Monday, August 24, 2009

If We Ever Win




Do you pay attention to those sweepstakes and surveys on your sales receipts? You know, the ones frequently on your Walmart and Target slips? We do! Well, actually, for a long time I just disregarded them and threw them in the trash. That was until Reed started filling them out online EVERY TIME we got one and made it his part-time job. No, seriously. Now neither of us lets a single one go into the trash unless we've filled it out.

I realize that we're probably like a million other people who fill those out every day. Our chances of winning these $1,000 and $5,000 gifts for in-store use are really slim, but it's worth the effort. The surveys are really quite simple and take just a few minutes, so what's there to lose?

Do you do online surveys in hopes of winning? And if not, I suppose I've just inspired you and now I've got even more competition in those sweepstakes, huh? Oh well. Every man/woman for themselves!

Any way, I was thinking the other day about what I'd..oops, excuse me..I mean what WE'D get if we won. It seemed that my items were more WANTS than NEEDS. I predicted that if I had the chance to choose anything I wanted, I would. Things on my 'maybe one day' list or my 'wish list' of things that we normally would have to save some money for.

I'd really like this T.V. for starters. And well, with that new T.V. we could really enjoy the Wii system and then the Wii Fit would also be in order. I guess if we are getting all of that we'd need some games for it too. And the accessories.

That added up quite quickly, didn't it? And now I suppose I am looking quite greedy and consumerist, rather than the conservative and frugal woman I really am. But then, I'm just playing the 'what if' game with the potential of MAYBE ACTUALLY winning...one day. We'll probably continue to fill out those store surveys, but in the meantime we'll also keep watching our budget and try to save up for those things instead.

I must say though that this post came to light around the same time that our parish priest had a homily on 'wants' and 'needs'. Coincidence?






2 comments:

  1. Ah yes, the eternal struggle between wants and needs!

    I don't fill those surveys out, so you won't get any competition from me :) Just too lazy and jaded I guess.

    I hope you win!!

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  2. Thanks for sharing...LOVE it. Our family recently had some wonderful lessons thrown our way on wants vs. needs.

    It is hard to live in this society sometimes when we are told that we deserve everything we want.

    We fill out the surveys too:)

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You're so kind for dropping me a line!