The World of Free

A lot can be said for the world of freebies. There are all types of freebies, but the underlying truth of each of them is that you are providing your contact information or a review of an item in exchange for free stuff.  So long as you understand that the “price tag” inevitably comes in the form of related spam or your data, you can benefit significantly from freebies. I will add one warning before we begin, scams sometimes come in the form of what appears to be freebies. Remember to do your due diligence before providing information, and never provide information like your credit card number, social security number, etc.

This post was originally published in 2016.  For the holiday season, I wanted to provide some updates to this post. Some aspects of the original post no longer exist.  For example, the original post mentioned the website Fatwallet, which ceased to exist in 2017. There will be no post on Wednesday with regular posts resuming next Monday. Happy Holidays!

Where to Learn About Free Stuff

I find the best starting point for learning about free stuff is a forum dedicated to the topic.  Slickdeals has just such a forum. I generally stop in every few weeks and check out the latest offerings.

Sample Clubs

For those more dedicated to the pursuit of free stuff there are a few clubs that provide semi-regular shipments of free items for review. Sample Source is one option. They send out items once a quarter in a sample box. The only issue is they have a small allotment of boxes. That means when they email you about a new box you only have a few hours to claim them before they are gone. If I get anything from Sample Source it is one thing a quarter. I’m normally too busy to monitor for the box availability.

Amazon also has a sample program called Vine. This program is harder to get into as it is invite only. Heavy reviewers on Amazon are targeted to join this group. When I first wrote this post I mentioned 3rd parties giving away free merchandise on Amazon in exchange for reviews. Amazon outlawed this practice and shifted some of that activity to Vine. I do not currently belong to Vine.

Magazine Freebies

One purchasing area I’ve shifted almost entirely to freebies are magazine subscriptions. In order to keep their subscription counts up, many of the major magazine corporations provide limited free subscriptions periodically. This ensures they meet their ad numbers. So if you like a magazine, keep an eye out for links to these type of offers. I’ve found that Time Warner especially uses this approach, but over the years I’ve picked up subscriptions to at least 10 different publications. These are available for limited times, but if you watch the forum mentioned or sign-up with Mercury magazines above they will come up for a different magazine about once a week.  At the time of this writing, you can sign up for Fortune or Money magazines for a 2-year subscription via these links.

Freebies from Surveys

Another area of freebies comes from answering surveys. Rewards gold and e-Rewards both offer these type of freebies. The general concept is to answer a survey and get points towards a discount card, some limited gift cards, discounts, or a free magazine. Early on before I learned about the above free magazine capabilities I used this path a lot. By the time I wrote the original post I had stopped doing so. I’ve found gift cards are rare and why spend the time to answer a survey for a free magazine when you can just enter your address on a form.

Free Money

So far we’ve covered free samples and free magazines, but what about free money? Apps like Ebates give you cash back when you make an actual purchase. If you’re making a purchase online you should consider using this site or Swagbucks below. Simply login to these sites and navigate into the retailer of your choice. After purchase your cash back will show up on the E-bates site. A simple way to make some extra cash especially if you are doing already necessary shopping.

Another option for free money and gift cards is Swagbucks. This site allows you to trade watching videos,  answering surveys, cash back for purchases, and sign up bonuses for services in exchange for up to over $100 a month.

Free Cash from Test Driving a Car

Another place to get free cash is by test driving a car. Most car companies provide a cash payment as an incentive to test drive their car, you just have to know where to look. Again, you can look through forums or search for this. In general, the going rate is a visa gift card of a denomination of either 25 or 50 dollars. I did this a lot when I was younger and lived on a college budget. As I’ve gotten older I only use this when I’m actually looking for a car given my time is worth more than the denomination. Sometimes you will have success convincing the dealer to sign a form and let you go, but at other times you may spend an hour test driving a car in order to get the cash. Typically each make will do one of these at various times each year.

A Fun Diversion with Minor Impacts

While none of the above will make you rich, they will allow you to explore areas you don’t normally purchase at no cost. It will also allow you to lower some of your costs. For example, the aforementioned magazine subscriptions. I’ve found freebies a good diversion for a few hours a week while decompressing in front of the television.

Do you have any sites you watch for freebies?

Note: This post contains Affiliate Links.  The content was written before learning of these companies Affiliate programs, but that does not change that I will receive some remuneration for some of these if you follow through with creating an account.