Lifetime Supply Winners Share The Realities Of What It’s Like To Never Run Out Of Their Bounty

These people lucked out and won in bulk -- or is their bounty a curse?

Luck Or Disappointment?

>>> “A couple years ago I won an order of wings per week for a year at a local pub. I had just moved to an area of the city with great night life and one of the bars was reopening after a month. I randomly saw an ad on Facebook that if you were one of the first 200 people in line that night you got 52 coupons, each with a specific week on them, for an order of wings. So I went. And waited for two hours. In Alberta. In February. It was freezing and I couldn’t feel my toes by the end and the bar brought everyone got chocolate while we waited. Worth it. Also, this bar had $3/pound wings on Wednesdays. So I would go on Wednesday, use my coupon, then get two or three more pounds. Usually, a hockey game was on, too. Good times.”–

>>> “I once went to a grand opening QFC (Quality Food Center, big grocery store) when I was 12. They were having a free raffle, and I’m like, ‘Why not?’ So I enter. Did I win the plasma TV? No. Did I win the iPod classic? No. 12-year-old-me wins a years supply of Tillamook cheese. It was a sheet of 12 coupons, each for two blocks of cheese. What the heck was I going to do with cheese? I honestly didn’t even like cheese at the time. After going home and moping for a while, I had an idea. After I discussed it with my parents, we went back to the QFC and I met with the manager. After being given a few more sheets, I sat in the entryway of the QFC with a cheese hat and sold them for face value. What did I do with the profit, you ask? I donated it to Hurricane Relief in New Orleans. I sat there for the whole day saying, ‘Cheesy for the Big Easy?’ to every customer who came in. This was shortly after Katrina and we ended up raising $500 that day.”–

>>> “When I was young (like 5 years old) my parents won a years supply of Cool Whip on Let’s Make a Deal. A few weeks later my dad stopped a truck and informed the driver his trailer was on fire. The truck was hauling Tootsie Rolls and the driver gave him several cases. I only remember that during that time it seemed like Cool Whip and Tootsie Rolls were universally ‘free,’ similar to water, unlike the other things that you had to shop for. These things are still valueless to me.”–

>>> “I won lifetime supply of coffee at this local coffee place for guessing how many beans there were in a jar. Unfortunately, I don’t drink that much coffee, but it’s nice to go in there and not spend anything.”–

>>> “Last new years eve my local Applebee’s did a drawing for ‘free Applebee’s for a year.’ I won, and what it ended up being was one $10 coupon per month only valid towards sit down meals and not on drinks or take out orders. Pretty big let down.”–

>>> “I won a ‘lifetime supply’ of Tootsie Roll products, which ended up being just a medium size box of candy. Apparently, I’m only supposed to eat, like, three Tootsie Rolls a year.”

The Tale Of The Lifetime Supply Of Butter

>>> “My roommate and I won a ‘lifetime’ supply of butter in college. Apparently, ‘lifetime’ was 2lbs of butter a week for a year. We stocked it up, got wasted, and tried to make a slip and slide with all the butter. It went okay. Basically, we won it because our college was having some random event where you got locked inside a clear bubble thing and had to run around a track. It was in the winter, so it was icy as heck. My roommate Jesse, bless his soul, took it upon himself to analyze and comment on each person’s run. After about an hour of listening to my trashed roommate call out every person on what they did wrong, he goes ‘I can’t do this anymore, these guys need a lesson.’ Being the supportive person I am, I hold his drink while he gets in line. Cue the most perfect, beautiful ice-bubble-course running there ever has been. He got the best time, and they told us we won a lifetime supply of butter. If there has ever been two guys more happy about anything in the history of this earth, I would like to see them. When I have kids and my kids have kids of their own, that will be the first story I will tell them. The ballad of uncle Jesse and the lifetime supply of butter.”–

>>> “Won lifetime passes to the Oregon aquarium for being like their 5 millionth visitor. My original pass didn’t expire until like the year 2999. When I got a replacement it shouted the expiration as 2099. They got smart. I planned to name every child my name so all could use that pass.”–

