Winning: It's not just for Charlie Sheen

You may have heard of people who enter competitions like A LOT (sometimes seen on A Current Affair & Today Tonight) - well I'm one of 'those' too! It's been a hobby for a few years now and I love entering competitions.

In a nutshell I joined a site around 3 years ago and paid $44 for a years subscription - which basically gives you access to enter every competition in Australia. It's a forum website where other members post competitions they come across and they are split into reports (ie online competitions, store competitions, magazine competitions etc)  and you can go through and enter what you like.

Another feature is 'freebies' - you'd be surprised how many companies give out freebies if you sign up to a free e-newsletter or want you to sample a new product they've just launched.

I've won a bit in the last 3 years but struggle to find enough time to actually win a lot and often. Nevertheless I absolutely love it - and yes I'll spend a few hours a night - a few times a week trying to crack the motherload of prizes.

Some of the things I've won over the years are: (so NOT a bragfest)

*Years supply of nappies
*Years supply of Tim Tams
*XBox360 and Guitar Hero Band
*Blackberry phone
*Blackberry Playbook (similar to Ipad)
*$2500 worth of cosmetics
*$3000 Flight Centre Voucher
*$1500 Collette Dinnigan Voucher
*100s of movie tickets - My friends and I haven't paid to see a movie in YEARS!
*Gift Cards
*Mobile Phones
*XBox Games
*Kobo e-reader
*Wine
*Cookbooks - a bloody shitload of them ..... universe is telling me something but i'm still ignoring it!!!!

And thousands of other random stuff that turns up - I seriously haven't paid for Shampoo and Conditioner in over a year! And I've given away most of what I've won - occasionally I'll sell something if I'd rather the cash, but often it goes into my OCD cupboard (the cupboard where I keep random wins or hide purchases from hubby..... purchases that we probably don't 'need' but I bought anyway just because there was a competition attached.) And I'm not alone in doing this!

I've also developed quite a healthy dose of what I call 'compers paranoia' and it's symptoms present as following: (I'm sure others can add a few ...... feel free btw)

*** Haven't won anything in awhile so start to imagine that the postman is stealing my prizes

*** Watching when the lovely old neighbour gets a package from the delivery van man and wondering if she's somehow siphoning off my prizes! (she gets numerous deliveries...... so jury out .... could be FACT!) haha

*** Checking my email 20 times a day

*** Believing in comping karma - ie if you know a codeword to a comp ... then to not share will mean a prize drought for you!


In addition I find I enjoy weekends less (no mail) & numerous Public Holidays are too long...... & I recently discovered Aust Post gets some bullshit holiday called 'Picnic Day' - it's an abomination!!
While I've won 'stuff' it's the friendships & comraderie with the other 'compers' that I value most. They're just as crazy as me (some more LOL) ;) - and a lot of them are bloody brilliant at what they do and win cars, motorhomes, overseas holidays etc.

A whopping $6,000,000 was won by members in 2010! This is an Australia only site so there are enormous amounts of competitions running at any one time- for instance there is currently over $24,000,000 worth of prizes up for grabs  (this does not include closed competitions).

If you click the banner above it will take you to the site so you can join up if you haven't already.

REMEMBER - You gotta be in it to win it - no entry GUARANTEES not winning.