I had a brilliant night out in London last week with my best friend which I won through Appletiser. Eliza Doolittle performed a secret gig and there were cocktails, mocktails, cupcakes and thousands of fairy lights! It was such a magical scene that it got me thinking about Christmas. There are already a few festive competitions doing the rounds, especially of the creative kind. The Times newspaper has launched a Christmas Carol comp if you fancy yourself as a budding composer. It is a great time though to try and start winning prizes that can be put aside as gifts. Nothing like being organised!

This week’s competitions will get you started on that.

Parentdish are offering a Kindle and £100 Amazon voucher. Just enter your details to be in with a chance. Closing date 5 July. www.parentdish.co.uk

Neo Magazine has the Superman Lego range up for grabs. Enter your email and answer the following question. Which actor plays Clark Kent in Man of Steel? Answer: Henry Cavill. Closing date 5 July. www.neomag.co.uk

West Country FOODLOVER magazine have a competition to win a Kenwood kMix Stand Mixer worth £399.99 – perfect for preparing all those Christmas goodies! Just enter your details here. Closing date 10 July at midday.

Keen compers should also check out the National Compers Alliance. They offer a huge amount of competitions daily, weekly and monthly, in fact over 3,000 per month  – a service quite unlike any other! There are a limited amount of spaces though, and the invitation to join this elite group doesn’t come around very often!

For all of you that do like to be organised and aren’t inwardly groaning at me for already mentioning the ‘C’ word, there are sites such as shopstyle.co.uk.  Here you can sign up for notifications of when your favourite shop starts it sale.

There is also a site called flubit.com. This works in a similar way to comparison sites, where it will search the net for the best deal. But, the best thing about this site is that you tell them what you want to buy and where you found it. They then negotiate direct with the retailer to try and get you a better price. The results aren’t instant though, you may have to wait up to 48 hours. Once they come back to you with an offer, you simply buy through the flubit website. They claim that the average discount is 10-15% on the price you find. It’s a free service and there is no obligation to buy.  

Happy shopping and comping! Good luck!