Prizes I Haven’t Won … Yet

We all have those elusive prizes we really want to win in the back of our minds when we enter competitions. You know – those things we can’t afford to but for ourselves. Otherwise, well, what’s the point? My list has evolved over the past year while I discovered and surveyed all the various competitions available to us in Australia; the prizes on offer and the odds of winning them.

What a list! On top of my list is a new car.

Since my husband retired at the beginning of this year we have been sharing one car. It doesn’t actually bother me but as time goes by and it ages I am not sure we will be able to afford a new one. So number one on my list is a brand new sparkling car. Luckily there are quite a few competitions with cars as prizes but on the downside the chances of winning are fairly slim, but not impossible. I persist with as many as I can find particularly those in the puzzle magazines. My latest attempt is through a Lovett Puzzle Magazine competition. But it doesn’t close until January next year so I will try to find a few more to enter before then.

I also think I know the answer to the GuessWho car competition so I am entering that too. Yesterday I entered a competition to win a Vespa scooter through The Upstairs Lounge – that would be a great prize too! Number two on my ever-growing list is a holiday. But this is not necessarily for me although a holiday in Tasmania (there are always these ones available to enter) or a trip on The Ghan (pretty regular competitions too) would be good. I would really love to win an overseas holiday for one of my children, possibly my son who is still slightly footloose and fancy-free.

There are so many on this website the odds must be reasonably good so I will continue with this quest as well. While reaching casually into my grocery cupboard the other day I came across a jar of Dick Smith peanut butter with WIN on the label. Boy… was I cranky! How could I have missed this opportunity? On top of the fact that I had not noticed it (my husband does most of the shopping and he isn’t as tuned into competitions as me) the prize was a helicopter trip with Dick Smith himself.

That would he been the perfect birthday or Christmas present for the said, old hubbie of mine. So of course I didn’t win because I didn’t enter it because it was well past the closing date. A little bit of further research revealed that there were about 4,000 entries.

That could have clearly been placed number three on my prize list. According to a mutual friend of Dick Smith it is very likely he will have more competitions like this – so now I am keeping my eyes peeled to everything he brings home in the shopping from now on. Now for number four.

This may sound absurd but what I would really love to win is a large box of chocolate coated strawberries. I saw this on a Facebook page of Captain’s Wife Catering, a local business the other day but you had to comment on all the toppings they had put on them. Too hard…but then again…so yummy. OK then I’ll have a go! I’ll let you know when I win them…

Then again any win that involves chocolate would be mush appreciated. Number five is simply cash. But apart from Lotto and Lotteries there are not as many ways to win this. So in a few weeks I will look at some other ways of getting your hands on extra cash especially useful as the months lead up to Christmas. Finally here is one thought on winning I found the other day that I thought I might share:

‘‘Winning isn’t everything but the will to win is.” Vince Lombardi