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Monday, July 12, 2010

Fruits of My Labor

winner

I enter sweepstakes.  A lot of them.  I’m not just talking about blog giveaways, here, I’m talking about instant win games, sweepstakes from magazines, big companies, etc.  Generally, when I tell my friends that I sit around every day and enter over 300 sweepstakes a day (not including blog giveaways) the first thing they ask happens to be “Is it worth it?” 

Well, yeah. It is!

I decided to go through my e-mails (I keep all my “You Won!” e-mails in a folder…yep, that includes blog wins…so I keep tabs on y’all!) and add up the ARV (Approximate Retail Value) of everything I’ve won up until July (basically the half-year mark).  Now, that isn’t entirely possible, because for most blog wins, the ARV isn’t given, and the prize might be something that’s not normally sold.  Sometimes, packages show up and I don’t know what sweepstakes they’re from.  But I did my best.

Excited to find out the total?

Well, maybe I won’t tell!

But then…what would be the point…of posting this??

Okay.  I’ll tell!

$2,491.30

If I round up from the stuff that I don’t know the ARV from…then it’s:

$2,500.  Two thousand five hundred dollars worth of stuff.  (Actually, would be more, but I declined a grand prize worth $1000-and-some because I thought someone else could use it more)

I don’t know about you…but to me?  That’s a lot.  Considering it’s only half-way through the year, and I’m still entering tons of sweepstakes, I can assume that at the end of the year, I will have $5,000 worth of wins.

Let me break that down for you.

$5000 would pay for 16 months of rent for me.  If I wanted to pay my boyfriend’s half, we’d be paid up for 8 months.  $5000 would pay for 33 months of groceries for us.  $5000 is a year of tuition.  $5000 would fix my boy’s car.  $5000 is 250 corsets for me.

Yeah, it’s a lot.

And though I obviously don’t win all cash…I tend to use the stuff I win.  I won 2 cases of cereal…okay, don’t need to buy that for a while.  It helps with bills!  I’ve won things that I’ve given away, things that I’m saving for Christmas, things that I put to use right away. 

So yeah, it’s worth it! 

And I will keep entering sweepstakes until, for whatever reason, I’m unable to find the time!

2 comments:

  1. I've been sweeping for years. Got sucked into the blog giveaways since the odds are so good, but I do still enter the big ones. I keep an excel file of everything I win, the ARV and the "realized value" since I sell a lot of it or give it away :) Good for you! My biggest win this year was a trip for 6 to Disney that we're supposed to take in Sept!

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  2. WOW! I enter an occasional blog giveaway, but by no means as many as you do. That is wonderful and congratulations.

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