Freebie Queen

In honor of my birthday today and due to request, I am giving a present to my readers (all 5 of you). For those of you who don't know, I am a FREEBIE QUEEN!!! I love love love love love free things. And I always have. And I swear I must have a nose for these sorts of things. And they need to be free, not just a good deal. I am not a deal diva - I am, I repeat, the Freebie Queen. So here it goes ... my recommendations.

I put this blog on my reader - they list a VERY comprehensive list of all the free samples and I can easily click and sign up for the free ones I want. Most of the good ones are from Walmart or shampoo or deodorant companies or the like. We have gotten a few really good full size samples - like a jar of FABULOUS spaghetti sauce.

This blog lists "freebates" - or things that are free after rebate. A newer link for me, I still don't utilize this one as well. Right now, I mostly just do the free things at Rite Aid (enter receipts online and request a check at the end of the month - score!).

I also recommend signing up for your local freecycle board - people post all the free things they are getting rid of on here and you can get them.

Also, sign up for each and any rewards program or membership program. Usually they will send you free money occassionally to shop at their store. (We just got $15 at DSW Shoe Warehouse and we get free $10 at JCPennys every couple months).

Now for some more obscure free things.

If you fill out surveys at this site, you can build up points. Most of the rewards stink, but a couple of the rewards are great. If you use $15 worth of points, you get free $15 at Borders (free books, CDs or movies!). Not too much work and totally worth it.

I used to fill our surveys for this site, though the compensation isn't as good as it used to be ($3/survey vs $5 previously). But this isn't too bad at all if you are in the <25 age bracket, you can get lots of surveys. But once I turned 25, this money pool dried up!

If you enjoy viral marketing, I have a few websites for you. (In a nutshell, viral marketing means a company gives you free things to try and gets you to recommend them to your friends, often with samples for them or coupons). This one is pretty intense - you have to write up all your experiences and I am not too interested in most of the products and haven't done it in awhile, but I did get like a whole case of candybars and an entire turkey breast to try before. Pretty neat.

This site is pretty fun. Same idea, but you host parties to promote products. I just got selected to do a Fisher Price party. Basically, I invite friends over and Fisher Price is sending me free toys for everyone to try plus free toys for the gift bags and coupons for everyone. It's not like a Tupperware party because you don't sell anything. You basically just expose everyone to the brand. I am excited about the party. And I figure they are sending us at least $300 worth of product!!! SCORE. They have ALL kinds of parties, so check it out.

Back to easy free things, this site you watch commericals for like 10 minutes and then you get free magazines (or I got a free Sears gift card for $5 this week). Easy and fun.

I have done mystery shopping (back in Boston) but it wasn't really for me, but you can definitely get free things from it.

People give away an insane amount of things on their blogs, no catches. This is ideal for when you're sick or stuck in bed and don't mind spending a lot of time making comments on other people's blogs. We got the world's cutest shoes for Andrew for free this way (everyone remember those). I am NO expert on those but I like the baby giveaways here
and she also has a related web site where she complies all kinds of giveaways. It seems like a few times a year people go crazy and there are 100s of giveaways at a time. Of course, you could do it the hard way and actually write a blog like this and get enough customers and then have them send you all this stuff for free to promote.

Speaking of webpages, I recommend this blog which alerts you to all kinds of these sort of things and really gets into the programs at Rite Aid, CVS, Walgreens, and anything free.

Also, filling out surveys on webpages is always a good way. I got a free book (100 Temples hardbound) from DeseretBook a couple years ago for filling out a survey. We even got a free DVD from Lifetime before. Be on the lookout (or follow a blog or two who has better eyes than you).

Universities are hot-houses for free things. Before we had Andrew we did everything, but we still try to fit some in. In the next 2 weeks, we have like 4 BBQs. My department does a picnic each year and last time we won a free hotel stay! Lots of departments have seminars with free food each week (at UofM, the Chinese society, the Math one, GEECS (Girls in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, so clever), and basically everything on earth). Seriously, college students could eat for free any day of the year. Plus, orientations are full of free things. Our graduate school often has free breakfasts and for some reasons always has free toothbrushes. Score! Many institute programs are in on it too, giving a Friday forum with free food for example.

Libraries are a great source for free movies (at least ours is) and we have never rented a movie here since.

Our favorite way to do events for free is USHERING. In fact, we just went to our usher orientation meeting (there's still a few left if you are interested for this year) for the University Musical Society. Get there an hour early, help people to their seats, and see world class acts for free - Yo Yo Ma, the Royal Shakespeare Company (with Patrick Stewart, no less), dance companies, plays, etc. We did this in Boston too for the Blue Man Group. There are similar programs in lots of cities and you can't beat the free price tag.

Well, that's all the things I can think of off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are more. So enjoy!!! And email me or post below if you have any other great ideas!!!