Take a Break

Take a Break is a weekly magazine, sold in most outlets and at the very reasonable price of 70p per issue, readers real life stories make up a substantial part of TaB,
readers photos, tips and helpful hints also add to this,
there are Horoscopes, recipe’s and most importantly 15 competitions all with good prizes, it seems to have got thicker over the years as it had 71 pages this week it used to have between 63-68 when it first came ...
.../> I have been buying Take a Break since the very first issue 1990, (this year being it’s 13th year) I think in all that time I have only missed about 15 copies mainly when I have been on holiday, it hasn’t changed much at all over the years as I remember it being between 30-35p to start with, it is now only 70p that’s not really a bad increase in 13 years, the layout and many of the competitions have stayed much the same.

Let me ... more

Take a Break is a weekly magazine, sold in most outlets and at the very reasonable price of 70p per issue, readers real life stories make up a substantial part of TaB,
readers photos, tips and helpful hints also add to this,
there are Horoscopes, recipe’s and most importantly 15 competitions all with good prizes, it seems to have got thicker over the years as it had 71 pages this week it used to have between 63-68 when it first came out.

Take a Break is a great value magazine, reasonably well laid out, and not just for Women, when I check the answers and winners a few weeks later there are lots of Men who have won prizes, there is something for everyone, Unless you are not into competitions! then this magazine is probably not for you.

I have been buying Take a Break since the very first issue 1990, (this year being it’s 13th year) I think in all that time I have only missed about 15 copies mainly when I have been on holiday, it hasn’t changed much at all over the years as I remember it being between 30-35p to start with, it is now only 70p that’s not really a bad increase in 13 years, the layout and many of the competitions have stayed much the same.

Let me tell you a bit about the cover, the main background is a different colour each week, (this week it is purple) at the top are the words Take a Break in large white letters that stand out in a bright red background box about 2” x 4” there is normally a large picture of a woman that fills half of the page, and a few story titles are dotted about with maybe a couple of picture inserts of readers true life stories in that particular issue, the date, price and issue no sit neatly in the right hand top corner, this is actually classed as page one.

Moving to the inside cover, The first of the 15 competitions called 4 squared, where 25 prizes of £50 can be won, this is a very small and simple crossword, with 16 squares 4 shaded yellow to reveal a 4 letter answer,
there is a list of contents and the rest of these two pages are filled with readers photo’s and is titled “Take a Break Street”
if your photo is printed on here you receive £50, also on this page there is a small snippet of a picture that appears somewhere in TaB you win £50 for finding which page it is on.

There are normally 5-6 readers true life stories each taking up 2-3 full pages these are usually pretty sad, sometimes with a happy ending but more often than not quite heartbreaking, you can send photo’s to go with this story, (which they return), if your story gets printed you get paid £500 (I don’t usually read these much any more) as I have been reading a fair share of sad stories on ciao just lately.

We have our second competition, ~~~a car~~~ this is the one I have been hoping to win for 13 years, with no luck! But a lady in the next street to me won one last year, she told me it was the first TaB she had ever bought, (some people are just lucky) this is also a type of crossword, slightly larger than the first, with 26 questions, very easy considering it’s such a large prize.

Brainwaves road show is the next item where readers can send in handy tips and receive £20, if you also send a photo of your tip you receive £50 there are sometimes some very useful tips and advice on here.

Another competition, it’s called the “big Bonanza” I like these ones as you have a choice of prizes up to the value of £2,500 you can either have one of the big prizes like a trip to Australia, or take 2-3 of the smaller prizes like a pair of leather sofa’s/weekend break in France/£1,000 cash/two pay as you go phones/made to measure curtains/long winter w/e in Rome for four, plus many other choices, this is also a type of crossword but with a difference.

Next are two Fashion pages, a selection of clothes modelled, they tell you how much they cost and where you can buy them.

This is a competition called “the big relax” where you win £2,500 in cash very nice that would be handy for Christmas! This is large arrow type grid word, but still very easy, the more you do these competitions the easier they seem to get.

Heartbeats, three pages of health tips and advice, this is where readers can ask any health related question, also there are a couple of reader’s real life health stories normally one where a reader tells us about an operation they have had and the outcome, for which they get paid £150

Half a page of usually to do with advice on healthy eating, healthy food and do’s and don’ts, the other half of the page is ask the Dr this is where readers can write in and ask “Dr Knott” any questions they like and he will answer them for you, think I prefer to go to my own Dr, you could be better or worse still dead before you get your answer!

