Well I won't be buying Walkers anymore.

Like thousands of others, I was drawn in by the Walkers Crisps Spell & Go promotion in which 20,000 4* holidays were up for grabs.

Letters were obtained by entering the code from the specially bannered packs into the Spell & Go website, these letters were used to spell out various holiday destinations across the world, like an online game of scrabble.  Every destination contained at least one C, D or K.

And therein lies the problem.  

Like the Golden Ticket in Willy Wonka's chocolate bars, these letters were extremely sort after.  These three letters were classed as 'type one' and apparently there were enough codes printed to generate these letters to allow all of the holidays to be won, even though less than 800 of the 20,000 holidays were actually won.

There was an option to swap up to five of your letters with others from a central pot, these letters were, again, allegedly randomly selected.  However, the only letters available in the swap pot were 'type two' letters, ie, none of the letters people actually needed to win.

And like Veruca Salt in Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket hunt I bought multipack after multipack, entering the maximum five codes per day.  I had people from the office where I work giving me codes off their packets.

And I still didn't win.

Now, I will be honest, I didn't expect to win, I've blogged before about not being able to get on that list of approved winners, but I didn't mind, I bought the crisps, I shared the crisps with others, I played the game, I didn't win, end of story.

But then I caught this story on the BBC highlighting just how difficult, nigh impossible, it was to win.  This is what has turned me against Walkers.

The whole thing just smacks even more of a marketing ploy now, or maybe I am just being cynical.

Anyway, I will no longer be buying Walkers.  

If I ever get through the mountain of crisps I now have. 

When competition prizes don't turn up.

I was reading a blog post earlier, this one in fact, by the lovely Given To Distracting Others about people cheating at competitions.  My first thought was 'what's the point in cheating when prizes you win without cheating don't turn up', then the bee that lives in my bonnet started buzzing and this post was born.

Back in March of this year I entered a competition, hosted by a fellow blogger, to win some make-up, the prize was actually a bronzer and a nail varnish.  I was lucky enough to win.

I am still waiting for the items to arrive.

I have contacted the host on a couple of occasions to be told that they had been too busy to post and would try and do so the next weekend.

All the time they were too busy to post my prize, they were posting about blogger events, launch events, they also seemed to be working their way around all the bars, clubs and burger bars of London, not too busy for that!

The items were from M&S, so if they had wanted to, they could have kept the prize bronzer and nail varnish, and whilst they were waiting for one of their burgers to arrive, could have ordered the exact same items online and had them delivered to my local store.  I would have happily collected.

If they hold any more competitions, I would be interested to see if the winner actually receives their prizes.

The second prize that has not turned up was a twitter retweet competition held by a shop chain back in May.  The prize was a goody bag, which from the photo looked like it contained a tote bag, a voucher for the shop and some other items.

I have contacted the twitter account with regard to the whereabouts of my prize and I have not had the courtesy of a reply.

There are, of course, bloggers and brands who are so fast at sending out prizes that you have barely had time to send them your address, or so it seems.

Why can't every competition host be like that?

Retro Chick's Vintage Inspired Swimsuit Giveaway with Bettylicious

You wouldn't know it to look at me, but I do love vintage clothes I just don't have the courage to try wearing any.  I certainly don't have the skills to be able to do hair and makeup to complement them, and so a swimsuit seems to be the perfect way to dip my toe into the water (see what I did there?).

As luck would have it, Retro Chick is currently running a competition to win a vintage inspired swimsuit from Bettylicious so I thought I would enter.

These are my favourites from the website.

 

Photos courtesy of Bettylicious

One of the rafflecopter options is to write a blog post, so here it is.

You can enter the competition here.

And, if you would like to know more about Bettylicious, click here.

Good luck x

Is there an approved winners list?

I think there is, it certainly seems that way.

I enter a lot of competitions, I don't enter every one I find as I only enter ones that are relevant.  There is no point in trying to win Afternoon Tea for 2 at xxxxx venue in London, as (1) there is only one of me, and (2) by the time I have paid for a return ticket to London I have probably paid out more than the prize is worth.

Similarly, there is no point in me trying to win a Spa Day for 2, or a catered night in for upto 8 friends.  Up until recently I didn't enter any baby competitions, I do now as my boss is pregnant (she does do my annual appraisals after all).

I know there are people who enter every single competition they find, and that possibly goes some way to explain why they are more successful but I don't see the point.

I see the same names come up over and over again, and it does feel as though you have to be a member of a club, or as the title of this page suggests, if your name is not on the list, tough!  

There was a period of a fair few months, when if there was a twitter retweet competition to win a dress I would know EXACTLY who was going to win, and 9 times of 10 they would.  I currently follow someone on twitter, because if I know that they have entered a competition, then there is no point anyone else entering.

I see regular posts by fellow bloggers detailing their wins that month and as much as I try to stay positive I can't.

A month ago I booked a holiday, I wasn't going to go away this year as I have just saved up and bought a car but I gave in to a really good offer.  The accommodation, flight, transfers and insurance is paid for, but I could do with a few new bits to take and some spending money, and I was determined that I was going to win at least something towards that, I know keeping positive is key.

To date, I have won absolutely nothing and my positivity is waning.

I need a boost.

Win a Paloma Maxi Dress with ChiChi Clothing.

I only own one maxi dress, being on the tall size I always think it must look to others like a lot of material heading towards them, but this I think is lovely, the colours and printing breaking up the silhouette.

I am trying to convince myself that I can afford to go on holiday later in the year and if I won this I think I would have to go abroad to wear it as going by the weather we have had recently in this country I would need to team it with a jumper and wellies!

This is the dress.

And this is the link to enter the competition.

Please note, I am not running, nor am I associated with, the competition, this post is an extra entry for me to win.

Good luck everyone!

I want to win this fab nail polish

As you know I enter a lot of competitions and lately I seem to be on a bit of a roll with wins having had 3 so far this month.  Now compared to some people who win 7 or 8 times A DAY every day, this is not a lot, but I am happy, and now that exams are over until December I have the time to enter a few more competitions.

As you will also know, I am starting to be myself again after several years of trying to be someone else, and 'myself' used to love painting my nails.  (I am of the age to still call it 'nail varnish' though the current term seems to be 'nail polish').

I came across this competition via a post on Twitter and I think this looks fab.  I have never been the best at applying polish with my 'other' hand but I think this would be quite a forgiving polish as it would not need to be applied perfectly.

The competition is being run by Jennifer on her Art Style Love blog and can be entered here.

If I don't win, these are definitely going to go on my shopping list for pay day!