Cleaner who makes a PRIZE E AND SHINE
A PUB cleaner is living the life of luxury after developing a system that wins her £10,000 of goodies every year.
Mum- of- t hree Jolene Stanley earns just £70 a week but her sideline entering competitions means that is where she really cleans up.
Jolene said: “From the first competition, I was addicted.
“In the first year in 2012, I won £20,000 worth of prizes.
“My friends and family joke that I must be the luckiest person in the country.”
Jolene, 34, scours the web every day for prize draws and giveaways and has bagged more than £70,000 in toys and treats for her family and friends.
Her first massive win came when she was pregnant with her eldest son and saw her walk away with a £1,200 topof-the-range pram.
Since then, Jolene has pocketed everything from gig tickets to flash holidays, scooping so many freebies that last Christmas cost her next to nothing.
She takes home between 25 and 35 prizes every single month, and says her luckiest streak was in September 2018, when she picked up 52 prizes.
Jolene has one son, Stanley Constable, seven, from a previous relationship, and two children, Ivy, three, and Charlie, one, with her carer partner James Houghton, 28.
And they all share in her good fortune.
Jolene now calls herself a seasoned “comper” – the term given to someone who enters prize giveaways religiously.
Just two months after she picked up her posh pram, Jolene landed a VIP experience driving supercars around a racetrack.
She said: “I love winning but it’s not all about the big prizes. I love the little ones too, especially when they come from new brands and small businesses.”
At first, although successful, Jolene was not organised.
Rather than setting aside a specific time to scour the web for prizes, she checked her phone whenever she had a chance and entered as many competitions as she could.
But, at the start of 2019, she vowed to be more strategic – and t hat s y s t em has brought in some reliable wins. Jolene said: “I decided I wanted to win enough to get Christmas for free. So, I started setting aside three nights a week for comping.
“I’d categorise the prizes, dedicating one day to vouchers, one to toys and one to parenting giveaways. If I spotted something great during the day, I would enter that, too.” Jolene’s approach paid off as in 2019 alone, she won around £16,000 of freebies and managed to get Christmas virtually free, thanks to a pile of fab festive pressies and a deluxe dinner.
She said: “My total spend for Christmas was £65. Everything else was taken care of by prizes.
“I gave James a bottle of rum, a camping stove and a sock
subscription and we also had a family day out at Gulliver’s theme park.
“I gave Stanley a £165 scooter and Ivy a new bike. I also won £200 worth of Amazon vouchers, which I used to get stocking fillers.
“Then I gave the kids a £ 500 climbing frame as a joint present. I got a £ 200 Tesco voucher and a £ 300 Love2shop voucher, which can be used at multiple high street shops, which took care of everything else.” One of Jolene’s favourite things about her hobby is that it allows her to spoil her loved ones.
Donation
In the past, she has taken friends and family with her on minibreaks, spa weekends, for afternoon tea or out for fancy meals. And once a month, kind- hearted Jolene, from
Wivenhoe in Essex, also makes a donation to her local food bank.
Her best prizes include tickets to a Spice Girls gig, a stay at a five-star resort in Portugal, a £1,100 cooker and a seven-course dinner at a Michelin starred restaurant.
Jolene has also bagged £3,000 of holiday vouchers, a meal cooked by a private chef and a trip to Scotland. Most of her wins come through
Instagram but she also scours Facebook and comping forums.
“I make more from comping than I do from my job, she said.
“The trip to Portugal will always stand out as one of the best things I’ve ever won. We were picked up from the airport by a private chauffeur and
TOY GLORY: Wins for the kids driven to this incredible resort. It was like being a celebrity.”
And not only do her wins make wonderful surprises for her friends and family, they also make everyday life cheaper.
Jolene often gets free food and has netted so many baby and bath products that she has never had to buy Ivy, now three, toiletries.
And while it is only August, she is already looking ahead to Christmas. Jolene has just started to focus her efforts on winning things to hide in the loft and stick under the tree.
She said: “I never imagined when I started that I’d win so many incredible things.”