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Mission Competition

Top Money Saving and Comping Tips from a 21 year-old Student keen to make my limited budget stretch the semester!

Follow me on Twitter:@LaurieBeat and Instagram: @lornab22 or email any queries to lauriebeat@gmail.com

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Luck and love!

Saturday 16 July 2016

Magazine Dailies & Click-to-Win Tips



My eyes are closing and I'm drifting off in front of the telly but I still click, click, click.

This is a situation I have found myself in over the last month and a half since I started entering click-to-win dailies - the competitions where all you have to do is click a single button to enter. Sounds easy doesn't it? The thing is with most competitions that are this easy to enter, loads of people will enter them. This makes your chances of winning a lot less likely.

Another thing with these competitions, is that there are sometimes over a hundred sites that offer the same competition. Big prizes such as £250 cash, an iPad or a holiday voucher can be seen on almost all of these sites. Rather than a winner being chosen from each site, there is just one winner from all the entries across ALL the sites.

Am I making it sound impossible to win? I hope not - I have won four times in the short space of time that I have been entering. There are a couple of tricks that can turn this from being mind-numblingly boring with no results, to quick and easy with a couple of wins chucked in for good measure. Here are my top tips for daily click-to-wins:

Look out for:

- high number of winners
- low numbers of sites featured on
- something you want to win


1) Read the Official Rules


This is a tip I would give for many types of competition, however it is even more important in dailies. If you scroll down to the bottom of the entry page, you can see the 'Official Rules' link. Click on this, and you can see the number of sites that the prize is listed on. Any more than 15 or 20, I tend not to bother. Less than that, I copy the list of links, email it to myself and then go onto that email each day and click through each of the links. Simple.

2) Know what you want to win


Right now, there is an amazing looking picnic hamper that is featured on just three sites:

These sites are pretty good for hosting competitions that are only available on their site or just a few others. I tend to check them for new low entry comps a couple of times a week.


The picnic hamper is something that really appeals to me, as I have been trying to win one for summer. As well, the fact that it only features on three sites, makes it much lower entry than some of the others. I have been going out of my way to make sure I enter this every day - fingers crossed it will be a winner for me!

3) Read the Prize Details


Read carefully what is being offered. Not only does this make sure that you actually want the prize you are entering, but it will often tell you how many winners there are. Sometimes, there will be 20 winners for one prize, and only 1 for another. I would recommend investing more time in the ones where there are more winners, as this will increase your chances of winning. 

4) Continuous Dailies


I have a little tab on my bookmarks page labelled 'Continuous Dailies'. What I mean by that, is sites where, when you 'Click to Enter', it automatically takes you to the next competition, rather than having to go back to the home page and select the next one yourself. This turns out to be a huge time saver, and means that you can click away while the TV is on, without having to sacrifice too much attention away from Game of Thrones! I especially like to do this on my iPad, and is really handy for when you're on the go. Again, I email a wee list of these to myself so that it's easy to access when I'm out. Here are some of my favourite 'Continuous Dailies': 
(I have no idea if the 3 is a coincidence, but it is often a sign of a Continuous Daily.)

Transform your clicking into something more manageable with these tips, and hopefully you will start to see the wins come flying through the letter box. Let me know how you get on in the comments, I always love hearing from you!

Luck and Love, 

Laurie


Wednesday 13 July 2016

Peanut Hottie Cookies & Giveaway



I Love Peanut Butter.

I feel like this is the statement I should start with. I love peanut butter on toast, on apples, on a spoon...you get the idea. The one thing that was missing from my peanut butter infused life, was a drinkable peanut butter. Until now. Introducing...Peanut Hottie.

This is like hot chocolate powder, but peanut butter. In fact, they even do a peanut butter and chocolate version (as if it couldn't get any better). Since discovering this incredible drink, I have tried mixing it into my porridge, my chicken recipes and my baking. Here I will teach you the simplest of these recipes... peanut butter cookies. To win some Peanut Hottie to try yourself, scroll down to the bottom to enter the giveaway. For more info on Peanut Hottie, visit their website here.

Ingredients:
  • 75g plain flour
  • 50g Peanut Hottie
  • 50g softened butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 45g light brown sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 50g unsalted chopped peanuts (for that extra crunch)
Method:
  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4
  2. Cream together the butter and sugars in a mixing bowl (or blend for a few minutes) until smooth.
  3. Beat the egg in a separate bowl. Add the beaten egg and vanilla extract, and mix for a couple of minutes until well combined.
  4. In another bowl, mix together the flour, peanut hottie, salt and baking powder/soda
  5. Slowly add this mixture in, making sure to beat well to avoid any lumps.
  6. Now add in some lumps, in the form of chopped peanuts.
  7. The dough should be firm enough to roll out, but if it is too gooey, add in more flour and Peanut Hottie until the consistency is right.
  8. Roll out the dough fairly thinly (as, from experience, it will turn into something resembling peanut butter scones otherwise), and use a glass to form even circles. Or if, like me, you are enough of a batman fan to own batman cookie cutters, use that.
  9. Place the cookies on a baking tray lined with grease proof baking paper, being sure to leave a gap between them. 
  10. Bake for 8-10 minutes, checking on them at 5 min.
  11. Leave to cool on a wire rack
  12. If you're feeling adventurous, you can make peanut butter and jam sandwiches by adding a layer of jam between two of the cookies.

And there you have it, another way to add peanut butter into your life. To win yourself some peanut hottie, enter using the gleam app below. Let me know what you think, and how your own peanut butter cookies worked out!

Luck and Love, 

Laurie



Tuesday 5 July 2016

Prize Unboxing: June 2016

Welcome to my first Prize Unboxing video!! If you like it, please let me know and I will continue to make them each month.




Prize: Pepsi Max Football
From: Pepsi Max
Entry: Pepsi Max app – Blippar style scan front of bottle

Prize: Exam Essentials Pack
-          Essential Oil Reed Diffuser
-          Azura Coffee
-          Fairtrade Green Tea
-          Vitamin C tablets
-          Dairy Milk Oreo Chocolate
-          Horlicks
-          BIC pens
-          Rehydration tablets
-          Sony Earphones
From: Unite Students
Entry: Instagram – Submit a picture of what you do instead of studying.

Prize: Glittery Pink Bow Clip
From: Mummy Makes Bowtique
Entry: Instagram – comment and tag

Prize: Smashbox Mascara
From: Smashbox
Entry: Online Form

Prize: Gressingham Duck Hamper
-          Cooking Thermometer
-          Apron
-          Cookbook
-          A duck
-          Pulled Duck
-          Duck Breasts
From: Red Tractor
Entry: Instagram – like, comment and tag

Prize: Atkins Bar
From: Atkins
Entry: Twitter - Freebie Friday follow and retweet.

Prize: Pamper Package
-          2 bars of chocolate
-          Soap ‘stuff’
-          Barry M nail polish
-          3 scented candles
From: Dairy Milk
Entry: Magazine Daily/ Click-to-Win

Prize: Biscuiteers Bike Biscuits and Bromptom Bikes Bag
From: Biscuiteers
Entry: Twitter – RT, follow and comment.
Find their instant win game on this list.

Prize: Douglas Skelton Book
From: Glasgow Libraries
Entry: Online Form

Prize: Rowan Coleman Book
Entry: Magazine Dailies/ Click-to-Win

This months favourite prize: Exam essentials pack, because it was so nicely done!