Do you enter contest or sweepstakes?

[Tailgate]

Just curious... I might expect that folks who are yet to FIRE don't have much time for entering various contests and drawings etc..

I rarely ever enter anything, thus never winning anything, but I just did fill out a survey online for a TSC $2,500 Sweepstakes after a store visit.. and now I will wait patiently by the mailbox

Have you ever won anything worthwhile? Do you enter these kinds of promotions?

 

[Walt34]

Very rarely, unless it's for something I'd want anyway. Most of those things are just a way of collecting names & addresses so they can send junk mail and I already get enough of that.

The only thing I ever won was a free Coke at Jerry's Sub Shop, some kind of scratch-off ticket thing.

 

[W2R]

Almost never.

At Weight Watchers earlier this year, we were more or less strongarmed into putting our names in a bag for a door prize. I won the door prize - - a cookbook! The recipes I tried from it were delicious.

I think that's the only thing I have ever won (mostly because I seldom enter contests).

 

[Fedup]

Never, but I do buy lottery ticket occasionally.

 

[DrRoy]

I've bought a lottery ticket ever, but not for years. We enter contests that are free. 30 years ago my wife won a microwave.

 

[Car-Guy]

Just entered the NFL Superbowl lottery for next years game. About 500 entries are drawn and given the privilege of buying two tickets at face value. Getting hard to buy Superbowl tickets (especially at face value) unless you are a season ticket holder or buy some package deals.

 

[rodi]

I enter for the HGTV home giveaways. The downside is that if I ever win I'll have to pony up several 100k in tax money (Fed and State).

I have a friend who had to report to a job for 6 months and sit in a room doing nothing - until his clearance cleared. He started entering every online contest he could find. He started hitting a groove towards the end where he was getting at least one freebie per week... He ended up sending me a coupon for a party platter from a Mexican food place - the chain didn't have any stores in his area (east coast) but did here in San Diego.

 

[athena53]

No lottery tickets, ever. That's a regressive tax and it's one I don't have to pay.

I'll enter a raffle if it's inexpensive and a cause that interests me. Last week I bought $5 worth of tickets for a bicycle raffled off by a women's cycling organization. No phone calls, so I guess someone else is pedaling it around!

 

[splitwdw]

Baking contests, mainly for yeast & quick bread. I've won money, a Kitchenaid mixer, a food processor, a stick blender and cookbooks. I entered my first contest on a dare. I have fun but there are people that take it very seriously. Some of you sound like you are great cooks. You should try a cooking contest.

 

[Sarah in SC]

I sent in 90 entries each for DH and I for the IHG (Holiday Inn) sweepstakes. Every entry won at least 500 points and a few of ours were for 2,000, 3,000, and 5,000 points. Enough to get rooms for my week out west with my niece and some to spare.
I'll occasionally enter something online with airlines or some other company I already do business with, but not random ones.

 

[harley]

I have a friend who had to report to a job for 6 months and sit in a room doing nothing - until his clearance cleared. He started entering every online contest he could find. He started hitting a groove towards the end where he was getting at least one freebie per week... He ended up sending me a coupon for a party platter from a Mexican food place - the chain didn't have any stores in his area (east coast) but did here in San Diego.

I have a friend who got RIF'ed during the 2009 recession. He spent about 6 months sitting at home (between job interviews). He entered a ton of contests, and won a bunch of things. The best was a 45" TV (huge at the time) and a trip for two to the NFL Pro Bowl Game in Hawaii. Also a nice Alienware laptop. I can't remember what else. Now me, I've never won anything.

 

[aja8888]

$5 got me $200 in this year's Superbowl pool.

 

[eytonxav]

I don't due to fear of receiving more spam via email or USPS.

 

[scrabbler1]

Sometimes, the contest or sweepstakes is secondary. For example, I often provide feedback on line after I eat out at a chain restaurant such as Applebees or TGIFridays. As part of going on line to take their survey to provide said feedback, I can enter some contest to receive some freebie. If I don't care for the freebie (which is usually but not always the case), I can decline entry to its contest, as it is the feedback which was my reason for going on line to take the survey, not the freebie.

 

[devans0]

Years ago, DW won a very tricked out BMX bike from a grockery store raffle. She put in on a raffle for a car but got won second prize. From the prices on the names of the components, it was higher end. It was delivered in a crate. I and DW had no desire to take up trick riding. We decided to re-gift it to the PTA for a small elementary school in a (our) poorer district in our city. I took the bike in to a local bike shop to make sure that it would be put together and hold together safely. They wouldn't take money after finding out what we were doing. The PTA said that they would use it in a raffle to raise money for the PTA.

A few weeks later, we received a nice thank you letter from the boy who won the bike. He told about having just getting a bike but being so excited about this nicer bike. He told of his bike was in turn regifted to another boy who didn't have a bike.

 

[harley]

Well, this wasn't really a contest, but many years (decades?) ago DW and I got an invitation to a timeshare sales thing. I usually threw them out (this was so long ago we didn't even have recycling), but the list of gifts for attending was really good. So I sat down and read the fine print and determined that while one person might win the money, and 5 people might win the big TV, everybody else was going to win a food processor. That sounded pretty good, and the timeshare was in a nice part of the state, so we went out for a day trip to Massanutten. We sat through the sales pitch, said no 2 or 3 dozen times, and finally got our food processor. It was a device where you slip in a slicing blade, turn the crank, and get different shaped slices of food. Totally cheap POS. But I laughed at their creativity in wasting our time and fooling me. Stopped on the way home and bought some barbecued chicken from a VFD and ate it in a field of wildflowers, so overall it was a good day.

But that's the closest I ever came to winning something.

 

[cyber888]

Occasionally, we buy scratch tickets. Best I've won was $400 on a scratch ticket. Second biggest was $100. It's common for us to win $5. Still hoping to win that $10 Million jackpot, but the ticket cost $30.

I remember my orthodontist had a small basketball ring in the patient office. If you shot the ball, you win a free small token gift. I remembered shooting the ball and winning - can't remember the token gift.

 

[scrinch]

Many years ago a local radio station had a contest during National BBQ Month (May) and were giving away a free small Weber to the person who had BBQ'ed the most unusual food. I won the contest by being the first respondent who had BBQ'ed rattlesnake. That's the first and last thing I ever won.

After a golf tournament a couple of years ago a friend and I decided to go to a local spa for a massage instead of staying for the lunch and raffle. Turns out his name was called for the grand prize...50g of gold...but he got passed over because he wasn't there to claim his prize. That was the most expensive massage (about $2000) he ever had!

 

[Nodak]

I will buy a lottery ticket if the prize is very large but that is all.

 

[Al in Ohio]

Yes I enter our local paper reader rewards. In the last 10 years with this contest I have one dozens of lower bowl or front section concert tickets and the grand prize for us two years ago was a three day trip for four all expenses paid to see Ohio State play Michigan State 2 years ago when OSU won the NC. Included two nights stay at a resort casino. Each of us got cash to spend at the casino each day which I promptly paid out most of it anytime I was up in my winnings. I got an IRS 1099 that year for the $2500 value of the trip.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum