Sunday, March 11, 2018

Shop, Play, Win! Monopoly 2018 Rare Pieces Table (Updated May 2018)

I have never been this excited about a Grocery store "spend more on stuff you don't need" Promotion Game... since the last time grocery stores have offered such a game. Monopoly has always been a big winner. First for Parker Brothers, then for McDonalds, and now for grocery stores. Talk about a winning streak.

Ok, so you are suckered into playing the latest version of the game at your local Safeway, Shaws, Albertsons, Vans, Tom Thumb and Randals grocery stores and you want to know if you won. Below is a table of the rare pieces based on my playing of the game thus far. I will keep this table update, but please feel free to add or correct any information in the comments below.

 Currently (February 7th 2018 - May 8th 2018) Safeway is promoting their latest Board Game: Shop, Play, Win! Monopoly.  With over $250 million in prizes and money saving offers, how could you not join in the fun and play! For this Safeway game, the rules are simple.
  • Buy products at Safeway (especially the ones with the "Win Big" stickers near the price tag)
  • Redeem your recipe for a booklet with 4 game pieces and 1 coupon/Entry Code at the register
  • Fill in a game board with the game pieces
  • Check This Blog to see if you have a rare Safeway game piece





The idea is to fill in the 4-8 game pieces to win the particular prize category. The trick with these types of monopoly games is that they leave one (or two) pieces to be very hard to obtain, thus making the prize hard to win. To make things a bit easier to tell if you should even worry about getting a game board and licking the game pieces to fill in the different prizes, here is a list of the "hard" items to obtain to win the entire prize. Some reward categories are still being determined which game piece is the rare one, but as information is known, the table below will be updated!!!


RewardRare Piece Game NumberChances you might actually win this prize + Sarcasm*
$1 Million Vacation Home110BB, 116BHForget about it. Very Very unlikely. Do not plan on winning this prize. (4 available)
$1 Million Cash108AH0.0000000000005 (2 available)
$100,000 Cash or Luxury Car181TA, 182TB0.0000000000005 (15 available)
$40,000 Vehicle of your choice189VD, 190VE2.5 × 10-13 (25 available)
$25,000 Kitchen Makeover193WC, 194WDDesigned by who? (35 available)
$20,000 College Tuition199XD, 200XEKinda like a scholarship? (50 available)
$10,000 Cash203YB, 206YEAll winnings are Taxed! (50 available)
$7,500 Family Vacation207ZA, 209ZCNot likely to win but worth trying (75 available)
$5,000 Cash179SCAgain, taxed, so actual winnings might be less (50 available)
$5,000 Free Groceries173RASave this money for next years monopoly game, and you can win again! (50 available) 
$2,600 Movies for a year172QDFree movies! (50 available)
$1,500 Gas Grill & Groceries166PBBe careful, these BBQ's can be dangerous (50 available)
$1,000 Cash164ODAgain taxed at ~60%.... (100 available)
$1,000 Grocery gift card159NC Again, save the money for next year's monopoly game! (100 available)
$1,000 Weekend Getaway154MB 1-way trip to the town next door! (100 available)
$1,000 Laptop Computer149LASweet, a new 8" mac book Air! (100 available)
$500 Grocery Gift Card145KAThe more you shop, the more you drop! (350 available)
$300 Spa Day144JBToes up, Rest up! (600 available)
$200 Family Picnic138HBNice Family Outing! (750 available)
$200 Cash135GCMo Money, Mo Problems (750 available)
$100 Grocery Gift Card132FDLess than a week of groceries! (2,500 available)
$100 Cash126EB~$40 bucks after taxes (2,500 available)
$50 Grocery Gift Card121DA1/50,000 chance of winning (5,000 available)
$25 Grocery Gift Card119CCCan be used on gift cards to other places they sell in the store! (10,000 available)
$25 Gift Card Mall213ABMall Shopping Spree!! Oh, wait only $25 (10,000 available)
$25 Cash218BCCash is King! (10,000 available)
$20 Cash220CA 1/20,000 chance of wining (12,500 available)
$15 Grocery Gift Card227DD Buys 1 loaf of bread at Safeway Prices! (25,000 available)
$10 Grocery Gift Card228EA1/10,000 (40,000 available)
$10 Cash235FD1/10,000 (40,000 available)
$5 Grocery Gift Card237GBI hear some people actually win this prize! (900,000 available)
$5 Cash242HCNot worth playing the game for only this prize. (900,000 available)