>>> “My dad used to be really into entering sweepstakes as a hobby. He subscribed to a newsletter listing a ton of sweepstakes offered by a major company. He won stuff constantly. Normally small things like CDs or movie passes, but he also won a big screen TV, a Toyota Camry, and a trip to the Bahamas. I got interested after he won the car. We started entering together. This involved sitting for hours and filling out 3×5 index cards. I really enjoyed the time with him. I won a year’s supply of Snickers when I was in 10th grade. I got a box with 738 Snickers bars (I have no idea how they arrived at that number).”–

>>> “During university orientation week one of the local pubs (it was called The Captain Cook Tavern) held a competition where you could put your name in a draw to win a years supply of meals for you and your flatmates. I won it, along with some other people, and it started of great. The meals were straight off the same menu as the bar food so they were fairly decent. About three months later, the free meals were reduced to the point where they were essentially a pot-noodle with a squirt of tomato sauce.”–

>>> “I won a year’s supply of Slurpees from 7-11 through a radio station contest when I was in college. It was a book of 52 coupons for one free Slurpee each. I wanted to use them all that summer because I was going back to college in a town with no 7-11s. I ate Slurpees for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late night snack. I had a party that centered around mixing our drink concoctions in Slurpees, which got a little wild. And then when I returned to school I had a few left so I gave them to a friend who still lived in town and went to community college.”–

>>> “When I was 13 I won a lifetime supply of Bic razors. They started me out with a box of 36 packages, and each package had 12 razors. There was a postcard to mail if I needed more. I’m 34 now… and still can’t grow a beard…”–

>>> “My mom’s friend from work got a package of Goldfish. She got to the bottom of the bag to find a coiled up dead rattlesnake. She got free Goldfish for life. I would think after that, she wouldn’t want to be eating anymore Goldfish, but hey.”

Instant Karma Yields The Best Results

>>> “A guy I grew up with saved an unconscious bloke from a capsized boat. The unconscious guy owned a fish and chip shop. Guy gave him a gold key that was good for free food for life. He ate there on Friday nights for 20 or so years before he moved town. The owner was always happy to see him.”–

>>> “An old coworker’s girlfriend put hand warmers in her bra one day and ended up with second-degree burns. He swore up and down to the company that their product lacked warning labels, that she had third-degree burns, and that he would pursue a court case against them.”–

They sent him a bunch of big boxes of various hand warmers, foot warmers, toe warmers, etc. Then they mailed him envelopes stuffed with the warning labels that appeared on each product. He was such a freaking jerk, too. I couldn’t actually tell you how many he got, but it wasn’t cold very often where we lived.”–

>>> “My buddy was given a lifetime supply of hotfries because his sister found some kind of worm in their product a long time ago.

It didn’t change my life much, but every time I went to his house I knew what we were gonna snack on. It was great.”

“It Was Awesome, Bordering Magical”

>>> “We didn’t really ‘win,’ we were ‘bribed with’ Snapple for life. My dad worked in marketing for transportation catering in the ’90s and Snapple gave us a truck full of every single one of their product types. They stopped by every six months or so to get our feedback and ask if we wanted more. At one point we had a Snapple-only double fridge in our laundry room to chill three of each flavor while the rest were in boxes taking up a good part of our garage. My cousin tried to maintain a bottle-top collection but lost count after 5,000. I have no idea if my dad still gets Snapple like that, but his house still has a Snapple-only fridge. It was awesome, bordering magical. I would replace my veins with ’90s Snapple if I could. No regrets on that experience.”–

>>> “I had a teacher who got a lifetime supply of Tide. He bought a box at the grocery store and it was half empty for some reason, so he wrote a really polite letter to Tide to let them know. A truck showed up at his house with a lifetime supply of Tide. They used to give it away as gifts to dinner guests and friends because they didn’t know what to do with all of it. One day he got a call from his mom saying she was using the final box. Apparently it lasted for a good number of years though. Would have lasted for longer if they didn’t give most of it away.”–

