Now that the new year of entering online sweepstakes, blog giveaways, text sweeps, Twitter contests, local giveaways, and mail-in sweepstakes to win fabulous prizes has started I thought I would give you a recap some of the prizes I won in 2008.
Overall it was a good year of winning prizes in our household. We won right around 200 prizes in 2008. We generally range from 200 to 300 prizes in a year so that is about right. The value of prizes ranges from year to year. Some years the total value can be around $2,500 and prosperous years may range from $20,000 to $30,000 in value. This year was right around $9,000 but I really don’t look at the value as much as I look to see if we are winning prizes we can use, want or can give away to family and friends.
I keep detailed records using Excel for my sweepstakes wins. I keep information like where I won the prizes, time of day if it is an instant win game, date won, prize received or not, breakdown by month, etc. If there is enough interest from my readers I will make a blank copy of it available for download. Even if you don’t have Excel installed on your computer you can use Excel and this spreadsheet for free with Google Docs.
I don’t enter for everything I post here on Sweeties Sweeps. I only enter those online sweepstakes and giveaways that I want to win prizes for and I leave the rest for everyone else. I figure that there is plenty to go around for everyone and I don’t need to try for prizes that are better suited for other folks. There are people who win lots more than I do and others who win less. I win what I am supposed to win so I don’t look at it like a competition to see who wins the most.
Here are some of the prizes we won in 2008:
A 19″ flat screen HDTV- A year of Netflix
- A Sony portable DVD player (gave to my son to take to Iraq)
- A 37″ flat screen Sony Bravia HDTV
- A Sony Bravia home theater
- A $1,000 American Express gift card
- $250 in Dunkin’ Donuts gift cards
- $250 American Express gift card
- A private phone call from Aida Mellonkamp from the Food Network
$100 to local grocery stores (twice)- Wireless Microsoft Multimedia keyboard and mouse
- Wireless WebCam
- Fuji Z100 Digital camera, Camera case, 1GB memory stick
- $25, $50 (5 times), $88, $100 Visa card (twice)
- A backyard barbecue that featured us on the local TV newscast
- Lots of other prizes too like gift cards, books, and free product coupons
As I said before, this hobby has been great for our family and we couldn’t do some of the things like visiting France, Hollywood, Bahamas, going on cruises, getting free hotel stays, groceries, TVs and other electronics, or even getting free food coupons if it wasn’t for sweepstakes. We aren’t rich and winning these prizes has helped our family tremendously by letting us enjoy things we can’t afford and helping us to live a champagne lifestyle.
When at all possible, I try to give back, help others win prizes, write thank you letters to sponsors, and use products and services from sponsors because they make it all happen. I know that sponsors are using online sweepstakes, contests, and blog giveaways to promote their product and service so they can run their business.
I have found many products and services I didn’t know about until I found their sweepstakes so it definitely works – like the vacuum cleaner we purchased (Dirt Devil) because I entered a sweepstakes or a new domain name I purchased from NameCheap because I heard about their Twitter contest. I purchased the domain name and then won another one through their Twitter contest – isn’t that always the way it works. We have been exposed to all kinds of products and services we didn’t know about and it was all because of sweepstakes.
What products or services have you found that you didn’t know about until your found a sweepstakes promoting it?
What did you win in 2008? I would love to hear from you. Hey, it doesn’t matter how much or the value of the prize, just let me know that you have won something, anything, and I’m happy.
Let me know how I can help you win more in 2009!
Hi there! I am the first comment! I have a running list too for 2008 – here it is:
1 – football signed by Marshall Faulk
2 – Criss Angel Mindfreak Season 3 DVDs
3 – Silent Hill PSP game with bonus movie
4 – Canon PowerShot SD1100 digital camera
5 – Garmin nuvi 250 GPS system
6 – $50 Gift Card
7 – $50 in lottery tickets which also won me $49
8 – 2 free tickets to see Alanis Morrissette in concert
9 – series of books by Jeri Smith-Ready
10 – another book for submitting a recipe on a writer’s blog
11 – gift certificate to local restaurant
12 – chashmere sweater from Land’s End and Momma in Flip Flops2
13 – I’m going Green book from Momma In Flip Flops 2
14 – McDonald’s coupons for free food
15 – a $3 gift card to Wendy’s
16 – 4 different paint products from Wagner’s (worth over $400)
17 – an e-book from an author
18 – another ebook
19 – personalized note cards
20 – a Mead writing pack
21 – an organic baby products gift basket
22 – a flash drive
23 – scrapbooking albums from Creating Keepsakes
I think that’s it… hopefully more this year! Like that computer.
