Dudes- do you know about Dylon?!

So, now that I am well and truly into the statutory pay part of my maternity leave I am utterly embracing the idea of the ‘alternative income’. Essentially, the freebie. 🙂
I have never been short of an opinion and now it seems that people will send you stuff if you are willing to tell them what you think of it.

I say people, I clearly mean brands and marketing companies.
I do not mean that Nigel from over the road dropped off an egg custard following last weeks Great British Bake Off and asked for my views.
Incidentally Nigel- if you are thinking of dropping round a tuck box of sorts, I don’t like nuts.
I will however accept most types of cake, biscuit and muffin. Please don’t be offended if I tell you that you’ve got a soggy bottom. I am nothing if not honest!

I have joined the Tesco Home Survey Panel, I am a signed up secret shopper…or am I…I go out in a wig and dark glasses to purchase a wispa duo and give feedback about whether Carol from Co-Op was friendly. In short, I am an utter geek!! I LOVE IT.

Looking back I’ve always loved a freebie though Mr L almost divorced me when I brought a chest of drawers back from the tip.
He’s from Surrey. I think he thinks he’s above nicking from the tip…
More fool you Mr L, there’s many a treasure to be found in a skip or tip. I painted it and replaced the handles and it has housed the girls clothes for the last two years so who’s smug now. [for clarity, the answer’s me].

How fortuitous then that I should have had such a colicky, refluxy, sicky little bambino, just a few months prior to a big DYLON campaign. Hoorah.
The serious number of times that I have been puked all over has left my clothing in a very sad state and happily, thanks to my merge maternity pay I am far too skint to justify a new pair so I so I was more than happy to sign up to the Discover Dylon campaign.

As I write, my absolutely favourite, favourite jeans are in the machine with my free Dylon ‘Wash and Dye’, in velvet black.
They are as old as the hills, Topshop skinnys and are basically my uniform so I hope this works.
My ma is very sceptical so I am massively looking forward to showing her my good as new jeans in approximately 59minutes…
It is a really simple process, two wash cycles and you’re done. BOOM.

Clearly, you could be more interesting than me; tie dye some babygrows or, if you want to create a stir at the school gates you could pimp up your poncho with ‘Tropical Green’ and ‘Goldfish Orange’, (this should ensure you aren’t pestered to join the PTA) but I am sticking with the renew your faded old jeans.

BEFORE…lets be honest, they’ve seen better days.

AFTER…I think we can call this a success don’t you?!

I’d had a bad experience with a yellow three piece suite from FreeCycle some years ago where I tried to dye the cushion covers red. They were textured, I was in a rush and just shoved them all in the machine so we basically lived with a dirty yellow sofa base and a mottled pink and yellow seat for the best part of 5 years. Not my finest moment. Bearing that in mind, I am really chuffed with the results of this Dylon challenge and still have a spare sachet so give me a shout if you want me to send it your way.
If not, you can get hold of Dylon in any of its 24 colours from good old John Lewis and Hobbycraft amongst others and, at under £7 it’s pretty reasonable.

Anywho, I found out about this campaign via BzzAgent.co.uk check them out, they are what’s called a ‘social marketing agency which relies on creating a…buzz around products new and old. (Do you see what they’ve done there?!)
The more campaigns you take part in, the better your BzzAgent score, the better your score, the more campaigns you may be eligible to try.
You can also earn Tesco clubcard points through their schemes (Christmas is coming peeps, every little helps) shit, think I’m addicted to this marketing speak!

This is the first time I have taken part in a Bzz campaign so I will keep you posted on how it goes but the early indicators are not too shabby.

Muma Leary.
XxxX