A merry free-mas!

Jolene Stanley, 34, fills her kids’ stockings without spending a penny

- FIONA KINLOCH

With one hand caressing my bump, I began scrolling through Facebook on my laptop with my other. It was 2011, I was three months pregnant with my first baby, and, with months to go, couldn’t wait to meet my little one. Shopping online for sleepsuits, bottles and baby toys had become my nightly ritual, and exciting packages were arriving most days. But one thing I still had to get was a pram. ‘How much?’ I gasped, looking at some of the most popular designs, which all came with the latest gadgets and attachments. Most cost hundreds of pounds – some thousands – and whatever I picked, it’d certainly take a chunk out of my bank balance.

So when I spotted a competition to win a state-of-the-art £1,200 Quinny Moodd pram on Facebook, I simply had to enter. ‘I know my chances are slim,’ I told myself, but even so, it was surely worth the few minutes it took me to fill out the online form.

After clicking ‘send’ I forgot all about it, going back to admiring the fancy pushchairs online, and saving money from my job as a carer to buy one.

Then, a month later, a message arrived in my Facebook inbox. ‘Congratulations! You are the winner!’ it said. Gawping at the screen, it took me a few moments to grasp that I’d actually won the pushchair and that it would be sent to me at my home in Colchester. I couldn’t believe it. I’d not known anyone to win anything on the numerous Facebook competitions I’d seen before.

When it arrived and I put it together, I was thrilled, picturing myself walking around town proudly with my little bundle all safe and warm inside. My son, Stanley, arrived in December 2012, and, sure enough, just as I’d imagined, he looked so comfy in his pram, and I loved taking him out in it, dressed in one of his adorable outfits.

Online scrolling