The next 3 pages are dedicated to 3 separate readers stories called “Readers reality” each story takes up just one page, some of these are pretty sad with readers telling stories of being ripped off, burgled, dumped, beaten up and sometimes just taken for a ride, each story is paid £500

Coffee break fiction, there are usually two of these per issue these are short 1 page often humorous stories; normally having a little twist to them, fun to read after all the other sad stories.

Oh a competition! This is called “How do you smell” it’s a medium sized crossword with a difference, hence the title; it reads “how do you spell” but they take the P away and put an M this is what each question is like throughout the puzzle one letter is exchanged for another to make them a little bit harder, the prize for this is 5x £100.

Recipes, this is a 2 page pullout, there are 4 nice looking recipes on these two pages each week, I must admit they all look very tasty, normally 2-3 main courses and one or two Deserts I usually pull this page out and keep it.

Two pages of true secrets, personal problems and concerns on all sorts of matters, where you can write in and ask David Hale the advice colummist for advice on a problem or worry.

A code breaker competition where you have to work out which no’s represent which letters, this does my head in a bit I always manage to do it but I find this more difficult than the others and a bit boring, if you win this your prize is £500.

Magic makeovers competition, this is a word search where you have to find about 20 listed words, one is missing; that word is the answer, the prize is a makeover for you and a friend, which includes two nights in London/return fares/dinner/breakfast/hair/makeover and photo.

This is a page of freebies with a nice selection of giveaways about 200 freebies in all, including bratz dolls, skannerz, x men sets, £150 Disney store vouchers and pop star kits… you can enter as many or as few of these as you like, you just tick a box on the entry form for each one you wish to enter, I normally tick all of them.

A competition to win £500; follow the arrows, answer the questions and solve the puzzle,

also on this page is “Boot sale tales” where you can write in about bargains you got from a car boot, share your tales with other readers, TaB pay £30 for each of these, sometimes there is an item that has been bought for a couple of pound and been found at a later date to be quite valuable.

A nice holiday, usually a week for a family of four, this week it is to the beautiful Bay of Naples, including £250 spending money, two pages tell you all about the holiday in detail to some stunning place, the actual arrow type crossword is very easy to do.

Your Horoscopes, keep up to date with your weekly stars, also a competition to find the name of a celebrity, the prize is £100

A giant crossword, I really enjoy doing this one, the prize is very nice too, this week it’s a 6-night break to New York you also get a helicopter flight and £500 thrown in, but it varies each week,
on the next page is a competition to win £1000 cash, this is another arrow word, very easy to do, but I just can’t seem to get my entry picked out.

Readers confidential this is where readers can send in stories, these are not sad they are usually quite funny with a little twist at the end again they pay £500 for these.

Beauty lab, this is where you can ask Liz Wilde any beauty question, also on here is a section for the Men, its called “Men’s moans” where men can have a say or ask questions, all letters on these two pages receive £20-£40 which isn’t bad as you also get your question answered.

The grumps… where they try out different food products each week from different shops; each product is given marks out of ten for value/taste/packaging, this week it was 7 similar fruit loaves,
Aldi’s fruit loaf won; with 10/10 I won’t say on here which one lost, but the other 6 were all very popular brands and supermarkets own brands, they each scored between 7-9 points.

A 5 minute supermarket grab, plus the chance of an extra £500 bonus, this is a grid where you have to put the given words in the right place, you end up with one word left over this is your answer, the prize is 5 minutes running around a supermarket, if you win you can nominate someone else to run around for you.

Your entry coupon,
you put all your answers on here and send the whole coupon, just one stamp needed, you can now also fax your entry or (quite a new thing) you can text your answers from a mobile,
The last pages also contain the answers for competitions three weeks previous, and the winners from about 8 weeks previous.

`````````` We are nearly at the end,
maybe I’m the only one left herenow `````````

This is called “sensible and barmy” where you can send in little snippets of funny things, or just things you want to tell others about, for these you receive between £20-£50

I have almost finished, but before I go, you are probably wondering if I have ever won anything after all these years,

Well up until this year not much;
1 kiddie’s video in 1993
Tickets for 4 people to Chessington world of adventure 1997
Freebie set of 3 children’s little books 1998

That was until last week~~~~~~~ this is Take a Break’s 13th year, (my lucky no) ~~~~~~ last week I had a letter to say I have won ……. £100 of Next vouchers……. I was so excited; I had a feeling this was going to be a lucky year but it was fast coming to an end.

This is my favourite magazine, I don’t find much time to read all the stories since I joined ciao, but the competitions are really easy, I can do them quite quickly now on a Sunday afternoon, I recommend this to people who enjoy easy competitions, and like to read true life stories.

Thank you to anyone who has made it this far take care; Heatherx

 

...less