Free Target beauty bag

This is one of my favorite freebies. Sign up now to get a free Target beauty bag. I've gotten these several times in the past, and they are always cute makeup/travel bags filled with tons of samples and coupons. Get it now because they go fast!

Free hot chocolate k-cups

Right now, you can get a completely FREE 12 count box of Green Mountain Hot Chocolate K-Cups by liking their Facebook page and filling out the form on the tab that says "Cafe Escapes Giveaway." Some people are having trouble getting the page to load, but it worked just fine for me in Firefox. I do love free!

How to Get Free Stuff: Word of Mouth marketing

For the new year, I'm going to start a series on ways that I get free stuff. The first, and best, way to get free stuff is to sign up for word of mouth marketing companies. These companies send you free full sized products in the hopes that you will share them with your friends and get the word out.

• She Speaks has a variety of test and try programs aimed at women. Once you sign up, just log into your account and fill out surveys to qualify for free products.
  
• BzzAgent has probably the most comprehensive word of mouth marketing program. When you qualify for a Bzz campaign, they send you products to try and coupons to share with your friends. You can also earn reward points for telling people about the products.
  
• Vocal Point sends out free full sized products on a first come first serve basis. These products usually go fast, so when you get an email or see a mention you should sign up quickly.
  
• Kraft First Taste offers free products and coupons for Kraft products. You simply need to log into your account every once in a while and request the samples for which you qualify.
  
• Psst from General Mills will send you free full sized General Mills Products. You don't really have to sign up for the products, they almost seem to come randomly.
  

Free breakfast at Chick Fil A this week

Today, I am headed to Chick Fil A for free breakfast. I'm a little late to the party posting this, but it looks like a lot of locations still have "reservations" available for the remainder of the week.

Just pick your favorite chick fil a location, pick a time you can go, and then tell them what you would like to eat (you can choose from any breakfast entree). You will get a voucher in your email to print and bring with you, but when I've gone during previous promotions, they've also had my name on a list.

I will probably buy a coffee and sit and eat, as a nice way to get out of the house, but there is absolutely no purchase required. I have definitely gone in, gotten a free sandwich and left on many occasions. My Chick Fil A usually also gives me a goodie bag with coupons and other little treats.

So, enjoy!

Free stuff to donate!

Are you getting geared up for the Stamp Out Hunger food drive? What's that, you say, you have nothing to donate? Here are some things you can pick up this week for free that your local food bank would love to have.

Walgreens

Carefree Pantiliners are on sale for $0.99.
Use $1/1 from last Sunday's Smart Source coupon insert.

Tylenol Precise on sale for $7.99. (This is either a cream or a heating pad and is not with the pain relievers in my store, so you know.
Use $5/1 printable coupon.
AND use the $3/1 store coupon from the Walgreens May Coupon Booklet (found in the front of the store)

Nature Made Calcium 120 ct is on sale for $5. This was not marked down in my store but still rung up for $5!
Use $5 printable coupon on the Walgreens facebook page


Target

Aquafresh Extreme Clean .8oz Travel Size regular price .97 (In the travel aisle)
Use $1/1 Any Aquafresh Extreme Clean Product HERE

Reach Floss $1
Use $1/1 Printable coupon (no longer available)

CVS
Similac Ready to Feed Formula (32 oz) – $4.99
Use $5.00/1 Similac Product from 4/3 Smart Source insert

Thanks to Coupon Katarina and Totally Target for finding these deals. If you have more time and more coupons, check out their awesome sites!

Don't forget to join the Facebook cause to ask Campbells to donate a pound of food and like Valpak to donate another $1

Give free $10 Restaurant.com certificates

Right now, you can send free Restaurant.com certificates to everyone on your Christmas list. You can send up to 40 free certificates every day until December 31.

Keep in mind, Restaurant.com certificates usually require a minimum purchase (probably $15-$20 for a $10 certificate), so you can't score a completely free meal with them, but if you eat out anyway, it's a great way to save money.

Free Amazon Prime membership for college students

If you are a college student with a valid .edu email address, you can sign up for a free one year Amazon Prime membership at Amazon student right now. Amazon Prime entitles you to free 2 day shipping, with no minimum on purchases.

This is a great deal. I've had one month trials of Amazon Prime before and always been very happy with them. You can pretty easily change your settings to not renew automatically at the end of your membership so that it won't cost you a dime.f

Make $1 for eliminating junk mail!

Right now, Green Dimes, a service which helps remove you from junk mail lists, will pay YOU a dollar if you sign up for their new basic "do-it-yourself" program. You can get that dollar through a check in the mail, use it to donate a tree through their programs, or get a free issue of their green magazine. There are a lot of free programs out there that help you lower your environmental impact by cutting out your junk mail, but this is the only one I've ever seen that pays you! And of course the only thing more frugal than free is getting paid to do something you ought to do anyway.

20 frugal or free summer fun activities

Looking for something frugal or free to do this summer? Here's a list of 20 summer fun activities which cost little or no money and provide endless entertainment.

