1. Freecycle
The name makes it clear, right? Reuse is better than recycle, and free is better than not. This site helps organize freebie-loving communities around the world. Look up your city to join a local email list for people looking to find or give away stuff, no strings attached. Prospective goodies present themselves without any effort on your part, and the site’s policies keep it a family-friendly environment.
2. Craigslist
Like Freecycle, this site offers listings of freebies by locality. But you’ll have to browse them yourself in a “free” section of the “for sale” category on a much broader classifieds-like page, including traditional job and housing listings, and less traditional personal ads. In other words, you may find more than you bargained for (so to speak) and the broader popularity of this site requires more caution in dealing with potential scams. Don’t let that scare you away, though – there really are lots of good finds.
3. HouseParty
If you’re the type to plan events, this site could lead to freebies for you and all your friends. Apply to host a party sponsored by big-name companies like Sony, Ford, or McDonald’s, and they might grant you goodies in exchange for the publicity. Applying costs nothing, and past freebies have included branded clothing, kitchenware, health and beauty products, and lots of food.
4. Swap.com
Is it free if you have to trade something? Sure, if your bargaining chip no longer has much resale value. This site lets you create “have” and “want” lists for games, books, movies, and music – then it matches you up with others.
You do have to pay shipping, but that’s not much different than what you would spend on gas driving to pick up somebody’s used stuff. Plus, the site makes it easy, handling the logistics with printable labels and providing delivery confirmation so nobody gets ripped off.
If you want to do it the old-fashioned way, there is a local trading section too – but the range of stuff you can get is obviously more limited. An upcoming Swap.com Market section sounds like a barter version of eBay, with a much wider range of tradable goods. For now, though, you can trade at least your wardrobe on SwapStyle.com (run by a different group) and there are lots of other item-specific swapping outlets likePaperbackSwap.com.
5. Free samples
There are a lot of ways to find fun-size freebies, including getting lucky on frequent trips to the grocery or department store and signing up for endless email newsletters from your favorite brands. But wouldn’t it be nicer if somebody found these goodies for you? The best place I know that does this is the RetailMeNot.com community. While the main site is a resource for coupon codes to most online shopping outlets, the RetailMeNot forum has a very active freebies section. They also post ways to get things like free retail rewards points. Some other places to try: TotallyFreeStuff.com, AbsurdlyCool.com, and HeyItsFree.net.
6. Free-after-rebate
These deals are always a little dicey, since mail-in rebates can get lost in the mail, expire, or come with tricky conditions. Most are more effort than I’m personally willing to put in, but I look for rebate offers if they’re for things I’m buying anyway. I’ve gotten free wiper blades for my truck, for example.
These are usually a grade or two above free samples, probably because you actually pay for them up front. One of the best places to look is the FatWallet.com forums, which houses constant deals of all kinds. Browse around (keep an eye out for the acronym FAR) or try a search for “rebate.” They also have a message thread specifically for company contact info and methods for winning those inevitable rebate battles. Another great place to check is SlickDeals.net.
7. Card rewards
Getting freebies with what you buy is always nice. While the financial crisis has put the squeeze on greatcredit card perks, some still exist. Money Talks News writer Michael Koretzky even says his credit card company buys all his Christmas presents. You can search for credit cards with the best rewards, flyer miles, interest rates, or other perks with our credit card search.
Many customer loyalty cards rack up reward points for freebies or discounts too. These often accumulate slowly, but if you’re already spending there you’ll eventually benefit without effort anyway. Plus, you don’t need to keep a wallet or purse full of everybody’s plastic: Most places can give you the points by pulling up your account via your phone number.
Some cards give perks without points, offering rewards seemingly at random. It seems like I get a free pastry or drink every other time I’m at Panera (for free Wi-Fi, of course).
8. Social media freebies
You may already know that brands, on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and through services like Foursquare, give away stuff (including coupons, freebies, and exclusive previews) in exchange for promoting their name and parroting their message. And maybe you were too embarrassed that your friends might see to take advantage. There’s an easy solution: Adjust your privacy settings or create an alternate account so you get freebies without providing free PR.
On Facebook, there are three settings to change from the “Account” menu in the upper right. This will sound like a lot, but it takes 30 seconds…
- Under “Account Settings,” go to the “Facebook Ads” tab, and under “Ads and Friends,” click “Edit social ads setting.” Setting it to “No one” means your friends won’t see your name attached to ads from brands you like.
- Under “Privacy Preferences,” view the settings of “Connecting on Facebook.” Here you have the option to hide your “likes, activities, and other connections” from everyone by selecting “only me.”
- Back on “Privacy Preferences,” under “Sharing on Facebook,” click “Customize Settings” and you can change “Places I check in to” to a custom level of “only me.”
On Twitter, there’s no getting around what’s required for freebies: rebroadcasting brand messages through “retweets.” But what you can do is create an alternate account where your retweeted message will bounce around an empty virtual room.
And on Foursquare, you can check in “off the grid.” The Foursquare FAQ explains that and other privacy settings.
9. Aggregated freebie search
What’s better than a bunch of websites that list great deals and free stuff? Having a custom, searchable database of them all in one place. You can make your own using a free RSS feed aggregator – a tech tool that collects lists of information (like deals, or even Money Talks News posts) using Really Simple Syndication. I use Google Reader.
Once you sign up there, you can search for freebie feeds or paste in URLs to follow. It takes a little work to set up and get used to, but from one freeloader to another: The payoff is worth it. And to help my fellow lazy deal-seekers get started, here’s a link to my own bundled deals feed, which already includes some of the sites I mentioned above and some others.
Money Talks News deal diva Karla Bowsher also does a lot of digging so you don’t have to on our deals page, updated throughout the week and always including at least one worthwhile freebie.
Free advice
Free stuff is everywhere. It all comes down to how much time you want to invest in getting the goodies. Regardless of your approach, here are a few last safety and convenience pointers…
- Always be careful when meeting up with strangers for freebies or any other transaction.
- Never trust an offer that’s too good to be true. It probably is.
- Consider using an alternate email address to sign up for deals, just to keep spam down.
- Don’t overspend to rack up reward points, or waste a ton of gas on what would be cheaper to buy than get “free.”
- Avoid plugging generic terms like “free music” or “free stuff” into a search engine. The top results are often websites containing viruses or software that places annoying advertisements all over your computer and slows it down. Some also ask you for personal information or to sign up for “free offers” that may end up costing you.
1 comment:
Thanks for the sharing the informative article i love that
Post a Comment