Nielsen Homescan

You probably saw a post a day or two ago about how excited I was to get selected for the Homescan panel.

The equipment came yesterday and after reading through it all, I've decided to send it back.

No one tells you that you have to enter all your coupons, you have to remember if the item was on sale, was it 4/$1?, was it BOGO?, did you use a coupon on a sale item?

No, they tell you that you scan items and upload once a week for "great" prizes.

They also don't tell you that it will take at least a year of scanning, entering coupons, uploading and doing surveys to maybe have enough points to earn a soccer ball or night light.

I swear this is the truth. If you have the time to do it and you don't mind all the "other" things (entering coupons, etc.) that you have to mess with and you're willing to do it for several years without any reward, you could get a nice prize.

The chances of winning the sweepstakes are not stated anywhere. Sure, it'd be great to win $25 (weekly giveaway to 10), $1000 (monthly to 15), $500 (quarterly to 30) or $20,000 (quarterly to 2) but are my chances 1 in 500 or 1 in 500,000? Oh, and you can only win these if you upload weekly.

I think I'll just start putting a percentage of the amount I save every week into a jar/envelope and I bet I can buy a new set of pots and pans in less than the 5 years or so it would take to earn them.