The Rabbit Hole
I love getting things for free. My general assumption is that at least 99.9% of the population loves getting things for free as well.
If you are one of that majority, then I think you will enjoy my list of ways to score something awesome for free.
I absolutely love Craigslist. It is an amazing resource for finding things, people, places, and even pets. One of it’s best features is it’s free section.
You can get anything from moving boxes, to furniture, or even love. The site has a search function, which makes it easy to find the coffee table or 1980s encyclopedia set you’ve just got to have.
Personally, I enjoy just browsing the page. You never know what you could score. There was even a guy who traded one red paper clip, and then kept trading over Craigslist until he ended up with a house.
They put it best: “Freecycle provides individuals and non-profits an electronic forum to “recycle” unwanted items. One person’s trash can truly be another’s treasure!”
Similar to Craigslist in some ways, Freecycle has groups available in different cities. You do have to join the groups before you can access the postings. Messages are posted in two categories, Offers and Wants. So if you’re looking for something in particular you can post a WANT ad.
Once you find something you like, all you have to do is go get it!
I love samples. They’re free, they give you a chance to try something new, and a lot of time’s they’re really handy.
You can score them at the store or also sign up for them online. Walmart.com’s samples are some of the best around. There are also many blogs devoted to the subject, a few of my favorites being Hey It’s Free! and Sweet Free Stuff.
A lot of times the samples are “travel sized,” perfect for traveling or tossing in your purse or backpack. I’ve never bought lotion to carry in my purse, I’ve just used sample bottles.
Coupons have been getting a lot of buzz lately as a great way to save money, but they’re also a great way to get products for free! Many times you can get coupons that are for a free product, or buy one get one free. The majority of coupons are for reduced prices on items, but combining them with sales can sometimes make the items completely free.
There are countless blogs with different methods for best utilizing coupons to score free products. I recommend checking out Money Saving Mom as a starting point.
Here’s a video that shows not only how you can get free products, but also make a little money back at Rite Aid:
It may seem gross and icky, but dumpster diving is one of the most fun ways to score new and interesting things for free. Dumpster diving doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go dive in a dumpster, it can be as simple as walking or driving around an area and looking at items placed out for the trash.
Living in the city, the week period surrounding the end of one month and the beginning of the next, when a lot of people are preparing to move, is an absolute golden opportunity to go scouting for new treasures. About 50% of the furniture in my first apartment were items discovered in the alley behind our building. Beyond that I’ve scored books, a TV antenna, vase, flower pots, and other random knick nacks.
For more info, check out How To Dumpster Dive for a ton of smart tips.
The holiday season is a season for giving, but thanks to the recession, the majority of people are looking for ways to cut back. Luckily there are a few sites available where you can benefit charities with just a few seconds of your time and a few clicks of your mouse.
With two clicks a day at Poverty Fighters, sponsors donate 25 cents in loan credit to those in need. These microcredit loans help poor people open businesses or improve and grow current business ventures.
In their click2donate section, Care2 features 10 causes you can click to support including stopping global warming, preserving the rain forest, saving baby seals, saving ocean animals, saving big cats, saving primates, helping children in need, helping homeless pets, stopping violence against women, and preventing breast cancer.
This network of sites features six different causes to benefit. You can click to give food to rescued animals, save the rain forest, fund literacy, provide children with healthcare, give free mammograms to women in need, and give food to the hungry. Each cause has it’s own shop where you can also purchase items, but it’s simple to visit everyday and just take the time to click and make a difference.
Probably the most popular, and most enjoyable of these click-to-give sites is Free Rice . Instead of just clicking a button, here you click to answer questions that challenge your knowledge of language, arts, chemistry, geography, and math. It features the fun of challenging yourself and the benefit of learning something new, while providing free rice to people in need with each correct answer.
I obviously cannot provide a comprehensive list of all the click-to-give sites available with just five sites, but oneclickatatime.org has a complete directory of click to give sites worldwide. They’re divided into categories so you can easily find your favorite charity. Plus it’s a snap to bookmark this one page and visit it daily to access all the click-to-donate sites.
See also…
5 Sites Featuring Affordable Holiday Gifts That Give Back
With the economy the way it is, everyone’s cutting back on the non-necessities. One of the little luxuries that has become a necessity in modern times in television. Cable and satellite prices are outrageous, and usually you’re paying for channels you don’t even watch, just to get the few that have your favorite shows. And don’t even get me started on the premium channels like HBO and Showtime.
Thankfully there are alternatives available on the internet, and there are countless websites where you can watch your favorite shows anytime day or night, for free.
I love Hulu–I’ve been using it since it launched. It has a clean, simple design and features full length episodes of many of the shows I love (The Office, The Daily Show, & Heroes) plus older TV shows (like Alfred Hitchcock Presents), and even movies. New episodes are usually posted the day after they air on TV. You can browse by popular episodes or shows, and also genre, network, and recently added shows. The site also features a queue, so you can add several episodes (or clips) and then sit back and watch them back to back without having to pull up each one separately.
Similar to Hulu, Joost features a variety of TV shows, including Adult Swim shows, How I Met Your Mother, and others. The site also features movies, and unique from Hulu, has a music section with collections of music videos by popular artists.
If there’s a specific show you like, try checking the network website. Many sites feature full streaming episodes. Some have all the episodes up all the time, other feature episodes for certain periods. Some places to check include ABC, NBC, TBS, Discover Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, VH1, & MTV.
Yes, even Youtube has full episodes of TV shows. These are usually lower quality and split up into chunks since they’re uploaded by users, but you’ll be surprised what you can find on there. I often watch Daria, The Soup, and MST3K on Youtube, and with the quicklist, I just put all the parts on there in order and it will automatically play each clip in order.
Though you can’t actually watch the episodes at Sidereel, it is the ultimate reference for finding TV (and movies) streaming online. Unless I know I can find a specific show on Hulu or Youtube, Sidereel is the first place I go to find online episodes. Just search for the show you’re interested in and you can find links to watch specific episodes online. Often there will be links to buy the episodes on iTunes or Amazon, but a lot of the time there will be links to other random sites to stream the videos.