Farm Winnings

I enjoy winning prizes, it makes the long days seem shorter when you have a win, when you come home to find a little surprise in your mailbox or on your stoop. I enjoy winning prizes even more when it's something I have a real use for... the best however is winning a prize you can share.

Today after a long day I came home and found an envelope waiting for me, I knew right away what this one was from the return address. Bob Evans had a sweep stake running (the Bob Evans Dream Machine Sweepstakes enter through March 31, 2010) that I only caught onto a week or so ago but with great luck I already won AND received my prize (possibly record time from a win to a delivery):

Now this is great because my folks really enjoy breakfast at Bob Evans. My dad is in a wheelchair most of the time and doesn't get out as much as he'd like so this will be a nice excuse to get together one morning and enjoy some time together, just my folks and I.

Does this sound like a cheesy ad? Yeah, kind of, but every once in a while a simple win can be more than it's monetary worth.

And Again

Microsoft's Club Bing just keeps producing. It's one of those programs where as long as you put in the time you are guaranteed the reward.

Since the hand blender showed up there have been 3 more rewards that have arrived here at the house.

A while back I mentioned a little gift for my girlfriend I ordered from Club Bing, well it finally arrived. At one point she mentioned being a big Tetris fan so I grabbed her Tetris 360. From what I can gather the pieces fall from the center and you have to rotate the game itself (while also worrying about rotating the pieces) to decide which side they fall to and in which direction. Sounds like a good challenge.

For what seemed like very few tickets I also picked up a DVD of Disney Pixar's hit animated movie Up. While I found the movie a bit depressing I'm still happy to own it for so few tickets.

Last but not least:


I grabbed this Bing insignia-ed Ogio Half-Dome Bag. I've been needing a good medium sized bag like this. Be it packing up sports goods or going on a quick trip it never hurts to have a nice bag to travel with. Added bonus: there's actually a little port on the side of the bag for a pair of headphones outside the bag to access and connect inside the bag to your music player of choice. How handy.

For now it will be a while before I have any more Club Bing updates... they recently started up a VIP program that includes some really nice prizes I am desperately working towards. Gifts like a Sony DCR-DVD650 Camcorder, a Roomba iRobot 530 Vacuum, and a Kitchenaid Mixer all cost a pretty high number of tickets but are something I'm really working towards. Fun times ahead.

A Gift From The Planet Of Soy

When you enter sweeps as much as I do opening the mailbox becomes equivalent to scratching off a lottery ticket... will today be a winning day? Is there a prize waiting for me? Must... find... out!

Opening the mailbox the other day I found a long, thin box addressed to me. Before even looking at the return address I can't help but wonder "did I win some sort of bracelet or necklace or something?" The box is about the right size for such a thing and they aren't terribly uncommon prizes but as this thought is passing through I read the return address. Ah, no, not likely to be a necklace as Kikkoman is hardly a fine jeweler.

It's always nice to pick up a prize you didn't know you had won. In the past I've won a coupon or two from some of the various Kikkoman promotions... which have been great I mean, I like soy sauce just fine but I enjoy some of their other products even more. Today though I was rewarded with this lovely little silicone baster. That's cool, I actually don't own a good baster and I'm a big fan of silicone kitchen utensils as they clean up so nicely. It smells a little fresh out of the box but with a quick wash we'll be set to jet. Thanks Kikkoman!

A Good Winning Pace

I've been lazy about updating. Oops.

I'm a big fan of secondary or otherwise "low-worth" prizes. They are very often the main product of the company doing the giveaways or sweeps and in most cases there's a reason why it's the companies bread and butter... or in this case salsa and queso.

Pace, best known for their salsa and queso dips has been running a giveaway promotion for a good long while now... the Pace Hand Pick & Win 2 promotion is run as a sweepstakes and, from what the claim on their site, 1 in 20 wins. The prize is simple but useful a $4 off coupon for any Pace brand product. This is really quite the deal, it can be applied towards the gigantic containers of salsa some grocers sell or it can be used to get a free product altogether if the total is under $4.This is actually the second time I've won a coupon from them... when I went to use one my grocer rang it up as the full $4 off my total grocery bill which was extra nice since the salsa didn't cost the full $4. Now if only I could win some chips.