My new hobby.

[dyamond]

No, I haven't given up on buying shoes. In fact, I'm going shopping in a bit and who knows what I will come back with.

But no, it's getting FREE STUFF! My sister told me about it and at first I mocked her but once I saw all the stuff she was getting, I wanted a piece of the action too and now, I'm soo addicted.

Everything below, I've gotten absolutely free. No strings attached, I haven't gotten one piece of junk and/or spam mail. I only deal with legitimate companies and if it looks suspicious then I'll decline. However, this is just a small fraction of some of the things and doesn't include any of the food items I've gotten either. I've started having to keep a list just to keep track of what coming. My mailman probably hates me now.








I've also started couponing, not to the extreme, I only buy what I plan on using within a week, not a years supply worth , but it's save me some serious $$. For example, I went to the supermarket a week or so ago and my total before coupons was $69, after coupons, $28!

[TimW]

We may have to change your title to "Coupon Queen"!!!

[hrlow2]

Sounds like a workable plan, Tim.

[gman863]

If I could just convince Intel and AMD to send me free samples of their latest CPUs...

[Adrynalyne]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCF3ywukQYA

[Spad]

Very cool, Dy . . . I had no idea.

Originally Posted by gman863

If I could just convince Intel and AMD to send me free samples of their latest CPUs...

Capital idea, sir . . . if you come up with a successful pitch, clue us in

[LauraR]

How does one get free stuff?

I tried coupons a long time ago and they just didn't work for me. I never kept up with them and then I couldn't find them when I needed. Plus, I hated looking through the papers for stuff I used and wound up cutting stuff out for things I didn't.

I watch this show on tv call Two Broke Girls. The one girl discovers coupons and goes nuts over them. It was pretty hysterical.

[Spock96]

I use Swagbucks.com to get some free things.
It is not a scam, I've won things before. You can get Amazon cards, Saw and electric guitar on there once. You just need to earn SwagBucks and claim your prize from the store.
If you want more info, let me know and I can send you a referral.
Hope this doesn't constituent spam.

[hrlow2]

Maybe not "spam".
Smells more like kickback.


Just kidding.

[BoredOutOfMyMind]

Originally Posted by LauraR

How does one get free stuff?

I tried coupons a long time ago and they just didn't work for me. I never kept up with them and then I couldn't find them when I needed. Plus, I hated looking through the papers for stuff I used and wound up cutting stuff out for things I didn't.

I watch this show on tv call Two Broke Girls. The one girl discovers coupons and goes nuts over them. It was pretty hysterical.

Coupon printing is one of two reasons I switched back to Windows.
Due to the popularity of "clearing shelves" the manufacturers now have lower value coupons than a few years back. Our local papers don't even have 2 or 3 coupons some weeks (I look before I buy the paper now). You can get "Free Stuff" by going to the company webpages and filling out a form. There are sites dedicated to only Freebies.
Swagbucks...nah no thanks for a spyware adware toolbar.

[dyamond]

Originally Posted by LauraR

How does one get free stuff?

I tried coupons a long time ago and they just didn't work for me. I never kept up with them and then I couldn't find them when I needed. Plus, I hated looking through the papers for stuff I used and wound up cutting stuff out for things I didn't.

I watch this show on tv call Two Broke Girls. The one girl discovers coupons and goes nuts over them. It was pretty hysterical.

Everything you see in those pictures, I've gotten off of facebook. All of those companies, Caress, Olay, etc a lot of the time have samples and giveaways for the new products they are coming out with and they want people to try them. Now, sometimes they are only giving away 100 or so and they have thousands of fans, so you have to be fast but that's where chrome autofill comes in.

With valspar (the paint) they were giving away 750 samples (8 oz samples, pretty nice size) a day for the entire month of march.So sometimes you get lucky but you really just need to know where to look.

I hate the coupon shows because they make actual couponers look crazy. I've never cleared a shelf or bought dozens of bottles of ANYTHING because I don't need it but because of this, now manufacturers are now lowering the price of coupons. I guess to deter people from going crazy.