>>> “My wife won a lifetime pass to the circus when she was in kindergarten. Almost 20 years of trips, she still get’s VIP seats any (and every night if she wanted) for herself and 3 other people. It’s been awesome since we’ve had kids!”–

>>> “A family member won a year’s supply of pretzels. It was really more pretzels than any family could eat in a year. A pallet of pretzels. An obscene amount of pretzels. You could say it was twisted. Cue to two years later, and we’re having peppermint bark with pretzels embedded in it. Yup, same pretzels.”–

>>> “I won a years supply of Chick-fil-a at a grand opening. They gave us 52 free Chick-fil-a Sandwich vouchers (which could luckily be used for nuggets is well). Considering how many of those nuggets I would’ve eaten if it had been unlimited, they got off very easily. I worked next door to a Chick-fil-a that summer…ate nuggets for lunch every. Single. Day.”

She Didn’t Exactly “Win,” But It Shows No Sign Of Stopping…

>>> “I currently receive what seems to be a lifetime supply of toilet paper…

Over 20 years ago, I lived in Southern California and became fond of a variety of Charmin that was infused with baby oil. It was so soft and smooth! Shortly thereafter, I moved to Virginia for work. The local stores didn’t have my baby oil Charmin, and I was told that it didn’t exist.

I called Proctor and Gamble to find out what was up and was told that the baby oil version was offered in SoCal as a test market, and it didn’t turn out so well, so it is no longer offered to stores. I was crushed. The company did, however, take my name and address, and I was told that I would receive coupons in the mail for my inquiry, and interest in their product.

About three weeks later, a box arrived from Proctor and Gamble that contained two separate four packs of toilet paper, one marked A, and the other B. The letter that was enclosed stated that since I had such a penchant for toilet paper, I had been selected to test out their new varieties. I was instructed to use the package marked A for a week, and then switch to the package marked B the following week. I was told a phone call would follow.

After two weeks, I received a call from the company asking about the results of my test. They asked these crazy questions, like, could I name three adjectives describing my experience with both types of paper! It was definitely a phone call to remember.

At the end of the call, I was told that I would receive coupons and other considerations in the mail for my participation in this test. Ever since then, I have received a free four-packs of Charmin toilet paper, once a month, every month. This has gone on for over 20 years, and does not look like it will stop.”

“He Wouldn’t Drink It Because He Was So Sick Of It”

>>> “When my dad was 16, his basketball team won a tournament sponsored by 7UP. The prize was each member gets a life time supply of 7UP. I found this out because he was thirsty once and I offered him mine and he wouldn’t drink it because he’s so sick of it.”–

>>> “We had just moved to Atlanta, Georgia (birthplace of Coca-cola), and my Dad ironically won a year’s supply of Pepsi. We were amazed when a tractor trailer pulled into our driveway and dumped off pallet after pallet of Pepsi products. We gave a lot of it away but still had a ton left over. What I remember most is that it took up most of the space in our garage and we had to park our bikes on the side of the house and they got rusty from being out in the rain.”–

>>> “Back in October I won a movie-themed pumpkin carving contest at a local theater chain with the prize of a ‘year’s worth of free movie tickets.’ This translated to 52 free movie passes that can only be used Monday – Thursday, can’t be used on holidays, and can’t be used for a brief period time after a movie first releases. But even with all the restrictions, it’s still pretty sweet. Especially because I freaking love going to the movies.”–

>>> “I won a year’s worth of Skittles last year at a raffle for a school event. I ended up getting 60 coupons for a free bag of any size. It doesn’t really sound like a lot, but after going through a few 16 oz bags, you get tired of them. So I passed a lot out to random people and made some pretty good friends out of it. Of course we always kept a bag or four on hand in our dorm anyways…”–

>>> “I currently have a lifetime supply of Red Bull — it’s kind of an endorsement for being a musician, but I don’t have to wear red bull helmets or anything on stage. I just email a rep whenever I want some and he sends about 6 cases and a friendly letter. I’ve sort of cut back lately and started drinking tea, but will grab a few cases every few months. Pretty fantastic setup though.”–