1. Go to the park.
2. Go to your local library. Check out a book or movie, and check out the schedule for book clubs, reading rewards, lectures, and story times.
3. Consider joining your local museum or zoo. Usually, for the cost of visiting twice, you can go as much as you want for the whole season.
4. Stargaze.
5. Get wet. Play with a garden hose, run through sprinklers, get yourself a squirt gun - it doesn't matter how old you are, everyone likes to cool off.
6. Read. Sit on your deck or in your backyard, read out loud with your honey or kids, just read.
7. Be a tourist (in your own hometown). Check a guidebook out of the library, or read an article online, and check out all the local attractions you would take family to if they visited.
8. Learn to knit or sew.
9. Build a solar oven in your backyard and use it to keep your house cooler.
10. Do crafts with your kids or on your own.
11. Have a friend over for lemonade. My ideal day would be sitting in a rocking chair on my porch, drinking lemonade and gossiping with the girls.
12. Browse your local farmer's market. If you make friends, you might even be able to visit some farms.
13. Fly a kite.
14. Volunteer at your local food bank sorting food or filing papers.
15. Go to the mall. Not for the shopping, for the free air conditioning.
16. Take daily walks around your neighborhood or on the beach/boardwalk/nature path. Smile at strangers.
17. Sleep late!
18. Rent a movie from Redbox or take your kids to some free summer movies.
19. Go to a local winery that has a free tasting. Mmmmm.
20. Search the Free attractions directory and find something within driving distance of where you live.

What's #21? Please leave me a comment with your best frugal or free summer fun activities!

Two high impact free donate opportunities

Usually click to donate sites will donate between 2 and 10 cents per click. Sometimes companies offer higher impact click drives, on a temporary basis, as a marketing campaign. Two such click drives are running now:


Right now, Country Crock is donating a meal to America's Second Harvest for every small change you share at their website, Your Family Table

Listerine will donate $1 to Right to Play's Red Ball Challenge, which uses sports and play to help kids in developing countries when you click the red ball

Free and easy ways to help charities

One of my biggest goals for my money is to be able to help people more. Right now, when I’m in a position where I have a lot of time, but not a lot of money, I’m always looking for creative and low cost ways to help charities. Over the years, I’ve developed an arsenal of ways to help, from the low commitment/low impact to the high commitment/high impact, and have gone in and out of using them over time.

Super Low Commitment

1. Click Probably the easiest way to help charities is to spend about two minutes every day on click to donate sites. These are sites that accumulate sponsors willing to donate a set amount of money to charity per page view, click, or action. The click amounts generally range from about 2 cents per click to about 25 cents, with an occasional temporary click drive that pays up to $1 per click. The original click site is The Hunger Site, which has now expanded to serve several causes, including Breast Cancer research and Rainforest protection. My personal favorite is the Care2 races, which also include a lot of content, tips, and information. When I have more time, I go to this click to donate index and try to click on as many extra sites as I can. I figure every little bit helps!

2. Search I recently discovered a search site called Search Kindly, which uses Google’s engine, but donates proceeds to charity. You can even add it to your search box in IE, making it just as easy as searching Google, but with a benefit to charity.

3. Email For my primary web mail, I use Planet Save Email in place of Yahoo or Hotmail. It’s a free email server that, to me, is just as good as the big ones, but donates a portion of profits to rainforest preservation. They have had a few glitches in the past but seem to have resolved them. Other sites that offer free charity webmail support Breast Cancer Research and the environment.

Slightly More Commitment

4. Donate old stuff Suze Orman and Flylady both say that when you have a yard sale or sell your old stuff, you will never get its value back. When you donate it, it retains its value. This is so true. I take bags of clothes to the Goodwill, give magazines to preschools and high school art teachers, and give books to schools and libraries whenever I see drives.

5. Donate free stuff Through couponing and rebating, I get a lot of stuff for free consistently, particularly shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, and feminine supplies. Once I’ve stockpiled enough of this to last three months, I don’t really want to keep storing it, but I keep buying it and donate it to my local foodbank. Shelters, particularly women’s shelters, often want this stuff too. One homeless shelter in my area particularly prefers travel size shampoo, deodorant and toothpaste – all of which I have in abundance from couponing and from freebies.

6. Clip and save There are many things you can clip and save that may not benefit you but would benefit someone else. The one that comes to mind is Boxtops for Education. Each box top you clip and give to a local school costs you nothing and gives that school 10 cents to use toward supplies. Campbells soup has a similar program.

Another thing you can clip is coupons. Coupons you don’t need, including expired coupons, can be sent to and used by military personnel on base, many of whom live at or below the poverty line.


Stay tuned for higher commitment/higher impact ways to help!

Frees today and tomorrow!

I was about to compile a list of frees and I found that Friendly's is giving away free iced lattes today and Sonic is giving away a free 10 ounce root beer float tomorrow. I can't find any evidence of the Sonic deal on their website, but it's on several deal forums, so it's worth a try.

Also, while I was researching this I came across the fact that Krispy Kreme is giving out free doughnuts on Friday, June 1 to celebrate National Doughnut day. What a sweet week!

Here's the rest of my (less exciting) list:

St. Ives Lotion
Tide Coldwater Detergent
Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal

Enjoy!