A simple shopping expedition to buy new clothes can turn into a daunting experience when you have lost your income due to redundancy.
Suddenly “luxuries” like family vacations or a new car seem like things of the past.
I understand that feeling all too well. It happened to me a few years ago. As if that wasn’t enough, my husband was also laid off at the same time.
Then a newspaper article changed my life…
The article featured ordinary people, like you and me. I read about how they vacationed in exotic locations, drove shiny new cars, and gifted their friends and family with exciting gifts—all for free.
Intrigued, I kept reading. Thinking there must be a trap somewhere!
All these “competitors” had one thing in common: they won prizes. cars. Vacation. Landscaped gardens. entertainment systems. Computers, toys and games for your children. Luxury kitchens. Even a house. You say it. They won it.
Normally, I would read an article and forget about it. But with a teenage daughter in need of new coaches and time off, plus a seemingly endless job search, what did she have to lose?
A winning crossword puzzle at a high street chain store caught my eye. Completed, I’m sorry on his way and I forgot everything. Three weeks later the postman brought me a long white envelope.
“Congratulations…”, I read, “you have won a small gift voucher”.
At that moment I realized that there was no cheating. Ordinary people like you and me could, and did, win prizes in contests.
It was fun to spend the gift voucher, after writing a thank you note to the promoter of the competition, I wondered if my victory was a fluke! I decided to find out…
Wandering through the high street shops I discovered a contest in a free magazine at a bank to win one of 25 pairs of sneakers and an entry form at a men’s clothing store.
I had never noticed competition before, it was like going on a treasure hunt. Sherlock Holmes would have been proud of me! An entry form collar on a bottle of wine. Raffle for a bookmark at the local bookstore. Instead of shopping bags, I came back laden with registration forms, of all shapes and sizes.
Sitting in the library, flipping through an encyclopedia to answer some of the competition’s questions, I realized what a challenging and fun hobby I had discovered. And one that was as expensive as I wanted it to be.
Quickly finding out that the prize draws were free to enter, all it cost was a postcard and a stamp and not even that when you were allowed to drop your entry form in the free prize post box at the store.
Those competitions where you were asked to complete a tiebreaker award, such as:
“I want to win a shop car because…” I usually asked you to attach a qualifying receipt, I noted.
Avoiding expensive “qualifiers”, it was easy to change the purchase of clothes. For example, instead of his normal brand of soap powder, he simply bought the brand that was running a competition. He saved her cash receipt and enclosed it with his entry as proof of purchase, or “qualifier,” as it was known.
Thrilled was an understatement, when a store manager called to tell me that I had won first prize in their free contest. A new wardrobe of clothes. My children were delighted. My husband and I took them to the store.
I could hardly believe it when, laden with jeans, slacks, T-shirts, fashion shirts, and sports shirts, the manager ushered us to the register. It was like meeting Santa Claus in a suit. He added up the bill for our prize amount, thanked us for entering his competition, and smiled as he walked us out the door before greeting us with a cheery good buy.
Although I was unsuccessful in finding a new job, despite searching for job postings and filling out application forms, my new “make up” hobby was keeping my brain active and changing our shopping and eating habits.
Instead of shopping, knowing that we couldn’t afford to buy expensive treats and luxuries, shopping became fun. Often the only thing he came back from an afternoon of shopping with was a stack of registration forms!
The competition tasks were varied, challenging and fun as the general knowledge of the family improved by leaps and bounds. The reference library became a second home.
Our diet changed according to the classification until the receipts.
“Tonight,” I’d tell my family, “we’re going to eat pizza, to try and win a vacation in Italy. Served with tomato salad, to win a vacation in the Canaries. Followed by apples, to win a healthy vacation in France. Oh, and as a gift, you can eat a chocolate, to win a Valentine’s cruise!”
“Just remember I need the wrapper!”
Within six months of discovering this new hobby, I won a family holiday in Devon, a television, a VCR and many welcome prizes such as bottles of wine, spirits, a leather bag, a watch, a camera and shopping vouchers. Then came a worrying moment followed by ten exciting days.
On Christmas Eve, my daughter was rushed to the hospital with suspected appendicitis. While at the hospital, we saw Del Boy and Rodney from “Only Fools and Horses” in the Everglades and wished that we too could take an airboat ride like Del and Rodney.
The lady in the next bed passed her magazine to my daughter. Inside was a tie-breaking slogan contest to win a healthy weekend.
A few weeks later, returning from a late-night interview, I opened an interesting-looking letter. The tiredness disappeared as I read:
“Congratulations, you’ve won a weekend at a health and country club in the Lake District.”
This was followed a few days later by a fantastic surprise prize: a family vacation for four in Miami, Florida, including hotel, flights, car rental AND tickets for an Everglades airboat ride. Wow!
Still on cloud nine, the next morning I answered the phone from a man who asked me:
“Do you remember participating in a competition at your local supermarket recently?”
“Mmm, yeah,” I replied, trying to remember which competition he was referring to.
“Well,” he continued, “you’ve won a new car!”
I was speechless! She said there was a confirmation letter in the mail. She followed a harrowing weekend of “did I dream it or not?” until a long white envelope arrived on Monday. It was true: he had won a car! And all for identifying eight products and writing a slogan “In 10 words or less.”
And a new job? Well, I stopped looking for a job! You see, I remembered a childhood ambition to write a book, when I had the time, and now I had the time and the subject: how to win your fortune in prizes. And the rest, as they say, is history!