Be Careful What You Wish For

I spent most of my morning (way too much time) making myself come up with a $70 order on a particular website that I would not ordinarily patronize. I have had a gift certificate for nearly a year that I had won, but every time I spent a few minutes browsing, I have walked away uninterested. I didn't want to waste a $70 win, but these items were overpriced and not appealing to me. Today I decided to deal with it once and for all. After looking at all the merchandise and finding $70 worth of "stuff", I hopped over to RetailMeNot to find a code for free shipping. I ended up throwing one more thing in my cart to avoid paying the shipping on my free stuff. This win was a lot of work on the receiving end. I don't even remember what I originally entered for, but I guarantee it was not for the $70 gift certificate.

Sometimes getting a different prize works out pretty well. Several years ago, I entered almost every day to win a $20 gift card to Fazoli's. I think that was 3rd prize, and it would have been a great prize, but I didn't win that. I won the GRAND PRIZE of a trip for 2 to Iceland AND a $2000 Perry Ellis wardrobe. What a shock! It was truly the trip of a lifetime. My tip for the day is that you need to check out ALL the prizes listed for a particular sweepstakes. You might be aiming for one, but realize that you might just win a different one!

My mom always had the perfect gift for me once I hit the teenage years. She would just keep giving me money! I can almost hear her saying what she said over and over: "It's just the right color!" My sweepstakes for the day will be the perfect color if you win it, and you won't have to worry about getting a different prize. Go to BlogHer and tell what makes Dad special. Happy Sweeping!

The Games People Play

Have you been entering the Coke Six Flags Instant Win that I told you about last time? It's true that it's a lot of work, and if it weren't such a great prize, I wouldn't be entering. The good thing about "pain-in-the-neck" sweepstakes is that it discourages all but the diehard sweepers, so the odds of winning go way up. Since I have never won one of these from Coke, I'm not really sure how they work. I have heard that the prize just shows up in your mail very soon after you have won. I have won MANY instant wins from other sponsors, though, and can give you some good tips on those. Typically, there will be several instant prizes which could range from some really great ones like trips and computers and cash to smaller ones like coupons or t-shirts or cosmetics (truly ANYTHING!) and you would be notified by email immediately after you have played the game. The prizes often will not be sent out for several weeks--after you've forgotten to keep looking for them!--but I save my winning emails to try to keep track of when I might receive it. Check the rules because some sweepstakes allow you to continue playing through the end of the contest for additional prizes.

You know how you get scratch-off tickets in the mail from time to time, perhaps to win a car at the local dealership. We never seem to win whatever the good prizes are, so sometimes we'll scratch off all the spaces and notice that no matter what we scratched, we weren't holding a winning ticket to begin with. That's the way most instant win sweepstakes work. As soon as you log in, you are issued a "game card" that is already either a winner or a loser. My kids like to play the sweepstakes games for me and I can't convince them that it doesn't matter how they time it or how well they play, my game has already been determined. That's why the rules will often state that even if you get a winning screen, it doesn't mean that you have won. I have received winning emails before when I hadn't gotten the winning screen. This makes me feel better on those occasions when my computer freezes up in the middle of my entry. I've gone back to where I was and have been told that I already played today. It means my "game card" was issued and it wasn't a winner. So now I have a really great tip of the day for you! When you are doing an instant win sweepstakes that involves playing some kind of game, look for teeny, tiny, unobtrusive print either at the top of your game or below the game that says something like, "If you can't see the game, click here." If you click there, you will be able to bypass the game and find out immediately whether you had a winning entry. I have won many times doing just that. Want to try it out? I won the nail polish on this one the very first time I played it. This was found in the coupon section of the Sunday paper, so check those inserts for sweepstakes opportunities. Happy Sweeping!

Follow the Rules

This past year at school, our faculty members had fun determining our personality types according to the Gary Smalley styles. Being the beaver that I am, I have a natural tendency to want to follow the rules. Even if you do not have that natural tendency, you will not be a successful sweeper if you do not pay attention to the rules. You will need to read the fine print to determine whether you are eligible to enter, how often you may enter, and whether you even want to enter. Sometimes reading the rules reveals stipulations that you could not or would not desire to meet, or that the prize is not what it seemed to be. Most sweepstakes have pretty much the same wording, which makes them easy to glance over, but sometimes unusual wordings will seem to pop off the page. Most of the time there will be a place on the entry forms to confirm that you have read the rules, or if not, there will usually be a statement that by entering you are agreeing with the rules. In keeping with this tip of the day, I have a sweepstakes for you that makes it REALLY good if you read the rules.