>>> “I won a year’s supply of Apple Jack’s cereal when I was 10. Literally, a pallet of Apple Jack’s was dropped at my front door. The entire neighborhood ate Apple Jack’s for months.”–

>>> “Won a years worth of free Schick razors from a kickboxing tournament when I was 16. They lasted my family about five years. I had to buy my first razor when I was in college and was shocked at how much they cost.”–

>>> “I won a years worth of French fries playing the monopoly game at McDonald’s years ago. Got 365 coupons for large fries. No McDonald’s ever knew what they were. I would always end up getting them after a manager checked it out. 16 year old me ate a lot of fries. So did my friends.”–

>>> “I earned a year’s worth of Chick-fil-a for being one of the first 100 at a grand opening of a new store. I think they do it for every new location. The actual prize is 52 free sandwich meals or 8-pack nugget meals. I would sometimes redeem two meals for myself for one sitting though. It was awesome. I took my girlfriend 10-15 times that summer. She later became my wife.”

Soon He’d Be The King Of Trivia

>>> “When I was about 8 or 9, I was sitting in bed watching tv or reading. My dad used to use my bedroom desk to pay bills and other paperwork at the time. He asked me if I ever read National Geographic. I thought about it, and I knew National Geographic only based on the pictures of topless native women that we would look at in our grade school library. I said, ‘Sure, I read them all the time.’ I thought I emphasized the ‘all’ sufficiently to indicate sarcasm.

A little while later he said I was going to start getting them for a long time because he set me up for a lifetime subscription. I was kind of mortified because I didn’t know how to tell him that I was kinda joking because I just was talking about looking at ladies’ chests.

I’m 44 now, and I kept all of them. I may be missing only one or two. I have them in binders, and I look very impressive when I am on video calls with them all of them in a bookcase behind me. I have read, maybe, a scant few. I liked the science-y ones. Then I loved the hologram cover back before holograms were on credit cards and everywhere else.

I want to start reading through all of them. When my cell phone broke recently, I picked up one to read on the train. 35 years later, I found it to be a pretty good read. I was thinking of making a blog, and write a post about every issue. Just a brief review, some interesting facts, etc. I don’t care who reads it, because it’s just for me to learn what I read by writing about it.

I have about 420 more to read through. I am going to start killing on the geography questions at bar trivia.”

They Got All The Junk Food They Could Eat

>>> “In order to celebrate the opening of a new location, our local Hardee’s was giving away a year’s supply of Thickburgers to a lucky individual. My dad won, but it only ended up being only two burgers per week, this equaling only 104 free burgers. Which still isn’t bad. Except for the fact that I live in a family of five, who liked to eat and didn’t live the healthiest of lifestyles. We ate all our free burgers within a week and a half.”–

>>> “I won a year’s supply of Kraft mac n cheese for trying to win the contest of getting your face on the box. All I wanted to win was that trip to sea world, but all I got was an honorable mention, so mac n cheese for a year will suffice.”–

>>> “I never got the full story on how they got them, but my grandparents somehow ended up with two dozen or so pallets of Tic Tacs of various flavors. To put this in perspective consider how big those plastic containers Tic Tacs come in are, now consider how many you could fit in a fully stacked pallet and multiply it several times over… yeah. It was pretty awesome until we ran out of orange ones.”–

>>> “My brother-in-law won the Chipotle Adventurrito thing and won free burritos for a year. There are 52 coupons for burritos. He’s used some of them but now he uses them as an alternative currency. The homeless man asking for money? Chipotle burrito. Not sure what to do for a casual gift? Chipotle burrito coupon. Want to tip a person without giving money? Here’s a burrito. Guess what I got for Christmas?”–

>>> “Not a lifetime supply, but a years supply of free McDonalds. Basically, my family of three won six punch card coupons that each gave us a free value meal once a week. Since my parents are very…excited…about free things, you better believe we were in McDonalds twice a week, every week for that entire year. Not a single fry was to go to waste. I can’t even look at a McDonalds without feeling vaguely nauseous anymore.”–

