I have a favorite 4 letter word, and it’s the F word, but probably not the F word that you’re thinking of right off the bat. The word is FREE. (Although running a close second is the word DEAL, but that’s not anywhere as sexy as the word FREE).
On the other side of that coin however is the label of cheap (as in cheapskate). So the real balancing act is in
With the winds of uncertainty still blowing around everyone is trying to save at least a little more then they were in the past.
Now if you haven’t signed up for any free samples yet, then you might be missing out on some great free giveaways – sometimes the stuff doesn’t exactly fit a single person, but if you take a little creative look at things then you can come up with some “crafty” items (and this comes from a non-crafty person)
First let’s take a look at where to find the free stuff:
We post some of the free items here on the Frugal Dater, but there’s quite a few freebies blogs out there dedicated to finding the samples and give aways.
Second, you want to set up a separate FREE email account for all the free samples that you sign up for. Why? Simply stated, when you sign up for these free samples then you’re opting in to their email lists (and the ability for those companies to sell your email to their partners. And free email addresses are everywhere, Gmail, Yahoo mail, Hotmail are the most popular.
Third is to sign up for some of the offers, and then wait. With most offers you can only sign up with one per household, so if you have a roommate then both of you might not be able to get the same offer since the mailing address would be the same. Most free items come in the mail in the time range of 4-8 weeks. (keep note of this fact as planning can be key to what plans we have for some of the freebies later).
Now what can you do with some of these things? Start to think 4-5 months down the road to the gift giving season (Sears already is after rolling out their christmas specials in July). When I saw some of the items, I though gift bags / baskets.
Here’s what I got going for one bag (for my friend the new mother)
Now I’ve already got some of my gifts in order so I’ll be able to give to more people this year. Plus as a bonus, less of my expendable cash is tied up in gifts and so my dating budget can get expanded just a litte.
There’s some great sites (besides this one) that go out there and find all the good free stuff for you, here’s just a partial list:
High Class Living on a Middle Class Budget
And if you sign up for a few freebies per week after about 4 weeks you start sitting back and watching your mailbox start seeing the booty flowing into the mailbox.
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