I have been collecting points from the caps and cartons of Coca Cola products for a long time. I have used them to redeem for magazine subscriptions and photo albums, but most of the time I use them to enter sweepstakes sponsored by Coke. Right now I'm saving most of my points for the next time they have a Disney cruise sweepstakes, but here's one that I would love to win. To enter to win a set of 4 tickets to any Six Flags park worth $160, you would normally need to spend 6 points (2 bottle caps) per entry up to 5 times a day. If you are being a good little sweeper and reading the rules (click the link for the full rules), you will see how to enter for this prize without spending any points! It almost makes me feel sorry for people who are needlessly spending their points, but the beaver in me decides that they deserve it for not reading the rules. Happy Sweeping!

Fill in the Blank

I listened to Dave Ramsey talking today about how some people fall victim to financial predators and their scams because of discontentment. In the hopes of getting rich, people will do almost anything and are trapped by their own greed. It is important to remember that sweeping is not a get rich quick scheme or even a way to make a living. Businesses want you to try their products or at least see their advertising and remember their name. By offering a sweepstakes, they can generate positive feelings toward their company and entice consumers to do some of their advertising for them.

Friends are often amazed to hear how many sweepstakes I can enter in a short amount of time. It's really not so amazing when you know how it is done. I remember helping my grandmother do her laundry in the basement using a washboard and one of those REALLY old wringers, then hanging the clothes up to dry. I can do it so much faster than that today because I have laundry equipment to do most of the work. I have already told you about Online-Sweepstakes.com . With my premium membership, there is a feature that will automatically open up an entire group of sweepstakes at a time and have them ready for me to just fill in the blanks. You may think that would still take forever, but it's time for us to discuss form fillers. You probably already have it on your computer somewhere, and I'm too technically challenged to tell you much about it, but I have disabled that function on my browser, so it's probably in the internet tools. I have a better solution for you. You can download the free version of Roboform, set it up (easy!), and it will fill in lots of basic blanks for you with the touch of a finger. Most sweepstakes just ask for basic contact information anyway. If you find, as I eventually did, that there are too many unique passcards that you wish to save, you can upgrade to the paid version for about $30 (one time!). Depending on my internet connection, and the complexity of the particular sweepstakes, I can easily do 10 sweepstakes a minute. So, the tip of the day is that you need a good form filler. Now, just so you can see how great a help a form filler can be, my Sweepstakes of the Day is a whole page of sweeps! Go here and look below the ads for the ones sponsored by Classic Heartland. It looks like plain type, but those are active links. Find the ones you like and enter your basic contact info with your form filler. Happy Sweeping!

First of the Month

I used to think of the first of the month as payday, but now that we no longer live paycheck to paycheck and most of our finances are on autopay, it doesn't cross my mind much in that respect nowadays. However, the first of the month is still a day to be anticipated since I became a sweeper because there are typically SO MANY sweepstakes beginning on that day. (I love it when the first falls on a non-school day--like today!) Now, in honor of payday, here is a great sweepstakes that will also help you reach your financial goals even if you don't win. You will need to be able to set aside $100/month in a savings account. I have used ING Direct for several years as a place to keep funds that I want to be accessible, but not too accessible. Right now my "Dave Ramsey Emergency Fund" is parked there, earning a small pittance (better than most). ING Direct is sponsoring this sweepstakes for $50,000:

I am often asked if entering sweepstakes generates a lot of junk mail. The answer is yes and no. Most of the time I know before entering whether the company will add me to their mailing list and I have to make the decision of whether to enter or not. If the prize is big enough, I might go ahead and allow contact. It's usually easy to be removed from the mailing list after the prize has been awarded, or I can mark it to be blocked and sent to the junk folder. More often than not, contest sponsors will have a place (sometimes hidden!) where people can opt out of mailings. On the other hand, I have opted in to lots of mailings because I have interest. Some sweepers choose to open a separate email account for sweepstakes. I figure I would still have to check it daily in case I win something, so I just use my primary email. Use whatever works for you.

For those of you who would like to get started sweeping, my tip of the day has to do with setting up an email address and username for sweepstakes. You will probably want to use the same one over and over (along with the same password) to cut down on what you have to memorize. If you do a lot of sweeping, you'll find that a lot of sites are related to each other and want you to use the same info. Choose something short (less typing!) but it usually needs to be at least 6 characters and contain at least one number. Happy Sweeping!