their “Superfan” competition circa 2012/13. Won a personal shopper experience at the newly opened Leeds Trinity store and £1000 of vouchers. They also shipped in loads of the “inspire” range in my size for the personal shopper day.

I was a uni student and things were a lot cheaper then! Twas great!

Yes, I did a competition to win a holiday abroad many years and the runners up prize was a bottle of Hawaiian Tropic Suncream and I won…the bottle of suncream.

Also I once won £500 worth of clothes in an Instagram competition.

Ooh and I won an instax camera with TK Maxx Treasures last year too!

Oh and I won a Malibu giant pineapple lilo a few years ago.

and I won the entire Jamelia Jamie collection for simply be (20 odd items) too! Some were out of stock in my size so they let me swap for anything else on their site. I got Nike trainers 😂

cant think of anything else major I’ve won.

Won at Henley Royal Regatta.

I won a £100 to spend on make up on an fb group im in, it was free to enter so entered not thinking much of it and ended up winning.

Wow that’s impressive. What repertoire did you play?

I’ve won various bottles at the village fete tombola.
i had a winning entry in a Spectator competition some years ago.

I won £250 of credit on Just Eat a couple of years ago. I didn’t believe it at first but we got several nice curries out of it, fantastic!

I have name changed as this could be outing.
Not me but my dh. Entering competitions is a hobby of his. He has won loads. He wins at least one prize a week
Some of the better prizes;
£1001 cash
Tickets to see Kylie Minogue
Spa break worth £250
A men’s bike worth over £1000
5 night trip to Tenerife (we googled and the suite we stayed in would normally cost £950 a night.
Theme park tickets loads of times
Vip tickets to see a children’s show being filmed in London
Trip to France to attend the semi and final of a rugby tournament. Flights and accommodation included.
This week he won an interactive children’s party for 12 children.
Our dc are grown up so we gave that away. Anything we can’t use gets given away.
Ive added a photo of the Ninja haul he won a few months back.

Won twice on Premium Bonds ( £50 & £25)
A cake
A waterproof camera
£25 when a chicken recipe got published

Netball tournament? £10 on the lottery, some professional/industry awards.

Not me but my grandfather won a life changing amount in the lottery in the 80s! I guess my family luck finished then 😂

I won a one-bed London flat in an Evening Standard competition, just had to cut out twelve tokens and send them in.

Butlins donkey Derby in 1993 (age 4). Got a free holiday

Some of these are absolutely amazing. I've got the day off today, so I might spend it comping!