My addiction has made me £50k!
The sweet smell of success got Katy Spence, 38, from Boston, hooked…
Iplucked a shirt from the rail and held it up against me.
It’s gorgeous, I thought. But before temptation could take hold, I hung it back up and left the store.
My hubby, Mark, then 35, and I weren’t hard up, but at the same time, we didn’t really have much money to burn.
Mark had recently started his own sign writing business, so most of our money went into that.
Our sons, Leo, then eight, and Cole, then four, never went without, though.
We’d just save up or buy them stuff second hand.
My job managing website promotions boosted our income a bit, but I couldn’t help wishing there was more room in our budget for the occasional shopping spree.
Then in October 2011 while browsing online, I read about a woman, Di Coke, who spent her time entering competitions as a hobby.
She called herself a ‘comper’ and had won everything from a trip to New York to
a Volkswagen Beetle.
I wouldn’t mind getting in on the action, I thought. So I sent her an email asking if I could pick her brains. Di got back straight away, giving me tips on how to be a successful comper. She told me Facebook and Instagram were great sources and that I should visit her blog. It was all new territory to me, but I was excited to give it a go. So in January 2012, as my New Year’s resolution, I began entering comps. I didn’t think much of it until, a few weeks later, I received a parcel. Inside were four Marc Jacob perfumes! All I’d done was fill in a form on a beauty site. Was it really so easy? I decided to give it another go, so that night, after tucking the
boys in, I jumped online. Comping time! It wasn’t long before my next win – a rug worth £150.
Soon hooked, I was at it a few nights a week.
And the wins kept on coming… cinema tickets, Prosecco, a smartphone…
Comping was like free retail therapy – I was addicted.
Di and I stayed in touch, too.
We’d swap notes and I soon discovered an online comping community.
Then in April 2013, I received a
call from ITV telling me I’d won a whopping £8,500 on Dickenson’s Real Deal. It paid for us to go to Greece for a friend’s wedding, and some! I was on a roll! Given all the toys and DVDS I’d won, too, the boys were all for my comping habit. But Mark wasn’t such a fan. ‘You spend all your time entering comps,’ he’d moan. ‘It’s worth it,’ I promised. He wasn’t entirely convinced until, in July 2013, I won a VIP tour of the Red Bull Formula 1 head office. ‘I’ll never complain again,’ Mark laughed. Now, the kids help me with competition entries, creating funny videos or photos – it’s a great way to bond with them. I spend about four hours every evening, once the boys have gone to bed, dedicated to my hobby, and enter at least 100 comps a day – but it pays off. In March this year, I won my favourite prize of all time – a family holiday to Orlando with Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway! Since I started, I’ve scooped prizes worth close to £50,000, and I’m not ready to stop yet! I’m a crazy comper – and proud!
I won a prize and I was hooked