The table above can be used as a reference to see if your game piece is of value, or just another run of the mill game pieces. Each booklet also provides a free coupon for some random item within Safeway (and NBA Store and Snapfish) this is typically a barcode to enter in an online drawing to earn tokens. However, occasionally this is a coupon redeemable for free items in the grocery store, so keep your eyes peeled!  If you're desperate for more pieces, you may try a search on ebay or craigslist for what people are selling: Safeway Monopoly Pieces, just make sure you are buying a rare one!

If you're really desperate be sure to ask your friends and local register trash cans for additional tickets. If your wondering how the phone app works to play the game, keep reading on below!

After download the app (iOS or Android), you can easily scan your game cards to collect extra tokens. See the example below where I used my camera to scan the piece in and find that I was not a winner 33% of the time. The app was simple and scanning them with a camera made it worth entering in all the potential tokens!


When you are a winner, you win Tokens for Fandango, Universal Studios or Fuel Rewards. Additional prizes for Flower shop discounts or NBA store are also available. Since I don't plan on using the NBA store (www.NBAstore.com) discounts, here are mine if anyone want's to use them, they expire 7/31/208. Just let others know in the comments below if you use one.



NBA Store.com DiscountMinimum PurchaseCoupon Code
20% Off
$50 Or More
TBZTVR6H3B
LRG24L2WKL
QR2Z6GBGN3
BJQ89DZL7Q
85L3BN9ZRK
$15 Off
$75 Or More
V12HNND7H2
4H2W6J59BB
XW5BRV98BK
XMBLNHRR59
XN6QZBDGDG
4R1HWKHKZL
XK3B6VRXRG
15% Off
$40 Or More
NJ1B53NDWV
8W6H84GRZ7
Q8X6RT27BL


For each token you can choose to spend it on different categories or sweepstakes. Here are the different categories you can save up your tokens for. 




I hope this makes the game easier to play and you can strategize your purchases accordingly! Good Lick!!*Odds are completely made up. They are based roughly on how many prizes they give away. Don't take them seriously.

Friday, February 9, 2018

Cheapest Bulk Toilet Paper Prices per Square Foot

The Cheapest 2 Ply Toilet Paper is found at Costco to be:


                       1.192 Cents/sq ft
                                      or
                      $11.92/1,000 sq.ft.
  

Going Bulk

I love buying in bulk. It makes me feel better about spending a bunch of money on toilet paper or toothpaste, or diapers! As my dad would always say: “Go Bulk or Go Home”! I ran the numbers for the lowest cost toilet paper and found that Costco provides the cheapest toilet paper! Amazon and Walmart is a close 2nd place. The details for these calculations are provided below. Note that these prices do not account for the membership fees for Costco or Amazon Prime. To calculate the actual cost of the toilet paper with membership fees would require scaling all the items purchased from these outlets over the year to determine how much of the membership fee should be divided up and added to the toilet paper purchase. 

When buying bulk, the cost per item decreases. The more quantity of an item sold, the lower the cost can go. Unfortunately, the cost does not hit zero, but it does approach it.


The Ply Factor 


With toilet paper, the number of sheets stacked on top of each other determines the Ply value. Typical ply values are 2 or 3 sheets. There are many other factors that go into an effective toilet paper, but since we are literally throwing this stuff away anyways we want something that can get the job done without too much discomfort and without hurting our pocketbooks. 