As for Swagbucks, I joined and I didn't download the toolbar because I don’t do toolbars but there are plenty of other ways to earn bucks. Taking the poll, surveys (which I don’t do either), searching on their search engine, watching their videos (which are kind of interesting, I like watching the cooking ones) and others but it seems to take a long time to get swagbucks. I’ve been doing this since dec and I’ve only have about 300 and to get a $5 amazon GC you need like 500 swagbucks.. I know people that have gotten a lot of GC’s from swagbucks but it just really hasn’t been worth it to me but for those who have all day to watch videos and do searches, it might be for them.

[Rikky]

Looks like you'll be very clean Bet you squeak when you rub past things!

[LauraR]

Thanks Dy. I'll check it out.


Just out of curiosity, can you get food coupons online? So if I knew what I wanted, I could print it out on my computer rather than looking through the paper?

[dyamond]

Originally Posted by Rikky

Looks like you'll be very clean Bet you squeak when you rub past things!

I don't know about squeaking but I was told I smell real good...

Originally Posted by LauraR

Thanks Dy. I'll check it out.


Just out of curiosity, can you get food coupons online? So if I knew what I wanted, I could print it out on my computer rather than looking through the paper?

I still go through the coupons sent to my house but there are few coupon (legit ones) sites where I print most of coupons out at:

http://www.redplum.com/

http://smartsource.com

http://www.coupons.com/


If you do any grocery shopping at either Target or Walmart, they have their own section for coupons on their sites.

http://coupons.target.com/

http://coupons.walmart.com

Also, my supermarket has it’s own section on it’s website to print out in store coupons AND my store doubles coupons up to .99 cents! I once got a $3 bottle of iced tea for .50 cents! It was on sale for $1.99, I had a .75 cent off coupon which they doubled, so I only paid .50 cents. Coupons (when used the right way) are awesome and can save you a good bit of money. So depending on which supermarket you go to, they might have their own section too.

Edit: I forgot my favorite website, they have samples & coupons for a lot of different things. It's the one place I think I visit the most.

http://pgeverydaysolutions.com/

[BoredOutOfMyMind]

Originally Posted by LauraR

Just out of curiosity, can you get food coupons online? So if I knew what I wanted, I could print it out on my computer rather than looking through the paper?

Laura, I don't purchase papers and print almost all of my coupons. There are sites like couponmom.com where you can match coupons. (I can post more if you want). You can print twice on most coupons (allowed) by holding on the back arrow icon to go back to "Print your coupon" page. You cannot photocopy coupons. I flip the page and reuse the paper, or cut off the 1/3 page after 1 coupon only prints and reuse the small paper. The ink offsets and with matchups of Target, it is my grocery store of choice this year.

[LauraR]

With the rising grocery prices, I think I'll check some of these sites out. Thanks!

[dyamond]

Originally Posted by BoredOutOfMyMind

You can print twice on most coupons (allowed) by holding on the back arrow icon to go back to "Print your coupon" page.

As long as they have two different barcodes. If the coupon has the same barcode and you use it twice the store will only get paid once from the manufacturer. If starts to happen more frequently then the store might stop taking them all together.

[hrlow2]

Then, sadly, you would have to find a new hobby.

[dyamond]

Originally Posted by hrlow2

Then, sadly, you would have to find a new hobby.

Oh that would be easy. I pick up hobbies like candy


My latest prize.

[gman863]

Originally Posted by LauraR

With the rising grocery prices, I think I'll check some of these sites out. Thanks!

Laura, although I'm sure you know this, I'm posting this warning for novices:

Although there are several legitimate coupon sites, many grocery coupon toolbars and downloadable apps are crammed full of malware. I do about 40-50 PC exorcisms (er, virus/malware removals) at my shop each month. Somehow, these malware apps can (and have) bypassed AV programs including Norton, McAfee, Avast and AVG.

It's a basic Internet rule: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.