*** Competition now closed ***

This is a fantabulous competition for all your deal-mad readers out there. You get to win a £100 voucher to spend at Groupon.co.uk which you can spend whenever, and however, you wish. And when you consider exactly how well priced many of those lovely Groupon deals are, well, you could end up buying yourself a lot of lovely loot.

Groupon, as you probably know, is a site that offers fresh, hot deals on a daily basis to people living across the UK. The deals are mostly area specific, although some national deals pop up on a fairly regular basis and that are terribly tasty, and you are bound to have lots of fun deciding where to spend your £100 prize.

How To Enter:

Standing a chance to win that tasty £100 Groupon voucher is really easy. Just answer the simple question below and then follow the instructions.

Question: Name one area where you can find a Groupon deal. Find your answer here.

• Leave a comment in the thread below with answer (1 entry)
• For bonus entries to the competition:
• Subscribe to the PlayPennies daily email update (1 entry)
• Tweet a link to this contest and leave your twitter link below (1 bonus entry)

Rules:

1. Contest ends on 4th August 2012
2. Open to UK residents only
3. One type of entry per household
4. Must complete email verification when subscribing
5.  Must include a valid email address if commenting
6. Admin’s decision is final in all cases

*** Competition now closed, winner was Jodie! ***

It's time for another competition to award one of our lovely PlayPennies parents. This week, we've got hold of a £100 gift voucher from TheRange.co.uk, which can be used on anything in store.

If you haven't heard of The Range, they sell a wide variety of items from bedroom furniture to Garden Furniture and everything in between with Kitchen wares, arts and crafts products and even pet supplies! I am sure it would be super-easy to spend £100 there, especially now that the warmer weather is starting to show itself, and there are some great ideas for summer living.

Now, down to the nitty-gritty:

Prize: £100 gift voucher from The Range to be used in any one of their 63 nationwide stores

How to enter: Click through to The Range and tell us about what you would spend your £100 voucher on.

Just leave a comment below to enter.

Bonus entries

If you'd like a bonus competition entry, why not subscribe to the PlayPennies daily email updates? Or, if you write a UK blog, give this competition a quick mention on there, and you can get a bonus competition entry (Make sure to leave your blog post link in a comment below too).

Rules:

• UK entrants only
• Competition period: 23rd to 30th April 2012
• One type of each competition entry per household
• Competition subject to change and admins decision is final in all cases

*** Competition now closed - Charlotte was the winner ***

We're hosting an exclusive PlayPennies competition this evening, which will run over the next week or so. The prize is a £100 gift voucher to spend online at Zalando! Zalando is an online shoe and fashion store which also sells baby and children's products, sports equipment and beauty products. It would be really easy to spend £100 there, they've got a lot of super products to choose from.

If you'd like to enter to try and win the £100 Zalando gift voucher, here's how:

Leave a comment below saying what you would buy on Zalando's website with your £100 prize

So have a nosey round there, see if you like anything, and tell us what it is, in the comments below!

If you'd like bonus entries into this contest, you can also tweet an answer to @playpennies. And remember, those of you who are subscribed to PlayPennies daily email updates will also get a bonus competition entry.

Rules:

• UK entrants only
• 1 type of entry per household
• Ends 12th April 2012

Good luck everyone!

HappyHopperz have offered PlayPennies readers 20% off on their fabulous bouncy toy range.

Hop, hop, hop on a HappyHopperz toy

• Discount: 20%
• Expires: 14 February 2012
• Valid on: Everything
• Discount Code: PLAYPENNIES12

HappyHopperz are a throwback to the space hoppers of the 70’s, but perfectly suited for children. They are made with ears and horns so little ones can grip on to and they are small enough that feet remain steady on the ground.

Around Christmas time the ‘new and improved’ HappyHopperz were launched – they’re now suitable for children as young as 12 months.

Sarah wrote a HappyHopperz review way back in the early PlayPennies days and I’ve seen kids on these in playgroups – they do about go wild for them!

HappyHopperz ca be used indoors and outdoors and can be used in small spaces too. They are inflatable, so technically you should be able to take them on holiday with you too, should you want to!

