I recently heard about a deal with some online bingo sites. I don’t play bingo, nor do I gamble – even if I wanted to, I don’t have the money. Several bingo websites had a deal to deposit £10 and get an extra £20 free play. You could only do it once per site, but I found eight websites with the same offer.

I waited until my child benefit went into my account, and then I spent £80 across the sites, That gave me £160 free money to play with as well as my £80. It was a risk but one that I thought was worth taking.

In total, after taking back my original £80 stake, I ended up winning £260.

My win meant I could pay for swimming lessons for Amelia and Rosie. They’ve been asking to learn to swim for ages, and it’s a skill I want all my children to have, so I’m so happy that they can now learn such a vital skill.

It’s just a shame that I had to gamble with the child benefit to have any chance of affording it.