Cost per What


For each product bought in bulk, it is important to determine what is the optimal unit quantity worth analyzing. This could be cost/pound or cost/sq ft or even (cost+time)/oz. For toilet paper, the unit cost we're interested in is Cost for 1,000 sq ft. since this allows us to clearly see how much toilet paper we are actually getting regardless of how many rolls this is divided up into and we won't compare pennies by accounting for 1,000 square feet. This puts the cost calculations in the favor of you the consumer so you can see how far your dollar goes. The lowest priced toilet paper from the big Online retailers is compiled here:




StoreToilet PaperPlyCost/PackageCost of 1000 Sq. Ft.
CostcoKirkland Signature Bath Tissue2$18.99$11.92
AmazonAngel Soft Toilet Paper2$21.99$13.76
WalmartAngel Soft Toilet Paper2$22.99$14.38


If you are looking for an even cheaper toilet paper, there is a 1 Ply toilet paper available, but I don't consider this comfortable toilet paper to use. This Scotts 1000 is the cheapest toilet  1 ply paper I found, costing only $7.08 for 1,000 sq ft, but when the toilet paper is that thin, it itself is approaching zero!

Monday, January 1, 2018

The Best Free Ebooks/PDF's Online (With Download Links)

I love the Internet. I love the ability to share information so freely that ideas can burgeon quickly and spread like wild fire. It's amazing to see and be apart of. The list below are some 100% Free PDF's of information that I found very valuable. It's truly awesome to see others create content that empowers others to improve their life. These PDF's condense information so efficiently that it's hard not to be excited when reading them. Please feel free to share them with others and let me know if you have other Free PDF's I can add to this list!


I hope you enjoy these as much as I have!

Sunday, November 26, 2017

Roll & Bounce Tower Challenge

I found it hard to believe that the Roll & Bounce Tower by Fat Brain Toys only had 1 (one) configuration to setup. I have yet to find an expansion pack either (besides buying another 30 piece set), so I decided to make up some rules for a challenge and create different configurations. Rather than compete against my self (and my wife & daughter), why not open it up to the web.





















Ok, lets get to the Challenge! The Goal is to maximize the time the ball spends rolling down the track. Get out your stopwatch and record 3 runs and take an average of the three runs. (Video verification maybe required!).  Here are the Rules:

  • Only able to use the 30 pieces given in the box (not the box itself, or additional items). Not required to use all the pieces.
  • Must be free standing for all 3 runs (to take the average) and not be leaning up against anything else or using tape/glue to remain upright. Must be built upon a flat surface, not able to utilize stairs etc.
  • Ball is dropped by person and then not touched until the run is over










As with any game, the real goal is to have fun and think of new designs this Roll & Bounce Tower can create! Of course it's not likely may people will see this post, but in the unlikely even someone competes, I am excited for the competition! Don't forget to create a video of the ball rolling down your best design and post a link to the video in the comments below.

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Kaiser Permanente Automated Phone Service (1-800-464-4000) Hack

Calling Kaiser is never an enjoyable part of the day. They have an elaborate phone tree that can get very frustrating when just trying to perform a simple task. I decided to write up a diagram that shows all the services provided over the phone so I can skip to exactly where I need to next time. This is by no means complete, but it's a start. Let me know how I should add to it in the comments below. For now, I hope this helps you the next time you call Kaiser Permanentes' Automated Phone Number ( 18004644000 ).




Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Albertsons Monopoly Shop Play Win Spring 2015 Rare Game Pieces

I have never been this excited about a Grocery store "spend more on stuff you don't need" Promotion Game.... since the last three giveaway games Albertsons had (and the Rachel ray promotion 2 years ago)! Currently (February 5th 2015 - June 6th 2015) Albertsons is promoting their latest Board Game: Albertsons Shop, Play, Win, Monopoly Collect & Win Game.  We have seen these types of games done before, notably the famous McDonalds Monopoly game. For this Albertsons game, the rules are simple.
  • Buy products at Albertsons (especially the ones with the "Win Big" stickers near the price tag)
  • Redeem your recipe for a booklet with 4 game pieces and 1 coupon/Entry Code at the register
  • Fill in a game board with the game pieces
  • Check This Blog to see if you have a rare Albertsons game piece

Albertons Monopoly Game Board

The idea is to fill in the 4-6 game pieces to win the particular prize category. The trick with these types of monopoly games is that they leave one piece to be very hard to obtain, thus making the prize hard to win. To make things a bit easier to tell if you should even worry about getting a game board and licking the game pieces to fill in the different prizes, here is a list of the "hard" items to obtain to win the entire prize. Some reward categories are still being determined which game piece is the rare one, but as information is known, the table below will be updated!!!