Have a good one!
Angie
Hi Angie,
Nice “swag list” you have there. Looks like you have been working hard this past year to win some good prizes so congratulations!
I especially like the Canon PowerShot SD1100 digital camera and the Garmin nuvi 250 GPS system.
I was hoping to win a GPS system but so far I haven’t won one yet in all of the years I have been entering.
I keep winning TVs!! I think we have won 7 or 8 TVs now. I wish that was 7 computers or 7 digital cameras.
I won $25 today and one of the $15 Kraft food coupon prizes. I hope you enter that one. Looks pretty easy to win
sweetiessweeps.com/2009/01/kraft-so-good-together-on-game-day.html
Wendy
I won in 2007, $7000 worth of prizes. The biggest was ARV 1500 a32″ HD LCD tv and home Theater from BIC===if it wasn’t for that we wouldn’t have an HD tv…”08 I slacked quite a bit though, maybe a hair over $1000 of stuff
I want to thank you so much for your blog. I really didn’t start entering sweepstakes with any tenacity until the end of 2008 but, thanks to your site, I found out about the Dirt Devil Kwik contest and won one of those. Now I’m subscribed to your RSS feed and find myself entering more and more. I hope I am lucky enough to win a fraction of what you and others here have won this year.
Oh yeah, and I also just won one of those Kraft $15 coupon books today!
Thanks again.
Courtenay
Love your site and continue to read it everyday finding out tips. here are the things I won last yr. not many but its fun and I wish I was as lucky as you and angie and won big big prizes like tv’s and such, you lucky ducks.
1- Tickets to see Ellen Degeneres in vegas.
came with free ellen t and free ellen undies 🙂
2- aspire laptop computer from ggp black friday game play.
3- outlet covers from a blog giveaway.
4- religious art canvas 8×10 photo so gorgeous from a blog giveaway.
5- las vegas firefighters make a wish calendar.
6- not in 08 but I just won a free jar of pace salsa
7- not in 08 again but won the $15 kraft coupons. 🙂
thanks again.
Holy cow…I must do something wrong because I never win anything! I’ve entered so many–FAIL. Maybe I’ll start again this year and hope for a better outcome. I love doing this but it gets depressing when you never win anything.
my 2008 wins included
A Dishwasher (donated it to a local charity)
A trip (took $2000 in lieu of)
A bicycle (retail $600 Limited edition XGAMES)
$1000 JC Penney GC
Wii system
HP all in one NICE printer
and a $1000 prize kit for winning a photo contest….
and many other small prizes, I used to keep a running list and a notebook, I don’t any longer instead I just say “THANKYOU,” and pay it forward anyway, anytime that I can…
I wish you all much luck……. I agree with lori that it gets depressing when you “don’t win anything” but that usually is because you are not entering the RIGHT contests! I only enter those that are 1x only, 1 per household and / or have a TON of prizes, this keeps the odds on your side (a bit)……. AND LORI you can also opt to enter only CONTESTS instead of SWEEPS where it takes a skill to win (many people skip these when the odds are the greatest on winning ! ) just my 2 cents………
WOW, you ladies are racking up the goods. I only started playing sweeps a few months ago, but i have bee doing surveys for over a year now and making between $250.00-$450.00 a month taking surveys alone. But, the are time consuming so of course i want to win some stuff.
This is the stuff i have won in the last few months (Oct 08-May09):
**1st price in the Crayola Sweepstakes which turned out to be 2 huge boxes delievered by UPS filled with all the new crayola products, some not out yet. Each box was estimated at $100 worth of crayola gear.
**$100.00 Gift Card to Amazon
**$100.00 Gift Card to Sears
**$50.00 Gift Card to Westwood Gardens
**25.00 Gift Card to TGIF
**2 Tickets to Walton Arts Center
**$20.00 Gift Cert to Locomotion Family FunPark
**ArvestFamily FunPack- Naturals Baseball Game
**$100.00 Worth of Dentek Items
**2 Theatre Tickets to Play
**$25.00 Shell Gascard
** 2 Tickets to Midget Wrestling (beleive it)
** Pack of some kind of fancy golfballs
**Various Magazine Subscriptions
I know how you feel Lori. I never win anything either, but I think I will be trying a little harder starting this week. I would like a copy of the spreadsheet if you could make it available for download. That would be so thoughtful of you and very much appreciated. Thanks !!!!