Freebies...What's Real and What's Spam?

For many, many years I have been receiving free stuff in my mailbox. In fact, it is quite a rush when I get home and look in the mailbox to see what I've gotten that day. However, if you don't know what you are looking for, you might end up with a BUNCH of spam in your email folder. I get tons of email each day promising free haircare products, free skincare, shampoo, you name it. DELETE immediately! This is spam and will at the least cause you spam headaches and at the worst crash your computer with some weird virus or spyware.  Unless you are signed up with a company for which you test products (this will be a post for another day), you will most likely NOT receive emails telling you that you can receive a free product.

There are signs to look for when signing up for a freebie online. The first red flag is if at the bottom of the form, a site says you must "complete offers" in order to receive the free item. This is a sure sign that you will not get your free item and you will get plenty of junk email.

For the most part, you will actually have to go and "get" freebies online. The most common freebie you can sign up for online are samples. Legimate samples will come directly from the manufacturer's website or facebook page. I normally find my freebies from various bulletin boards. WalMart also updates their site with offers for free samples. Some places I look for freebies are The Absolute Forum and Big Big Forums. These two sites are monitored pretty closely and have only legimate offers. The Absolute Forum also has a daily newsletter you can sign up for that will show you the latest freebies available on the internet. 

Here are a few tips to remember when signing up for freebies:

• Don't sign up for anything that says you have to complete offers
• When you see a freebie, sign up immediately because they do not last long.
• You can make up a freebie-only email address to reduce the amount of email you receive on your real email. You can get an email address from Yahoo or Gmail.
• It may take several weeks to receive your freebies, which is fine because I usually forget what I've signed up for and it's a surprise!
• Most will not ship to a P.O. Box
• If it's a sample from a Facebook page, you will probably have to "like" the page before you can see the sample form.

Alright, who's ready to sign up for some free stuff? I will put several links below to get you started:

Garnier Fructis Fall Fight Sample

Tom's of Maine deodorant

Purex Laundry Detergent

Woolite Dark Care

Nescafe Memento 

The above samples will just give you a taste of finding freebies online. There are many other ways to get free stuff, but I will save that for another day. Happy hunting!

Couponing Tips and Hints

I know couponing has become "in" during the past few years. I, however, not giving in to being trendy or hip, have been successfully couponing for my entire adult life. Yes, I have been accused of extreme couponing in the past, in fact, it once took me about 10 years to use up all the Pledge that I bought on a trip to Fred's years ago. I have mellowed out some over the past few years, but the fact remains that coupons can and will save you a ton of money if you know how to use them and use them wisely.

I have the most luck getting freebies or near freebies at Walgreen's. Here are some things to remember when you go to Walgreen's:

• If Walgreen's has something on sale that you can B1G1 (buy one get one free), you can use two coupons. Since theoretically you are purchasing two products, you can use two coupons. For example, last summer I bought a certain brand of razors when they had them B1G1 and I had $4 off coupons, which actually turned into $8 off one package because the other one was free, which then turned into all free because they were $8 a package.  I have just recently used up the razors that I got a year ago!
• Walgreen's often times marks products as Clearance and you can usually use a coupon on this product and get them free or for pennies.
• Watch Walgreen's sale flyer for products that have Register Rewards. You can use Register Rewards like cash on your next trip to Walgreens. A while back Mitchum deodorant offered $4 Register Rewards if you bought two. I had some $2 off coupons for one. Combined I got several of these free if you count the Rewards. Be sure to check your local Walgreens ad, though, because I have noticed lately that this is not marked on shelves.

It takes some doing and time, but you can save quite a bit using coupons. I usually buy more than one Sunday paper since the papers themselves are so cheap and the savings in coupons more than make up for the price. I also have friends and family who don't use coupons but who get the Sunday paper, so I can get their coupons. One other important thing to remember is that if you can't get it free or close to free and you wouldn't normally buy it then you are probably not saving money.

Happy Shopping!

HyperSmash