>>> “When we were kids, we were rarely allowed junk food. But my little brother was really sick, and wouldn’t eat; my mom was so desperate to get him to eat something that she told him he could have any food in the world he wanted. He picked Oreos. The one box of Oreos we bought turned out to be the winning box of a ‘year’s supply of Oreos.’ How many, you ask, is a year’s supply of Oreos? I’m glad you asked. It was 365 boxes. As a family of four individuals who did not normally eat junk food, needless to say this was quite more than 1 year’s worth of Oreos for us. We kept a couple of boxes and then my parents took the rest to a food bank as they were delivered.”

“At First It Was Awesome…”

>>> “I won a lifetime supply of Mars Bars when I was 15. I get a box of 30 delivered every month. For the first six months it was awesome, never had to buy chocolate, had plenty to share with my friends. After a year it was hard to even give them away as everyone was sick of Mars Bars. Now every three months or so I deliver 75 or so to my local food bank. I’m currently living in Thailand, I dread to think how many Mars Bars I’m going to go home too.”–

>>> “I won a year supply of Land O Lakes butter last year at a Minnesota Gopher Hockey game. I received 730 sticks of the stuff. Needless to say, our fridge did not have enough room. Being that It was winter I stocked the fridge with what it could handle and placed the rest of the boxes out back in my duck hunting boat. I completely forgot that I put it there, as we never ran out of the original fridge stock. I untapped my boat in the fall this duck season to find nearly the entire bottom of the boat covered in butter. I guess one of our 104 degree days had its way with my prize.”–

>>> “My mom won a year supply of Skittles in the form of over a thousand coupons for a free bag, but you could only redeem five coupons a time at any one store. I’ve sat in a Rubbermaid filled with Skittles, made giant balls of compressed Skittles, made it rain Skittles style at my friend’s wedding, thrown up hundreds of rainbows. Still love em.”–

>>> “In 1974, my dad was a detective in the vice squad. One night they busted a few guys driving a truck that had many kilos of illegal substances hidden amongst a shipment of razors. After the trial, all the guys in his unit got to take home as many as they wanted. I was born 8 years later and neither he nor I have ever bought razors since. If someone sees me shaving they might ask where I got that 1970s razor. So I tell them: the 1970s.”

Gotta Make Due With This Much Product, Right?

>>> “My wife ended up with crates of (new) Maxi-pads and a lifetime supply of Tums (antacid).

She worked with a market research firm that would give household products to select consumers to gather information on, um, end user’s experiences with the product.

Items like soap, toothpaste, and deodorant were commonly placed. Anyways the firm received way too many sanitary napkins in one study and too many Tums in another. The surplus products are not needed at the end of the study. They typically have no labels so they cannot be sold commercially and the supplier never wants them back. So the staff can take the items home.

My wife, being the thrifty darling she is, grabbed every single crate of pads available since no one else wanted them. The pads filled our basement. It took her many years to get through them all.’

We still have the Tums. Having, at least, several shoe-boxes of Tums truly is a lifetime supply.”

>>> “A friend of mine used to run science fiction conventions. Once word gets out, movie studios send you free promo swag. Normally, it’s like 50 posters, 100 keychains, 200 buttons, or something like that. One day, a Mac truck pulled up and gave him 8 pallets of foam ‘novelty flying discs’ for the movie ‘Blade.’

Eight pallets. Each pallet had dozens of boxes, and each box had about 50 of these red, foam, ninja star-like foam disks about the size of a salad plate and about an inch thick. They didn’t fly; they were too thick and too light. It was like throwing a huge potato chip. They were stamped with the movie logo with a crusty ink that flaked off easily.

People thought at first, ‘Oh, cool! Ninja frisbees!’ But then when they didn’t fly and left ink on their hands, they didn’t want them. So my friend was stuck with thousands of these things.

Later, he ended up using it to supplement his attic insulation. I wonder if years from now, when someone buys his house, if they will wonder what weird insulation company the previous owner used.”