Are You Pressing the Lever on McDonald's Monopoly?

I love entering sweepstakes.  I love the thrill of winning, the hope of winning, just imaging I might win.  It's McDonald's Monopoly time again, and so I will eat at McDonalds maybe once or twice with the hope of winning something.

But did you know that you can send off for free game pieces?  Do the math.  You can send off for game pieces with a self-addressed stamped envelope, costing around $1.00 in postage, plus the cost of the envelopes.  Or get the same amount of game pieces by buying large fries ($2.09).  Of course you would get the fries, but who needs almost half a day's amount of calories to get a couple game pieces?

The rules say 1 in 4 win.  Last year I sent off for a number of game pieces, as I have done in years past.  In previous years I won more food than I could eat (and ate more than I should!)  I won nothing larger than an Extra Value Meal, but I still won tons of food when I sent for thousands of game pieces.  (Of course this was YEARS ago when they had the Best Buy dollars with the pieces and I had quite a bit I was able to spend at Best Buy, but I'm talking just the Monopoly section of game.)  This meant I ate at McDonalds a lot more often, and in so doing that wasn't a good choice nutritionally to eat there so much even if it was free.  After all, keep in mind the results of the University of Wisconsin study that showed that while upsizing a meal costs 67 cents at the register, over a lifetime it costs up to $7.72 in added medical costs.  Is that really a value for your 67 cents?  You can read that study here.

This week I had some free egg white McMuffin coupons if you made a purchase.  So I decided that my mother and I would use them.  We each ordered a hash brown, and an egg white McMuffin.  We did this two different days.  We did not order drinks.  Had we not had the coupons, I would have paid right about $15 for four muffins and four hash browns.  So paying $4.24 wasn't bad in terms of financial outlay when we got breakfast.

Each food item had two game pieces on it, for a total of sixteen pieces.  From those, I won three medium fries.  (value $1.69 if you are going to be eating fries.  I'm trying to go for healthier options overall these days.  This size fries has 380 calories in it.)  I also played all my codes online and won a Redbox movie rental.  (Value $1.50, but I won't use it so will give it to a friend.) 

The odds of winning are remote.  I think many times people don't realize how remote it is because there's the "reward" of free fries.  I studied psychology in school and I remember a study where if a rat was fed at random times when it pressed a lever,  it would press the bar much more often than a rat that was fed when it pressed the lever every X number of times.  So we peel a game piece, win free fries, and we're ready to press the lever again, so to speak, since we're rewarded at random intervals.   What if we knew that we'd only win every other time we visited?  Or every third time?   In addition, there's the collect and win, and while I know people who have won cars, cash, trips in sweepstakes I don't know ANYONE who has won in the collect and win portion of McDoanlds Monopoly.  But we peel a game piece and we get excited because we don't have Pacific yet, and we faithfully paste it to our board feeling accomplished even though we'll likely never see the rare game piece that will allow us to win a sports trip we probably might not even want to pay taxes on.  You will also see posts on Facebook with people asking for a rare game piece and saying they have the others in the grouping and if you have the piece they need, then they will split the prize with you.  (Having a rare game piece is the only reason I would say to start eating at McDonalds until you get the other pieces you need, but the easiest prize to win in the collect and win game has odds of 1 in 152,520,645.  It goes up to 1 in 5,945,378,686.)  That's almost one in six billion.  Your odds of winning Powerball are much better than that!

Read the rules of a contest, see what the odds are then enter wisely.  With no Best Buy dollars on this one anymore, I might decide to eat at McDonalds during the Monopoly game, but it's not going to make me eat at McDonalds more often.

Has anyone else figured out what they have spent at McDonalds above what they normally would have during Monopoly and what they have won from that?  Yes, some people will win, but to me it's not a wise financial move nor wise health move to be eating at McDonalds more often than I normally would in hopes of winning. 

You can check out my other related blog posts here:

How to Win Sweepstakes and Prizes
How to Win a Skill Contest
How to Win a Voting Contest
How to Win in Twitter Parties
How to Win Amazon Giveaways
How to Win Blog Giveaways
Where to Find Sweepstakes to Enter
What to do when you wi n a prize.
Should You Keep the News of Winning a Contest Prize a Secret or Tell Everyone?
Are People who Win Prizes Just Lucky Ducks?
Entering Sweepstakes and Public Assistance Like SSI and and Disability
WIN your Christmas
Are you Pressing the Lever on McDonalds Monopoly?

Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio Book Read Along -- Start here -- Chapter One

Entering for the Intended Area

This is something that obviously needs to be stated about Sweepstakes.  If a sweepstakes doesn't have "limited to" and certain areas, enter wisely.  I realize you might travel to an area often and honestly be able to use a gift card.  In fact, there are items that sometimes the sweepstakes aren't open to my state but I can buy the products in stores because I do most of my shopping in the next state.  (I live right on the line.)  Sometimes radio stations or small businesses might make you pick up your prize in person. If you can do so reasonably, by all means enter, but if not why waste your time trying to win a small prize from a place halfway across the country?  Why not concentrate on sweepstakes intended for your area?

My $3 tool kit

This past weekend Lowe's Facebook Fan page was doing a deal where if you were one of the first so many people to submit your address, you'd get a 90% off coupon for that item.  They had a $1500 hot water heater, a Kitchenaid mixer (which one of my friends got for $20!), screwdriver sets, air filters, stick vacs, light fixtures, and even a Dyson Vacuum.

I got a coupon for a tool kit.  First 2,000 people did.  So for $3.30 I got this tool kit filled with basics like a hammer, 4 in 1 screwdriver, utility tape, pliers, etc.

I think my aunt is hoping we give this to her for Christmas.  Since she found out we got it, she's been dropping lots of hints!  :) 

Very nice item for $3.30.  I picked it up in store to save on shipping costs. 

