Friday, June 11, 2010

I Heart Free Stuff!

Last week I talked about my 99 Only shopping addiction. This week I'm going to talk about something better. What could be better than getting stuff for 99 cents you ask? Getting something for nothing, nada, absolutely FREE!

Every day I get something free in my mailbox. I get samples, coupons, offers, magazines and other assorted sundries. How do I do it? Networking, subscribing to blogs and e-newsletters, calling or emailing companys, signing up for offers and joining clubs. On my birthday I ate free at restaurants for the whole week, breakfast, lunch and dinner and got dessert as well. This past month I've received coupons for getting 6 items from Kraft and 3 bread items from Thomas and Orowheat for free! Sign up with Vocalpoint and Kraft First Taste and get the opportunity to try new items for FREE!

I subscribe to some great newsletters that help you save money with offers and coupon combining to get free items. Hip2Save is a great blog and Collin is really funny. She shares videos, tips and has great giveaways. Mommies With Cents is another blog that shares fun stuff.

My hubby finds a lot of free stuff via Craigslist and recently I've started exploring my local Freecycle. Freecyle is cool because you can ask for stuff or you can take stuff being offered. It's localized so you don't have to go to Timbuktu to pick up things. You never know if someone has the exact thing you need unless you ask!

I have a history of winning contests. Unfortunately, I never win money (darn!) but I win STUFF! A few years ago, we won a contest put on by Panasonic called Living in HD. You told Panasonic why your family was technologically challenged and the prize was over $50,000 worth of HD products. They chose families from across the US and was going to have 100 winners for the whole year. We were the first of 10 families to win and it was such a great experience. We won a 50" plasma television with home theatre system, 2 digital cameras,laptop computer and other great hd stuff and plus we were in a commercial! We had a challenge every week to use our equipment and had a movie crew set up in our house for 4 weekends filming our every move. One of our challenges was doing a PSA. You can check it out here. Panasonic is still being lovely to us and offering us chances to try items and then we get to keep them! We received a Leather massage chair with ottoman, last week received the Instyler, pedicure helper and facial pore cleanser. I can't wait to see what they offer next!

Just yesterday my hubby came home with a perfectly good shredder that he found on the side of the road. We were just talking about needing one! We have no issue with taking other people's castaways. I'd rather have someone take it and enjoy it than letting it sit in a landfill for years.

Getting free stuff is like Christmas all year long. You never know what treasures await you when the mailman comes! Although he probably hates me with all the free magazines I've been getting! Check out my links and join in on the fun!

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