AIBU?
Husband obsessed with McDonald’s Monopoly
sickandtired300 · 18/09/2022 14:42
I just need a rant.
I dread it every year as he is always the same, but this year is particularly bad. He’s absolutely obsessed with collecting the stickers and trying to win the prizes.
He has been going several times a day (we live just round the corner) and spending stupid amounts of money on food to get the stickers. He never even eats half the food and gives it to the dog or the DC. I don’t mind them having McDonald’s but it’s meant to be a treat and he’s giving them cheeseburgers and nuggets every day for a snack ffs to get rid of them because he’s only interested in the stickers on the packaging.
I have lost it today as he has come home with 12 lots of fries!!!! We can’t fucking afford this. We’re not on the breadline and have a couple of hundred spare each month but not for fucking McDonald’s splurged. We are now just one sticker away from winning the holiday (the final sticker is extremely rare and there’s only a few of them in circulation, so out chances are still vanishingly low) and so the obsession has ramped up. We’d had our breakfast (he pissed off afterwards for his McDonald’s stickers) and so they got thrown out. We have an on and off rat problem so I’d rather not be throwing out heaps of uneaten food.
He joins fucking Ebay auctions and is always on his phone inputting the codes. He even joins online discussions on it. He really wants the cash prize. He is saying that somebody is selling 500 of the stickers for £80 and he’s considering it. I’m sure it’s a scam. He knows I will go nuclear so I’m praying he doesn’t do it but we both allow each other some treat spends each month so he may well spend it on that.
It’s all he fucking talks about. This morning he was moaning about how he saw an article saying that he saw an article about McDonald’s staff cheating and peeking at the stickers beforehand, and I snapped at him to bloody shut up. He is completely neurotypical and doesn’t typically hyperfixate on things, but this is always an issue every year.
He’s also convinced the kids we’re winning a car and a holiday ffs. When I’m cleaning I’m always having to pick up the stickers. We’ve got that many of those free meal prizes that our family of 4 will never be able to get through them before they expire. I handed most of them to homeless folk in town the other day, otherwise they wouldn’t have been used. And he whigned that he could’ve used them to buy more food to get more stickers.
It is genuinely making me resent him. I can’t wait until it ends.
InFiveMins · 18/09/2022 15:34
I genuinely don't mean to be unkind OP but this is ridiculous. He's a grown man wasting family money. And then having the nerve to throw away food. Unbelievably wasteful. The money he is spending surely could be saved and you could actually take a holiday with it. You know, the holiday he is trying to win 
Tell him to pack it in, if he can't then he needs to see a therapist for a possible gambling addiction.
CecilyP · 18/09/2022 15:40
Lastqueenofscotland2 · 18/09/2022 14:51
Just cause it’s not going down the bookies it’s still gambling and as you said it’s money you don’t have he’s spending.
Yes, it’s very much a gambling addiction! He can convince himself it isn’t as he’s getting something for the money. However, if you can’t use all that food, it is definitely gambling!
LuckySantangelo35 · 18/09/2022 15:54
Arsepants · 18/09/2022 14:58
I go every day so I can get the stickers too. I don't buy loads of food I can't eat but I buy things depending on how many stickers they have got.
I can feel the fat sticking to my insides. It's so unhealthy, I can't wait for it to end.
And I only need one to win all the main prizes too. Someone's gonna win them, it might be me
@Arsepants
are you being serious??
sickandtired300 · 18/09/2022 16:07
We had 2 dozen of the free food stickers, most of which I have handed out to homeless people because I didn’t want the kids to have them. I was going to throw them away but figured I may as well give them to somebody who could actually use them.
badbaduncle · 18/09/2022 16:08
I saw a documentary about homelessness and one woman said that this promotion was horrendous for them as they get 'given' loads of food by gambling addicts and if they eat it - and she was saying she get's given a ridiculous amount - they feel so ill but she has been shouted at for being ungrateful for refusing it.
sjxoxo · 18/09/2022 16:19
Agree this is an addiction. I don’t think it’s any different from a gambling addiction..it’s spending money maybe to win.
you may have to take extreme measures before he sees sense.
have a look at gambling addiction support. I expect you’ll see many similarities. Best of luck to you op xxx
nocutsnobuttsnococonuts · 18/09/2022 16:30
In all honesty the winning tickets or rare ones are likely to have been thrown away. The amount of people who don't bother to peel them and ones that get thrown away by mcdonalds when meals come back/aren't right etc. Mcdonalds staff/immediate family aren't even allowed to play the monopoly so have no interest in taking the stickers. If they are caught it's disciplinary action.
DH works there and has thrown loads away as he gets a meal every day and most of the other staff do the same!
AlexCabot · 18/09/2022 16:38
I used to work for McDonald's and I hated monopoly with a passion.
So many people are obsessed with it and can be an enormous pain in the arse.
They think that the staff have an unfair advantage (which isn't true as staff have to use non monopoly cups etc on breaks) and there is no way to tell what is in each sticker without peeling them. The abuse of staff was at its worst during monopoly.
They harass other customers to get their stickers- this actually caused a fight in my store once.
They try to get extra stickers. They'll buy a portion of fries (for example) take the stickers off and then claim the fries are cold and want another portion - therefore getting more stickers. We got wise to this and all replacement food was served in non monopoly packets. Still a terrible waste of food and some of the aforementioned abuse when they realise they're not getting extra stickers.
Lobby staff were harassed while emptying bins by people wanting to go through the rubbish looking for stickers. We even had someone try to get in the backyard for access to the bins.
I'm sure your husband isn't doing any of these things OP but there is something about it that makes people lose their senses.
I assure you that the staff hate it too.
sickandtired300 · 18/09/2022 16:41
There’s a whole online community obsessed with it that DH is in. They all talk about trading stickers etc. It’s fucking stupid. If you get the rare sticker for the £100k prize why the fuck would you sell it on online/trade it for a common one instead of cashing it in?
TaysideTeuchter · 18/09/2022 16:44
He’s also convinced the kids we’re winning a car and a holiday ffs.
This is the thing that worries me the most about your situation. Bringing the kids into it.
GamCare has a forum with a section that supports families of gamblers: www.gamcare.org.uk/forum/family-friends/
I wish you well OP.
IconicKitty · 18/09/2022 16:48
Haha. I got into this when it first came out, however I was a very young teenager and I didn't have the money to buy lots of McDonald's. Instead me and my friends would hang around and wait for other people who didn't bother to peel their stickers to leave, and then swoop in and take the stickers.
Between us we accumulated hundreds, but there is always one of every colour that is rare and probably only 1-2 in circulation. And they probably get thrown in the bin by people who dgaf.
The chances of him winning any of those prizes are very very slim. But it's fun to do for the free mcflurries and apple pies etc.
sickandtired300 · 18/09/2022 16:49
Our kids are 6 and 7 and so easily taken in by it all. He explained to them how it all works and obviously as they are so young they are just SO SURE that daddy will win and he tells them as much. I’ve tried to let them down gently and say that lots and lots of people are doing the competition who could all win instead of us but then DH will get a new sticker and hype them up again 🙄
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