26 posts tagged “free”
Be sure to review my original blog post.
Mark Boyle (a.k.a. Saoirse, which is Gaelic for "freedom" and pronounced "sear-shuh") set up the Freeconomy website (http://www.justfortheloveofit.org). The idea is that like-minded people sign up, list their skills and donate them to others. In return they receive favours back. For instance, a hairdresser may give a mechanic a haircut and in exchange the mechanic would fix the hairdresser's bicycle. No money ever changes hands. The website appears to have been successful. Boyle says 4,200 people with 900 different skills from 85 countries have signed up.
Rock Bottom Brewery in Chicago has a monthly tapping on a Thursday night. It is free to mug club members and you usually walk away with 2 free pints. BTW, the mug club is absolutely free to join. Check your local Rock Bottom to see if they have a similar deal.
The first Monday of every month, from 7pm - 9pm, Horseshoe Casino (Hammond IN) has a "beer of the month" tasting. You get to try a 2 ounce sample of the beer, but if you hang around, you usually get a refill. Last night, I got an entire snifter for free! And this was a huge 10% ABV beer.
All I did was sign up for newsletters and submit my date of birth. Look what I got this week:
$5 off from my local butcher
$10 off my food/beer bill at Rock Bottom Brewery
Free Blizzard from Dairy Queen (a $3.73 value)
Free swirl shake from Arby's (a $2.60 value)
Free Chinese buffet (an $8.50 value)
Total Savings = $29.83! :<))
If you want to save this kind of money on a weekly basis, be sure to follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my RSS feed on Twitter.
The podcast below helps explain my business model. I think my model takes the high ground, I give you 90% of everything for free.
I keep my blog ad free (those Google ads at the bottom keep VOX hosting free for me). My sidebar simply has referral links for you to join programs that I have already joined and are making money at. And finally I have created downloadable seminars so that you can get the other 10% I do not reveal on this blog. These include the scientific method of buying and selling stocks and the 3 fat frugal techniques guaranteed to save you thousands of $$$.
Thanks to the folks over at Frugal Yankee for this podcast.
The other day I was watching the news and they had a Chicago chef, along with an expert forager, picking up food along side a Wisconsin road. So I got to thinking about expanding my free food post with a few web sites below. Happy hunting!
- Mushroom Guide
- Apple Picking
- Comprehensive Guide (not a freebie)
1. Who is offering the sample? Is the offer from the company that makes the product or a well-known company like Walmart?
2. Have you heard of it? Have you heard of this product before or is it available at a store near you?
3. Any ads on the page? Are there Google Ads on the free sample request form? This is a red flag that this request form may be bogus and set-up exclusively to attract "hits" to generate ad income and to collect personal information for spammers to spam you.
4. What does the URL look like? Look at the URL, try backing up to the root and check out the home page. If you see what looks like someone's email address in the URL that means it was an offer exclusive to one individual and can not be shared across the internet with others.
5. What links are on the request form? Look at the links on the sample request form - do they take you to the official product home page? If they take you to Amazon.com - then that's a red flag that it is a bogus offer.
6. Do you have to "qualify"? Are you asked to "complete a qualifying offer" before you can get the free sample? Don't do it!
7. Are you asked to submit a code? This may indicate this free sample offer is for a selected audience that was given the code (although I have seen offers where they list the code right on the website, so it depends).
