I want to share a secret with you. I rarely pay for anything. I guess it's not a secret anymore. I'm sure you must be dying to know how, even though the title of this post is a dead giveaway. Yes, I acquire most all of the things I want by entering giveaways, and winning them.
I felt that maybe showing others how I save money by entering giveaways would be a fun post topic.
Today I was writing down all of the things I am needing and the two biggest things I am wanting to decorate in my home. I typically keep a small notebook and write in it daily. I jot down my tasks for the day, week and month. I write all grocery items I need, and extra "luxury" items I want. Then I spend a great deal of my time searching the web for coupons, sales and giveaways. Some people will enter every giveaway they run across, but not me. I am very specific in the giveaways I enter, and this helps me a great deal. So I believe.
How Do I Find The Giveaways I Need?
When I have an item in mind that I really want, I typically go all out in my search but I keep my search very specific. For example, today I was thinking about the picture I have hanging above my bed. It has a plethora of colored sketched circles in it, and I want my comforter to match one of those colors. So I started my search using google advanced search tool. If you aren't familiar with this search method, let me give you a few tips.
Let's say I am looking for a comforter set for my bedroom. I will type any of the following phrases in hopes one will give me the giveaway I am looking for:
"Win a comforter set"
"Win a comforter"
"Comforter Giveaway"
"Comforter Sweepstake"
"Comforter set giveaway"
"Comforter set sweepstake"
*use any term such as blanket, bedding, throw etc.
Making sure you use quotations will narrow the search results so that only websites with those terms show up for you. After you search the phrase in quotations, make sure you go to the "Tools" tab next to the search bar, and select the tab that says anytime, and search within the "past month". This will narrow your search for recent giveaways.
If you don't search like this, you will find alot of old giveaways from years and years ago. This is the best way to find your giveaway. Once you have found a few giveaways to enter, you are ready to focus on the types of giveaways that will increase your odds of winning.
What Type Of Giveaway Increases My Chance Of Winning?
I will personally enter every giveaway I can find for the items I want, but there are a few that I absolutely must bookmark to check on daily. Any giveaway that allows you to enter daily will greatly increase your chances of winning. Why is this? Because many giveaways will allow you to tweet about the giveaway and give you an extra entry, while others will accept your email address daily. Those entries add up, and if you stick to it daily (most people don't), you will greatly increase your chance of winning. This is how I win the majority of time.
So always stick to giveaways that allow for extra entries, and do everything they provide for you to get that extra entry. Many will have you subscribe to twitter accounts, youtube channels, pinterest and more. So make sure you have accounts for all of those types of social media accounts.
How Can I Save My Giveaways To Come Back Quickly?
Use bookmarks! Typically in the top of your broswer search bar you will have a star like the one pictured below:
Just click it when you are on the giveaway page. You can use this bookmark to save your giveaways. I typically sort mine based on the type of giveaway. If you look in the picture above, you can see I have 'electronics giveaway' as one of my bookmark folders. Always create a new folder and name it. This will save you alot of time.
How Do I Start Entering Giveaways To Save Money?
To start out on the right foot, you will need a plan. In order to greatly increase your chances of winning giveaways, you must dedicate time to it. If you can dedicate 30 to 45 minutes each day, then you are off to a good start. I would suggest an hour to find the items you are wanting once a week.
I typically go through my giveaways each day and get my daily entry in. If you use Google Chrome, there is an option to open all links in each folder so you will have them all open and ready.
Always keep track of your daily entry giveaways. Be sure to check your giveaway email every day, and delete giveaways as they expire.
I hope this helps some of you to start saving money by entering giveaways.
Do you have any tips for winning giveaways? Comment below!