Just how much IS a year's supply of something?

This week my daughter Emma, of the Mellow Mummy blog (have you ever seen it? Pop over there now, there are a couple of lovely competitions to enter!) was told she had won a year’s supply of Pampers and wondered just how many that would be.

Which set me thinking – how do promoters decide what exactly a year’s supply of a product is? Do they base it on average sales? Do they assume we use the product regularly, rather than switching brands or using something completely different? Or does the person in the promotions department base it on what they think they personally would use?

So I cast my mind back over the “Year’s supply” prizes I have won in the past.

They have included:

• Shower gel. 24 bottles, which even used daily was a pretty generous supply. Although I got bored with using the same type every day and interspersed it with other kinds, so it lasted a lot longer.
• Tights. Just 18 packs of three pairs. At the time I had two young children and two cats. They lasted me less than three months.
• Gravy granules. This was an astounding 96 jars, equivalent to two jars a week. Even though there were four of us at the time, there was no way we could eat it all before the use-by date, so a lot was donated to charity tombola stalls.
• Muesli bars. There were 365 of these, intended to be eaten one a day. But it was at the time that there was a lot of hunger and deprivation in Eastern Europe and a local charity was asking for “convenient high energy” foods to make up food parcels. As the muesli bars were part of another prize, a trip round the world, I decided to donate them to the appeal. After all, I still had my holiday!
• Wine. I’ve won a year’s supply of wine twice. One was 6 bottles, the other was 144 bottles (all different). You can guess which I preferred, even though all 144 were delivered at once making storage a bit of a headache (although not as big a headache as removing the storage problem by drinking them straight away would have caused). I did wonder how the people giving away 6 bottles arrived at their figure though.
• Jam. This came in the form of two 24-pack cases of pouches of squeezy jam. My daughters were both at University at the time and it was shared out among their friends.
• Tea. I only won this last year and am still enjoying it. It came in the form of 12 vouchers, each for a 160 bag pack. Vouches are not only easy to store, but mean the tea is always fresh and I can take advantage of any BOGOF offers to get two packs for one voucher, making the tea go even further. I think we drink more tea than most people but it looks as if by the end of the year, the vouchers will indeed have kept me and my husband in tea for a whole year.

Have YOU ever won a year’s supply of anything? And if so, did it last you a year? Or did you use it in some other way? I’d love to see your stories.