2013 Summary

It's the 31st December, and time for my yearly summary! This has been my first full year of comping and what an AMAZING year I have had, I never expected to win quite so much. I also have a couple of HUGE prizes that I haven't posted up yet because I'm still waiting to receive them.

2013 Total: £3246.95

Lifetime Total: £3822.22

Fingers crossed for a lucky 2014!

Ole Henriksen Facial Wipes

My second win from the Stella giveaway - a pack of Ole Henriksen Facial Wipes.

Value: £6.00
2013 Total: £3246.95

Nail Wraps

A fun win from twitter - some nail wraps from Rebel Nails Inc. They're all Christmas themed so I'll be wearing them tomorrow!

Value: £7.99 each...total £39.95! I didn't realise they were so expensive,wow!
2013 Total: £3240.95

John Frieda Travel Set

This surprise win from the advents turned up yesterday - a travel size shampoo and conditioner from John Frieda, along with some Christmassy hair grips.

Value: £2.50
2013 Total: £3201

Gossard & Pretty Polly Hamper

What a lovely win! I had to write a Christmas poem and amazingly managed to win. The hamper contains two bra and underwear sets and six pairs of tights! It all came in a lovely wicker basket.

Value: £128.50
2013 Total: £3198.50

£10 Ebay Voucher

Had an email from ebay the other day with a £10 off code because I hadn't shopped with them in a while - what a nice treat! I ended up buying two books for free with it.

Value: £9.85
2013 Total: £3070

Danielle Steel Collection

I think it was this time last year I was starting to panic about the amount of books I had to read, and it's happened again! This collection of 3 Danielle Steel books was from one of the advents, consisting of:

Winners - £9.00
Pure Joy - £9.00
Until the End of Time - £9.50

Value: £27.50
2013 Total:  £3060.15

Neal's Yard Hand Cream

The stella giveaway was back in December and this was my first of two wins from it - a Neal's Yard Hand Cream. It smells gorgeous - it's Geranium & Orange but to me it smells of turkish delight - yummy! The cream is quite thick and a little goes a long way.

Value: £10
2013 Total: £3033.15

Grace Cole Decadence Set

A nice win from the Grace Cole advent calendar - a decadence gift set containing body wash, body cream and a body ball inside a toiletry bag.

Value: £10
2013 Total: £3023.15

Batteries

A handy freebie from o2 - a pack of batteries!

Value £1.99
2013 Total: £3013.15

£20 Amazon Voucher

A £20 Amazon Voucher from Novelicious - this win is extra special because it came from winning a judged writing competition :)

Value: £20
2013 Total: £3011.16

£5 Body Shop Voucher

A nice o2 offer - £5 off bodyshop with no minimum spend, so I ended up paying £1 for this nice little stocking filler!

I also picked up some wrapping paper from the o2 shop for free, but it was a nightmare to photograph!

Value: £5
2013 Total: £2991.16

Christmas Jumper from Miss Rebel

Really pleased with this Christmas jumper I won from Miss Rebel, it's very warm and cosy and super super christmassy! The reindeer looks so funny :)

Value: £13.99
2013 Total: £2986.16

GAS Ankle Boots

A fabulous win from spylovebuy - a pair of GAS ankle boots. They are lovely and comfortable, the fur lining is super soft and they fit perfectly.

Value: £32.95
2013 Total: £2972.17

J.D Tyler Book Collection

A collection of books by J.D.Tyler, all part of the Alpha Pack Series. I won book one - 'Primal Law' a while ago and really enjoyed it, so am pleased to get a chance to read the rest!

Primal Law: £7.99
You can read my review on my old post here

Savage Awakening: £5.75

Black Moon: £5.75

Hunter's Heart: £5.08

Value: £24.57 Total
2013 Total: £2939.22

£10 Instajunction Voucher

Money Saving Expert teamed up with Instajunction to give away lots of £10 vouchers to spend! I got these two keyrings with mine (they are priced at £9.99) so I just had to pay delivery.


I don't think I would buy them at the full price, £10 seems quite steep for just two keyrings. You can get this type of thing cheaper elsewhere.

I will comment though that the quality of them is really, really good. The pictures are printed really nicely, the colour is bright and vivid and the photos have come out well. If you're looking for a custom photo-printed item, I would recommend Instajunction because you're going to receive some that looks really good. (But you might want to wait for a discount code first!)

Value: £9.99. I had to pay £2.95 so saved £7.04
2013 Total: £2914.65

Personal Christmas Card from Sophie Kinsella

A bit of a random thing to win, but very nice nontheless - a personal Christmas card from Sophie Kinsella. She's one of my favourite authors so it's pretty cool to have a card from her!

Take a Look at me Now by Miranda Dickinson

Another win from goodreads - a copy of Take a Look at me Now by Miranda Dickinson!