RewardRare Piece Game NumberChances you might actually win this prize*
$1,000,000 Cash Reward (paid over 30 years) 102A, 105A,106A, 107AForget about it. Very Very unlikely. Do not plan on winning this prize. (3 available)
$500,000 Vacation Home110B,112B, 113B,114B0.0000000000005 (3 available)
$100,000 Cash or 2015 Tesla117C,118C,
120C,122C
A Tesla model S? Sweet prize (and sustainable!) (6 available)
$50,000 Home Make over123D, 125D, 126D, 128D2.5 × 10-13 (12 available)
$35,000 Vehicle of your choice134EThese can be dangerous (12 available)
$20,000 College Tuition135F, 137F, 138F, 139F12 available, so not impossible, but still very unlikely. (24 available)
$10,000 Jet Ski
These are fun, but better to rent! (36 available)
$10,000 Family Vacation141G, 142G, 143G, 144G, 145GNot likely to win but worth trying (36 available)
$5,000 Cash 153J,Do you really need that much green paper?(40 available)
$2,500 BigJoe Grill & Groceries156K, 157K, 158KSemi likely if you obtain a lot of tickets. (60 available) 
$1,000 Cash159L, 160L, 161LCash!! (75 available)
$1,000 Romantic Weekend Getaway163M, 164M, 165M, 166M75 available, so not likely but might be worth playing for.
$550 Redbox Movies for a Year167N, 168NThat's a lot of chick flicks! (250 available)
$500 Apple iPad Air171O,172O,173O, 174OThose Mac Air's are skinny! (250 available)
$200 Grocery Gift Card175P, 176P, 177P,Kinda unlikely Likely (500 available)
$200 Cash179Q, 180Q, 181QIs this even a prize? Likely if you collect 10 game pieces a day for 100 days you might win! (500 available)
$100 Grocery Gift Card188S, 189S,The more you shop, the more you drop! (1,000 available)
$100 Cash184R, 185RNot worth playing the game for this one but cool if you win!  ($1,000 available)
$50 Grocery Gift Card191U, Can't complain about free groceries! (4,000 available)
$25 Grocery Gift Card195V, 197V, 198VYay! Free groceries! (8,000 available) 
$25 Cash200W, 202WNot worth playing the game for only this prize. (8,000 available

$15 Grocery Gift Card203X, 204XNot worth playing for such a small prize (10,000 available)
$10 Grocery Gift Card207Y, 209Y, 210YTen bucks, that's it? (20,000 available)
$5 Grocery Gift Card212Z, 213Z, 214ZThis is possible to win! (100,000 available)
Instant Free Product WinnerN/AThis is possible to win! (3,661,105 available)
2 Free Game TicketsN/AI have won these before, they are not that rare, keep your eyes peeled for them! (41,814,987 available)



The table above can be used as a reference to see if your game piece is of value, or just another run of the mill game pieces. Each booklet also provides a free coupon for some random item within Albertsons, this is usually a measly 25 cent off coupon. However, occasionally this is a coupon redeemable online for some entry into a drawing or a coupon for more monopoly coupons.  If your desperate for more pieces, you may try a search on ebay or craigslist for what people are selling: Albertsons Monoploy Pieces on Ebay




If your really desperate be sure to ask your friends and local register trash cans for additional tickets. If your looking at How to Win the Albertsons Monopoly Collect and Win Game, look no further than the above table to see the rare pieces to win. And while I continue to have doubts that my local grocery store is making millionaires out of this game, I hope this makes the game easier to play and you can strategize your purchases accordingly! Good Lick!!