The HappyHopperz cost £21.99 plus £5.99 P&P, but with the offer you’ll be paying £17.59 plus £5.99, so you’re still saving £4.40.

*** Competition now closed, winners contacted soon! ***

To celebrate the UK premiere of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1, Clintons is offering four lucky PlayPennies parents the chance to win an exclusive hamper of Twilight goodies, pictured above.

Winners will each receive a Twilight t-shirt, luxury travel bag, passport cover, luggage label and candle, worth £100 each.

How to enter: Check out this question and post your answer in the comments below:

How many months are shown in the 2012 Twilight Breaking Dawn Calendar on Clintoncards.co.uk?

For a bonus competition entry, subscribe to the daily PlayPennies email updates.

For another free competition entry, tweet about this contest on Twitter and put the link or your Twitter username in the comments below. Remember to end your tweet with @playpennies

Rules:

• Competition ends on 22nd November 2011
• Open to UK residents only
• 1 type of entry per household
• Must complete email verification when subscribing
• Must include a valid email address if commenting
• Admin’s decision is final in call cases

Please remember to use your correct email address when leaving a comment below, so we can get in touch if you win. We'll try and get in touch with all the winners next week, and we hope to have your prizes out to you in time for Christmas.

I am actually looking forward to this movie. Having read the books and caught the first few movies, I can't wait to see the rest!

The Twilight 2012 Calendar and a range of Twilight cards are available at selected Clintons stores and online at clintoncards.co.uk.

*** Comp now closed, winners contacted soon ***

Vosene have recently launched a new Afterswim Hair & Body Wash in their Vosene Families range of products. And they’re giving 50 full-size bottles away to our PlayPennies parents! The Vosene Afterswim hair and body wash is specially developed to wash chlorine, salt and other impurities clean away. If it smells as good as any of the other Vosene products, I can’t wait to try it out at the swimming pool.

The 200ml Vosene Afterswim Hair and Body Wash has an RRP of £2.54, and 50 PlayPennies winners will be getting a full-size bottle.

How to enter:

• Leave a comment below stating what you love / hate most about swimming
• Subscribe to the PlayPennies email updates for a bonus entry
• Tweet about this competition and leave your twitter link or username in a comment below for another competition entry

We’ll choose 50 random winners from the relevant comments.

Rules:

• 1 entry per household
• Ends 1^st September 2011
• UK entrants only
• Admin’s decisions are final in all cases

P.S. There’s also a giveaway on the Vosene website just now, they’re offering family theme park tickets. Or a competition to win a back to school treat worth £150. You might want to enter those too. :)

*** Expired - winners announced here soon ***

The folks at Vosene have given us 20 hair care kits to give away to the PlayPennies parents! Tamsin has written a Vosene review in the past, where she was very pleased with the results.

Here's what is in each Vosene kit:

• 100ml Conditioning Shampoo
• 50ml Mega Hold Styling Gel
• 50ml Extra Shine Detangler Spray

To put your name into the hat to win one of the kits, just leave a comment in the thread below. We'll choose 20 random winners from the relevant comments.

Rules:

• 1 entry per household
• Ends 16th June 2011
• UK entrants only
• Admin's decisions are final in all cases

P.S. There's a competition on their website to give away a family holiday worth up to £10,000, you might be interested in entering that too.

We're excited to let you know the results of the recent iPad 2 competition here on PlayPennies, iSave, iWrite, iPad. We had over 50 entries which we were quite excited to see, as it required a bit of creative thinking, rather than just sticking your name into a hat.

There were a number of entries that stood out, but we were only able to choose one winner. It is:

• Mad House Family Reviews with Make Do And Mend

Congrats Cheryl!

Here are some words from an excited competition winner, Cheryl:

I was over the moon to discover an email waiting for me when I got home from work today telling me that I'd won the iPad ! I never dreamed I'd win in a million years so I was absolutely delighted ! My 9-year-old daughter has already asked if she can have it (er, sorry but no !!) and started telling me about all the great things you can do on it (she obviously knows more than me !),  then my husband got in from work and pointed out it's his birthday in a fortnight ! I can't wait to discover all the great apps I've heard about online. I've been told that even really young kids can manage to unlock the screen and find their fave apps so I'll look rather silly if I don't manage it !! Lots of fun on the cards this summer when I'm lazing by the pool or on the patio !! Thanks so much, I think I'm still in shock!