Value: £6.99
2013 Total: £2907.61

Update: Blurgh. That was my reaction to this book. It's such a shame, the cover is so pretty and the blurb sounded interesting so I thought it seemed so promising. Instead, it is very very blurgh.
Everything about it SO cliched. I hated how Nell made instant friends with everyone in San Francisco because everyone there is so lovely and wonderful. It was just so unreal. Max was a completely boring love interest, there was no appeal to him at all and out of everybody his dialogue was the absolute worst for being completely unrealistic. The "twist" was incredibly predictable and Nell's reaction to it was ridiculously OTT. I found the whole thing very frustrating to read through. 

£10 Itunes Code

The Pringles Advent Calendar is back and for the second year in a row I've won a £10 itunes code - woohoo!

Value: £10
2013 Total: £2900.62

When you walked back into my life by Hilary Boyd

A surprise win that turned up the other day - a copy of When you walked back into my life by Hilary Boyd.

Value: £4.49
2013 Total: £2890.62

Update: I loved this! I've had a run of reading some truly bad books recently and this was like a breath of fresh air. A good plot with realistic, believable characters and a nice dash of romance. There were a few writing niggles here and there, plus I felt the ending was a little rushed, but overall I would completely recommend this and will certainly look out for more books by Hilary Boyd in the future.

V/H/S/2 DVD

A surprise win that turned up recently - a copy of V/H/S/2 on DVD. It looks really scary!

Value: £9.00
2013 Total: £2886.13

Aveda Goodie Bag

A fabulous goodie bag of Aveda Products, containing:

Exfoliating Shampoo - £20.50
Thickening Conditioner - £22.50
Scalp Revitaliser -£43
Stress Fix Body Lotion £27
Stress Fix roller-ball -£22
Stress Fix Soaking Salts -£30

Value: £165
2013 Total: £2877.13

Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger

I've been running low on things to read so glad I won this! A copy of Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger. It's the second in the series but hopefully it won't be too hard for me to get into.

Value: £6.99
2013 Total: £2712.13

Update: So I think it's safe to say I had very little idea of what was going on during this. I don't know if my confusion came from being a newcomer to the series, or the fact that the plot just plain didn't make sense. That being said, I really quite enjoyed it. I liked the style in which it was written, I enjoyed the characters and the little bits of romance that were sprinkled throughout. It hasn't made me absolutely desperate to go out and start reading it all from the beginning, but if I had some free time I might just go and do that.

£20 Boots Advantage Card Points

Thankfully this was an actual win this time rather than another Barcelona mishap. 2000 Boots Advantage Card Points, which is the equivalent of £20 to spend!

Value: £20
2013 Total: £2705.14

P&G Goody Bag

My second win from P&G that has just turned up out the blue! A big box contained a few little items:

Pantene Youth Protect Shampoo - £3.69
Lenor Fabric Conditioner - £2.39
Olay Total Effects - £9.99
Infinity Always - £3.49
Oral B Toothpaste - £3.42

Value: £22.98
2013 Total: £2685.14

Bedside Guardian 2012

The first 1500 people to apply won this - a copy of the Bedside Guardian 2012. A nice memento of the year.

Value: £10.34
2013 Total:  £2662.16

Yankee Candle

A win from a Foamburst daily - a spiced orange yankee candle. It smells wonderful!

Value: £8.39
2013 Total: £2651.82

Tesco Hudl

One of my best wins of the year - a Hudl Tablet from Tesco! They were giving 100 away on twitter. The tablet is fab, excellent screen and sound quality and is quick to load up apps. It does get a bit juddery if there's too much going on at once, but for a budget tablet it's still pretty great. I'd definitely recommend it if you're thinking of buying it as Christmas pressie for someone.

Value: £119
2013 Total: £2643.43
 

Case of Kettle Chips

A fab win for a crisp-oholic like me! 12 bags of Kettle Chips won from their facebook page.

Value: £1.99 each (£23.88)
2013 Total: £2524.43

Basler Makeup Bag and Mirror

A nice little win from Gray & Osbourne - a makeup bag and mirror from designer brand Basler.

Value: They don't seem to be on sale anywhere, but given Basler's clothes sell for over hundred I guess everything must be pretty expensive! Maybe £10?
2013 Total: £2500.55

Gatecrasher 20 CD

Following on from my post back in August, I finally received the correct CD a few days ago. This one is much better, lots of great (and recent!) tracks on it.

Value: £9.00
2013 Total: £2490.55

Hotel Chocolat Skull Lolly

An o2 freebie for Halloween - a lovely chocolate lolly from Hotel Chocolat!

Value: £1.50
2013 Total: £2481.55

Augustus by John L. Williams

Another win from Waterstones! The competition was potluck to win one book out of a selection of twelve - sadly I've won the one that I wasn't that interested in :( Still, I'll give it a go anyway.