*Odds are completely made up. They are based roughly on how many prizes they give away. Don't take them too seriously.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Albertsons Shop, Play Win Monopoly Collect & Win Game Rare Pieces

I have never been this excited about a Grocery store "spend more on stuff you don't need" Promotion Game.... since the last two giveaway games Albertsons had (and the Rachel ray promotion this past winter)! Currently (February 5th 2014 - May 20th 2014) Albertsons is promoting their latest Board Game: Albertsons Shop, Play, Win, Monopoly Collect & Win Game.  We have seen these types of games done before, notably the famous McDonalds Monopoly game. For this Albertsons game, the rules are simple.
  • Buy products at Albertsons (especially the ones with the "Win Big" stickers near the price tag)
  • Redeem your recipe for a booklet with 4 game pieces and 1 coupon/Entry Code at the register
  • Fill in a game board with the game pieces
  • Check This Blog to see if you have a rare Albertsons game piece




The idea is to fill in the 4-6 game pieces to win the particular prize category. The trick with these types of monopoly games is that they leave one piece to be very hard to obtain, thus making the prize hard to win. To make things a bit easier to tell if you should even worry about getting a game board and licking the game pieces to fill in the different prizes, here is a list of the "hard" items to obtain to win the entire prize. Some reward categories are still being determined which game piece is the rare one, but as information is known, the table below will be updated!!!


RewardRare Piece Game NumberChances you might actually win this prize*
$1,000,000 Cash Reward (paid over 30 years)X803, X805Forget about it. Very Very unlikely. Do not plan on winning this prize. (3 available)
$500,000 Dream HomeW807 or W8090.0000000000005 (3 available)
$100,000 CashV812 or V8160.0000000000005 (8 available)
$40,000 Vehicle of your choiceT820 or T821 2.5 × 10-13 (10 available)
$40,000 Motorcycle or BoatS823 or S825These can be dangerous (12 available)
$25,000 Backyard MakeoverR828 or R82920 available, so not impossible, but still very unlikely. (20 available)
$10,000 Family VacationP832Disneyland here we come...NOT!! Family's greater than 4 need not apply. (24 available)
$5,000 ATV or Camping PackageN839Not likely to win but worth trying (40 available)
$2,500 Free GroceriesM843Do you really need that many groceries?(60 available)
$1,000 Free GroceriesL848Semi likely if you obtain a lot of tickets. (150 available) 
$500 iPad AirK849Free Apple Products!! (250 available)
$500 XBox OneJ854250 available, so not likely but might be worth playing for.
$250 Grocery Gift CardI860That's alot of Dog Food! (500 available)
$250 CashH864More money, more problems? (500 available)
$100 Grocery Gift CardG866Kinda Likely (2,000 available)
$50 Albertsons Gift Card F871Is this even a prize? Likely if you collect 10 game pieces a day for 100 days you might win! (4,000 available)
$25 Grocery Gift CardE874The more you shop, the more you drop! (6,000 available)
$25 CashD879Not worth playing the game for this one but cool if you win!  ($6,000 available)
$15 Monopoly Board GameC882Is this a Joke? They will give you a monopoly board game? (10,000 available)
$10 Grocery Gift CardB887Yay! Free money! (20,000 available) 
$5 Grocery Gift CardA889Not worth playing the game for only this prize. (40,000 available

The table above can be used as a reference to see if your game piece is of value, or just another run of the mill game pieces. Each booklet also provides a free coupon for some random item within Albertsons, this is usually a measly 25 cent off coupon. However, occasionally this is a coupon redeemable online for some entry into a drawing or a coupon for more monopoly coupons.  If your desperate for more pieces, you may try a search on ebay or craigslist for what people are selling: Albertsons Monoploy Pieces on Ebay

If your really desperate be sure to ask your friends and local register trash cans for additional tickets. If your looking at How to Win the Albertsons Monopoly Collect and Win Game, look no further than the above table to see the rare pieces to win. I hope this makes the game easier to play and you can strategize your purchases accordingly! Good Lick!!



*Odds are completely made up. They are based roughly on how many prizes they give away. Don't take them seriously.