Thanks to everyone who entered, and we hope to have more great competitions on PlayPennies in the future!

*** Comp now closed - winner announced here ***

If you're a writer in the UK blogosphere, we've got a little bit of news that might be of interest to you. We're going to give away an iPad 2 to one talented writer, in the PlayPennies iSave, iWrite, iPad competition!

How to enter to win an iPad 2:

Simply write a post about money-saving and publish it on your blog. You must include this intro sentence and link to PlayPennies somewhere in your post:

I'm trying to win an iPad 2 in the iSave, iWrite, iPad competition from PlayPennies.com!

When you've published your post, drop us a line here to let us know, and we will add you to the competition entries list below. Here is our main tip:

• BE ORIGINAL

We read a lot of money-saving tips every day, so we're going to want to read an original, well thought out post. Entertain us!

Rules:

• Your post should be new and original, written by you and published on your blog
• Your blog should be at least 1 month old
• You must include the intro sentence quoted above to be eligible
• Word limit of 800 words
• Prize is a 16GB iPad 2 with wifi (black or white), valued at £399
• Ends 20th May 2011, posts published after this date will not be accepted
• UK entrants only

The winner:

The PlayPennies team will choose a winner from all the blog entries. Our 5 team members will each choose their top 3 posts from all the entries, then these entries will go into a grand final. The winning post will be judged on originality, humour, money-saving ideas.

The entries so far:

1. Games 247
   
2. More Than Who
3. Super Lucky
4. Cherry Blossom
5. Easy Computing Tips
6. Allaboutvideogaming
7. Scattershot
8. 2 Stars and a Swirl
9. NoNewMediaYear
10. Richard & John 2010
11. The Red Panda
12. Birdyboy
13. Andrewlawrenson
14. Mellowmummy
15. SamAnd2Girls
16. Super Amazing Mum
17. By David Graham
18. Competition Grapevine
19. Savyhasa
20. Eats Shoots Leaves
21. Slummysinglemummy
22. Jessica Milln
23. Tavia14999
24. Get Your Dream Life
25. Munchy's Place
26. Terminates Here
27. Mad House Family Reviews
28. Expiriments With Reason
29. Normality and me
30. UK-bargains
31. Meet Jo Smith
32. Emma and Three
33. Dom's Tumblr
34. Me and my shadow
35. Simply Hayley
36. Daddy's Best
37. Castile-jewellery
38. Economy Today
39. Appcrunch
40. Medsdemon
41. Crafty-bits
42. Jsty
43. Dannycooper
44. Insidethewendyhouse
45. Wild Black Yonder
46. Tickett's Blog
47. Chris Heeney
48. Stonehz
49. iwwwrite
50. Threads of Knowledge
51. No Place Like Home
52. Egleedblog
53. WeLovePandas
54. Blood Clots And Black Holes
55. Cosmic Kick
56. ??? You???
    

Good Luck!

Hi folks! This is just a little reminder about our PlayPennies Halloween competition to win a £100 Amazon voucher.

You can read all about it in the above thread, but if you'd like to win, just snap a picture of you or your family when you are in fancy-dress over the weekend. The full rules are in the above thread.

Good luck!

This week PlayPennies Loves...Mila's Daydreams.

A TOTALLY different blog this week and one that might just get your creative energy flowing too.

There's no need to settle yourself in for a reading marathon today - although you can still have the obligatory coffee with whichever sweet chocolately Hob Nob type things takes your fancy - because this blog is a visual feast of loveliness.

Mila's Dreams is the self-described maternity leave 'hobby' of its creator, Adele Enerson.  Her concept and idea is simple and beautiful, "While my baby is taking her nap, I try to imagine her dream and capture it."

What do YOU do when your baby is sleeping..?