Value: £6.74
2013 Total: £2480.05

Avon Lip Crayon

Another item my camera didn't feel like taking a good photo of!
A lip crayon from Avon, won on twitter. The colour is lovely and vivid and lasts ages.

Value: £8.50
2013 Total: £2473.31

Aussie Mega Shampoo

This little surprise turned up the other day - a bottle of Aussie Mega Shampoo personalised with my name! Sadly my camera was not in the mood to take a decent photo of it.

Value: £5.99
2013 Total: £2465.81

Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art

My first win from Waterstones in a long time. It's a very large, in depth guide to Japanese Art, complete with lots of information and many glossy pictures. A very good guide if that's what you're interested in.

Value: £40.00
2013 Total: £2459.83

A hundred Pieces of Me by Lucy Dillon

A way way advanced copy of 'A hundred pieces of me' by Lucy Dillon (it's not due out till Feb next year!) It came with a very pretty slipcase and matching notebook.

Value: £6.99
2013 Total: £2419.82

Lots of spoilers, so review is on goodreads here

£100 HoF Giftcard

Amazing win!! A £100 Giftcard for House of Fraser. I cannot wait to go shopping!

Value: £100
2013 Total: £2412.83

Tesco Finest Chocolate

A freebie from a bzz campaign - two bars of Tesco Finest Chocolate. It's really yummy and very, very chocolatey.

Value: £1.50 each
2013 Total: £2312.83

£2 McCain Voucher

McCain were giving out a £2 off voucher to the first 1000 people to follow them on twitter!

Value: £2.00
2013 Total: £2309.83

Babycham Glasses

A pair of limited edition glasses to celebrate Babycham's 60th anniversary.

Value: No idea, I'll just say £1 each.
2013 Total: £2307.83

Jumper from omgfashion

So it turns out jumpers are really hard to photograph?
This was a win from omgfashion on twitter. I must admit I was kind of expecting it to be a bit cheap and scratchy, but it's actually really, really nice. Lovely and soft, very cosy and warm for the winter months!

Value: £12
2013 Total: £2305.83

£20 John Lewis Voucher

This was a win from the start of the August which has finally turned up! The company in question dragged their feet a bit but at least it's here at last (and perfect timing too, I really need some new clothes!)


Value: £20
2013 Total: £2293.83

Marc Jacobs Daisy Perfume

A fab win from Scentsational perfumes! A bottle of Marc Jacobs Daisy. I've always wanted a Marc Jacobs perfume because the bottles are such fab designs! I love the massive flowers, and it smells lovely too!

Value: £48.00
2013 Total: £2273.83

Wonderland Wigs Giftbox

A lovely win from Wonderland Wigs, a giftbox containing lots of goodies! It all came lovely packaged in a black box with pink ribbon. Inside it contains:

Hair Extensions - £8.99
False Eyelashes - £4.79
Crystal Wire Extensions - £9.99 (These look really funky!)
Hair Bumpit - £2.99
Hair Bands - £0.99
Hair Clips - £1.99

Value: £29.74
2013 Total: £2225.83

Tango Goodies

Tango are so good to me :) I haven't even finished everything I won before! These goodies aren't from a competition this time. They were asking people to fill in a survey for them and we got sent all this as a reward! Very generous!

Value: £3.27
2013 Total: £2196.09

Never Coming Back by Tim Weaver

Another o2 freebie - a copy of Never Coming Back by Tim Weaver.

Value: £7.99
2013 Total:  £2192.82

Hollow Pike by James Dawson

This freebie came from the box of OMG. A lot of the stuff I get in these boxes is a bit hit-or-miss but this book was a nice surprise!

Value: £5.24
2013 Total: £2184.83

Hollow Pike Review

Sadly, I wasn't hugely impressed with this overall.

The way the characters spoke bothered me, especially at the start of the book where it felt like everyone spoke like they were in Mean Girls. I felt especially vindicated when later on the main character actually watches Mean Girls, so I guess I was right. The author watched this film and now thinks all teenage girls talk this way. And it's really irritating.

I didn't really care for any of the group of friends, none of them had much of a personality and I felt like the love interest in particular was lacking a few brain cells. He annoyed me.

The plot could have been good, it had so much potential from the blurb but sadly it didn't pay off. The twist at the ending was really lame and the culprit felt more like a panto-villain than anything actually scary.

Mentos Pure Fresh Gum

Mentos were giving out vouchers for a free pack of their new gum in a resealable pack. I like the gum, it's very fresh and minty.

Value: 59p
2013 Total: £2179.59

£10 Co-Op Voucher

A very useful prize from a daily Co-Op competition - a £10 voucher! I have a shop just down the road from me so this will come in very handy!

Value: £10.00
2013 Total: £2179