Also, just a reminder to vote at http://www.lifeofdumdums.com/ for my photo of the guinea pigs with the fire truck.  You could win just by voting, and you can vote daily through 11/23.  Thanks so much!

4 for the win. . .and a little Rite Aid

I decided it was time I learned Rite Aid.  After asking a friend a bunch of questions last night, I then started figuring out the Video Values.  (Basically if you watch videos online you can earn coupons.)

So this morning I went to Rite Aid.  Had to ask for help finding the Sundown vitamins.  They didn't sell the Nivea Men's body wash at my store, and were down to 1 box of Cheez-its.  Then I picked up a wrong tooth brush (which I am going to return.  I can't imagine paying $5.29 for a manual toothbrush, but that's what it rang up as.)  I knew something was off but couldn't figure it out until I was out of town.  I wanted one that was $2.99 and got UP rewards back. 

So, the rest of my shopping trip went okay.  I got four bottles of Sundown vitamins and a tube of toothpaste.  Subtracting the $5.29 toothbrush since I plan on returning it, my total bill came to $6.33.  (Or 4 bottles of vitamins and a tube of toothpaste is only $1 more than a toothbrush!  LOL)  I got $6.99 back in Up rewards.

After an appointment, I went to a CVS I usually don't go to.  I was told they don't take coupons.  *sigh*.  I know the cashiers were complaining to each other when I left without buying anything since they "don't take coupons".  I try to keep copies of stores' coupon policies in my purse, and wouldn't you know, I didn't have CVS' policy with me.  I'll go to my regular one either tomorrow or later this week.

When I got home, I had four sweepstakes prizes waiting on me.

A coupon for a free SoBe

the book Love in Spoonfuls

an Ashtray

a blog prize from General Mills' monster cereals.  A box each of Boo-Berry, Franken Berry, and Count Chocula, a trick-or-treat bag, and a $10 Target card.  (for those who are counting, I'm up to 103 boxes of cereal in the last week!)

Basics of Winning Sweepstakes

I think it's no secret I get slightly annoyed when I mention something I've won and I get the comment, "You're so lucky" or "I've never met anyone as lucky as you." The bottom line is I spend a LOT of time entering sweepstakes. Probably as much as a part-time job would take. Would you ever go up to anyone who gets a paycheck from a part time job and say "Wow! You got a paycheck. You are so lucky". Okay, maybe in this economy you would, but I think you can see my point. :)


Sweepstakes is a great hobby because you can spend a little time on it or a lot. And unless you're very lucky, you'll only see a few wins if you spend a little time on it. It's like the old saying "The harder I work, the more successful I am". The more I enter, the more I win.


That said, here's a few basics to get you started:


I highly recommend an e-mail address seperate from your personal one. I can't recommend gmail enough. I'll talk in a few days about blog giveaways, and you need a google ID for many of these, so I would say gmail is the way to go.


The next thing is always be sure and follow the rules. If it says one entry, don't try for multiple entries. There's more sweepstakes out there than any one person could ever enter, so if it's a one entry, just make your entry and move on to the next. Other things to watch for is eligibility. Some might only be open to certain ages, certain states, etc.


Be ethical. Don't enter your dog just because he has a name that sounds like a person. Or if you're in a voting contest, don't devise ways to cheat the system and get more votes than you are allowed per person.


A few things you need:


To do online sweepstakes, you need a computer. I highly recommend the site http://www.online-sweepstakes.com/ because they list so many sweepstakes, (as of tonight there are almost 8,000 different giveaways listed on this site.) I do recommend upgrading to premium if you enjoy it because the most "winnable" sweepstakes are only able to be seen by paying members. I also recommend the program "Roboform" (there's a free version of it that does NOT store passwords). It makes filling forms so much easier. Really a computer, and Online Sweepstakes is all you need to get started to enter online.


To enter snail mail sweepstakes you need a few more things. Envelopes. Stamps. Index cards. 3x5 papers. And I highly recommend a subscription to Sweeping America http://www.sweepingamerica.com/ This is a weekly sweepstakes newsletter and because it's weekly, new sweepstakes can be published very quickly. In the event of daily prizes, this can be the difference between winning and losing! So, I highly recommend it!


From there, it's up to you to decide how much time you want to spend on entering. I won when I'd mail 10 entries a month, but my wins were few and far between and usually very small.


Also, keep in mind, it often takes time to see results from this hobby. The rule of thumb used to be six months, but I think it's probably less than that now if you consider instant wins as well as how many win notices come by e-mail these days. But, if a few months go by and you don't see a win, you can't get discouraged if you actually want to win. You need to be persistant.


Not everyone is cut out for entering sweepstakes hard-core. And that's okay, we all have different personalities. However, there are some sweepstakes that I think are worth it to the person interested in freebies to enter because if there are a huge number of prizes, that increases your chances of winning! So, in the cases of those, I would recommend everyone be persistant in a few sweepstakes with lots of prizes because after all, who doesn't love freebies, and who doesn't love them more when you WIN them?


Finally, if you are a winner, being polite is nice. If you're on a trip win where you interact with sponsors, don't get together with a group who enter regularly and discuss other wins. If you win tickets to a ball game where the sponsors will see you, don't wear a t-shirt advertising a competitor's product. Thank you notes are a nice gesture, even if sent over e-mail.


Sometimes those of us who enter have a bad reputation because sponsors think we just want things free. But we are also people who buy products. I actually switched brands of bread because they have so many giveaways. I figure why not support a company who gives so much stuff away? I've tried new products because of winning. I won some Laughing Cow cheese once, and I'd never had it before. I have some in my fridge right now because I loved it! I can many times tell you who sponsored giveaways. They do it for advertising, and it works!