The Extreme Comper in Me

For the next three months while I'm on parental leave, there will be an increase in competition posts on my FaceBook wall on top of the usual kids' photo posts especially dedicated for the grandparents and families in the Philippines. I am   hoping for my friends' tolerance or if it annoys you, please remove my posts from your wall.  On some occasions, I will be tagging you (especially if you're in NZ and if the competition prize will be shared with friends).  I've always been a comper and with the advent of FaceBook, the usual email comps are now ported into FB to increase chances of winnings.  So far, in terms of prizes, Aqui still has the most wins (her last one she won herself at ToyWorld and before that, Barbie Lego from The Warehouse) but Ia has the highest prize value (I won an Ipad while pregnant with her but she also won a Duplo Lego when she turned 2). The General is gaining momentum though with his recent Thermomix win and Oh Baby Win.

So how did I get to be a comper and what do I get out of it? (aside from the fabulous prizes of course!)

Aside from effort, there’s a lot of luck that goes with this “endeavor”.   My dad is the ultimate comper, with his overflowing luck accompanied by effort. I remember when I was a child, he’d bring home lots of appliances which he got as raffle prizes.  He won so much that there were lots of double ups so when Ronnel and I got married, we gave them away to our guests as a competition too and threw in some stuff we bought as well to give away in a hidden sticker game during the wedding dinner.   It was a wonderful surprise for our guests especially the winners who brought home a slow cooker, rice cooker and such.

And so even when I got married, I made sure I joined competitions when I had the opportunity.   I had some winnings in Malaysia too while I was with Standard Chartered Bank but it was when we moved to NZ that my comper-self was culminated.

My first win in NZ was with Griffin’s back in 2006, when I joined a raffle draw via The Warehouse.  It was our first month in NZ and to get drawn from out of hundreds (or maybe even thousands) of entries meant a lot to me as a comper.  We haven’t had our paychecks then so having not just one box but two boxes of Griffin cookies and other goodies was a really great win for us.  I had two boxes because Griffin mistakenly sent the prize for another winner to me and when I contacted them to advise them of their mistake, they said I can just have the box and they’ll send a different one to the other winner.  And so Ronnel and I enjoyed the first box and the second one was shared amongst my colleagues in BNZ. 

And I guess the rest is history.  I am always for the lookout for competitions when I have time and there is usually a surge in winnings every time I am on parental leave.  That’s because while bubba is sleeping, or breastfeeding, I go into ultimate multi-tasking comper mode.  I have drafts of emails with my details ready to send to a competition email.   I troll NZ Women’s Weekly, Mindfood, NZ Girl and other sites with regular competitions.   Of course not all prizes are really worth the effort, but what effort, really --- two minutes of filling out a competition form?  With the advent of Facebook, the art of comping has changed too.  Competitions now require you to like, share and comment, or even tag a friend.   I still have one rule that I try not to break – I don’t join competitions requiring votes to determine if I win.  I feel (I know) I won’t win those – especially with the limited number of friends I have on FB (quality vs quantity!).   So I just join competitions that rely on a bit of effort (such as this or this)  and a lot of luck – and that has been working well so far!

To be honest, this post was inspired by “Extreme Couponing”.  Ronnel and I were watching the series on Netflix and he told me that if we were in the US, I'd be one of those extreme couponers.  Ha, I was one step ahead of him.  I already googled if we had a similar coupon industry in NZ. Unfortunately, we don’t and here’s why -- http://frugalkiwi.co.nz/2011/07/beyond-extreme-couponing/ or http://www.enz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=31232.  And I totally agree with what’s posted in these sites.  The Extreme Couponing shows are inspiring especially when you see their grocery bill reduced from USD2K to a mere 40 cents!  I probably won’t go to that extent as it requires full dedication and couponing time equivalent to a full time job.  Plus I feel it's a bit unfair to hoard stuff you don't really need.  I won’t give up being a business analyst yet for the high of grocery savings.  Maybe when I win the lotto – if I ever buy a ticket. 

You might ask then --- so with this luck, why don’t I buy lotto tickets?   Same with my dad, the family luck doesn’t extend to gambling or when exchange of money is involved (i.e. buying a ticket to win).  I don’t think I’ve ever won in a raffle draw where I had to buy a ticket so I won’t go there.  As of now, I’m very happy with these winnings and even happier when I get to share it with my friends. So bear with me if you see a post in my wall of me joining yet another competition. Who knows, you might be a friend with whom I share my winnings!  Now, if only I can convince Ronnel to join on my behalf when it’s his turn to go on parental leave…