I've played the photographing babies whilst their asleep game a lot both for work and for fun - the last family christmas card was a picture of my youngest asleep in front of the open log fire, under the Christmas tree having fallen asleep writing a letter to Father Christmas and leaving out a mince pie, a glass of sherry and a carrot for Rudolph, complete with Father Christmas (it wasn't really him) reaching into the shot to take the glass.

It took three days to set up and shoot! The photographs in Mila's Dreams are shot in only a few minutes, "I use only few minutes per picture, including creating idea, implementation and editing, 'cause I don't want to disturb her sleeping and most of my time is for my family."

I've turned the photographer off in my head so I can just enjoy them for what they are and that is fun! Both fun to turn the photographer off and the pictures are FUN too!

Adele has created beautiful memories and images to look back on when Mila is all big and grown up and stomping around the house during those petualant teenage years - there's scope there for a whole NEW set of photos!

They remind me a little of Anne Gedde's work - the idea of taking sleeping babies and putting them into a 'different world' - maybe we'll have a new Anne on our hands in a few years time, who knows!

I have a couple of favourites:  Bookworm (I'm not the only one who likes this one, this post has 145 comments so far; it was only posted five days ago on Tuesday 27 July!) and The Rain of Roses.

Go and take a leisurely stroll through Mila's Daydreams and maybe you'll feel inspired to come up with some daydreams of your own.

Are you the owner of the blog above? Click HERE for our resource page for “PlayPennies loves” badges and banners.

*** Contest now closed ***

We have a spare £50 Amazon.co.uk gift voucher to give away, so we might as well give it to one of you lovely PlayPennies parents!

How to enter:

• Subscribe to PlayPennies emails (Already subscribed? Already entered)

and / or

• Tweet the link to this competition (1 bonus entry)

and / or

• Comment in the thread below (1 bonus entry)

Rules:

1. Contest ends 30th June 2010
2. Open to UK residents only
3. 1 person per household may participate
4. Admin’s decision is final in all cases

From time to time, retailers and PR companies may offer us products to review and write about on the PlayPennies blog. While we'd love to hoard all these freebies for ourselves, we thought we'd share the love and offer some to you guys too! The products could be anything from maternity wear to toys for the kiddies… we never know what we're going to get.

If you'd like to be on the Parent Panel for product testers, please email PlayPennies with details of your family size, specifically if you're pregnant, with the gender and ages of your children. This way, we can tailor the items to suit your family.

Once you receive one of the products, we just ask that you use it in your home. Then, you fill in a little questionnaire with a bit of feedback on the product, and one of our lovely writers can use the information in a featured article.

Hope to hear from you!

To all the mums, and mums-to-be: welcome to PlayPennies.com!

PlayPennies Aim:

I think we all know how expensive it can be to raise a young’un, so we’re going to try and help you cut down on those costs a little bit.

PlayPennies Content:

There is such a wealth of Shopping Deals available to mummies and daddies. So many big companies are willing to give out Freebies and vouchers to try and get your repeat business. We’re going to be sharing all these fabulous finds with you on a daily basis. You’d really be surprised at how much baby stuff you can get for free, without even spending a penny on your little babe!

The PlayPennies team will be scouring the internet for all the best deals from all the big stores which you know and love, from Adams to Zavvi. These kind of stores sometimes offer excellent voucher codes, which can be used to bag yourself some mega bargains. We’ll be posting deals related to pregnancy, young babies, and toddlers.

Additionally, we’ll be doing special featured posts for money saving parents, in our Family Money category. These featured articles will give you tips and hints on specific areas, designed to save you a few quid.

Every few days, we'll let you know about all the coolest Free Competitions for mum and dad, where you could win anything from baby gear to family holidays! And we'll also be doing a few giveaways ourselves.

And finally, as a bit of fun, we're going to do a few posts to keep you up-to-date with the latest Celebaby news.

Keeping up with PlayPennies

If you like, you can just pop onto PlayPennies and read it when you have some free time. Alternatively, you can subscribe to the RSS feeds in the reader of your choice, or you could even sign up to the daily PlayPennies email updates.