Sunday 21 February 2021

A Frugal Hobby

 It's a while since I wrote about comping but it's only a few hours since I was doing it.

"What is comping?" I don't hear you say, but if I did, I would tell you it's entering competitions.  I do a lot of them.  A very lot of them  Anything from 3000 to 8000 per month.  That includes a lot of competitions which allow an entry every day for several weeks and a lot of competitions which appear on multiple sites so it is considerably less than 3000 different competitions.

Comping is part of my routine.  When I get up I check e mails, I check my finances, I read the news and then I settle to enter a few competitions.  It's the time when I sit in front of my daylight lamp, have a cup of coffee and generally find the energy to meet the day.  

I don't win many competitions, but I win considerably more than someone who doesn't enter competitions.  That sounds obvious but so many people have said, "Oh, I never win" but then reveal that they never enter!  Last year I had only three wins all year, but in 2019 I won eleven different prizes.

I never pay to enter competitions.  I enter only on line and I never need to buy something to qualify.   It is a frugal hobby in that it costs nothing.  Most of the prizes are not high value and I give away a high proportion of them.  For me the reward is just winning.  When postie comes with a mug or a parcel of books, I feel that the universe is on my side.  Giving away tickets for London shows or exhibitions at the National Exhibition Centre gives me pleasure.  


And this week I have won this book.  It was on a financial site which I use, Warren Shute and, unlike many competitions it needed a bit of effort as it was a quiz about decimalisation.  That happened fifty years ago on 15th January 1971 but it wasn't very hard for an oldie like me who could remember it all happening!

9 comments:

  1. Well done, we all love a parcel arriving and if it's one you have won even better.

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  2. I think Frugal hobbies are great. Mine is the Microsoft Rewards-I like the quizzes and if I keep up, I generally am guaranteed to earn $50 in gift card every couple months or so, which for something I enjo, not too bad.

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  3. What is decimalisation? Good job on winning. I, too, love to win even if I don't get a prize.

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    1. In this case it refers to the time when we changed from a system based on twelve pennies make one shilling and twenty shillings make one pound which had been in use for hundreds of years, to a system based on 100 pennies make one pound. It happened on 15th January 1971 and new coinage was needed. 15th December became known as D Day. I've written more about it on my other blog at https://trundlingthroughlife.blogspot.com/2021/02/d-day.html

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  4. I do the occasiona survey at IPSOS, and find that the points mount up quite quickly. I have just printed off three Tesco vouchers each for £5!

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  5. Good for you. I just might have to start looking for competitions like this, especially over the next 6 weeks. It would give me something different to do.

    God bless.

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  6. I'm always fascinated by those people you read about who win holidays and cars, how do they manage it? It seems the same people win all the big prizes. I enter a few competitions and have won the odd prize here and there and I agree, when I win something, however small, it makes my day.

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  7. There's a girl I follow on Instagram who is a comper and she wins an astonishing amount of giveaways every month. I'd only enter a competition for things I actually want as I would prefer others who enter to win those prizes as I don't have time to redistribute things anyway but I have won a few little competitions on Instagram over the years which has been nice.

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