I love getting things for free. Each time I get something for free, a little jolt of happiness runs through me. I know that may sound crazy, but it’s fun, isn’t hurting anyone, and makes me happy. I am tired of hearing people say,”Nothing is free these days.” There really are things you can get for free. You just have to look for them and pay attention.
All of the items above are items I got for free over the past two months. I will break things down for you and explain how I got each of these items for free, and hopefully, this will start you on a journey of getting free items yourself.
I love getting a free donut at Dunkin Donuts with my AARP card when I order a large or extra large coffee!
Free Donuts at Dunkin Donuts
If you are age 50 or over you qualify to join AARP. If you follow me on Instagram you have probably seen many of the free donuts I have gotten. I am obsessed with Dunkin Donuts French Vanilla coffee. There isn’t a Dunkin Donuts near me. I have to drive 25 to 35 minutes to towns surrounding mine in order to find a Dunkin Donuts. Once a week I take a trip to area thrift stores to purchase items to resell on eBay. And all of towns that have the thrift stores I shop in have a Dunkin Donuts in them. So that is my treat on thrift shopping days: a French Vanilla coffee at Dunkin Donuts, and when I show them my AARP card after having bought a large or extra large coffee, I get a free donut!
Doesn’t sound like much to you? A donut at Dunkin Donuts costs 99 cents. If I did this once a week for one whole year, it will save me $51.48. I know donuts aren’t healthy, so I don’t do it EVERY week, but even so, it can save me 99 cents every time I have a craving for a donut.
How can you get free donuts at Dunkin Donuts?? Read below…
If you aren’t 50 years old yet, but your mom or dad is, encourage them to join AARP and when you go out to Dunkin Donuts together, they can get a free donut for you, or the grandkids!
I am writing this in February 2018 and if you follow the link below (copy and paste, or just google “join AARP”), you can join AARP for $12.00 for a year and your spouse will get a free membership. The regular cost is $16.00 annually. And no, I am not getting any benefits from referring you to AARP. I just think it’s a wonderful service for anyone age 50 and over. Beyond free donuts, the travel deals and discounts at restaurants are totally worth the membership costs.
https://join.aarp.org/aarp-brand-clean3-hero3/?keycode=UAZMB11&gclid=CJmEl_vQh9kCFZCZgQodOH8AsQ&gclsrc=ds&tc_tm_meth=MAN&tm_ver=3.1&tc_tm_xg=sbrand&tc_campaign=SBRAND&tc_channel=SEM&tc_vendor=Google&tc_tm_uid=AARP5A748E9AD8C80&tc_tm_visitid=AARP5A748E9AD8D2E&tc_tm_version=aarp-brand-clean3-hero3
Here are some examples of free samples I get in the mail every month!
Freebies in the Mail
I love getting snail mail that isn’t bills, don’t you? These items above are all free from a website that I have recently discovered, and they don’t make you jump through hoops or fill out surveys to get free stuff.
How can you get stuff like this free in the mail? Sign up for it! Here’s the link to that website which is called Sweet Free Stuff.
http://www.sweetfreestuff.com/
Free items from Kroger and IGA every Friday on Freebie Friday!
Friday Freebies at IGA and Kroger
This picture shows the free items I have gotten from IGA and Kroger. Both stores give items away every Friday. You have to download the app for each store on your phone, and then on Friday, make sure to go to the app for each of those stores if you have one near you, and download the free item. The coupon to get the item free automatically goes to your store card, and all you have to do is pick up the item and when the cashier scans your card, the price of that particular item comes off of your bill.
IGA will let you pick up the item Friday, Saturday or Sunday of each week, and Kroger gives you two weeks to pick it up. That’s especially nice if you can’t get to Kroger every week. Once I wasn’t able to get there for awhile and I picked up 3 items in one day, all of which were free! That was a fun day.
The next three items below also came from IGA. Periodically, IGA offers items you can earn points. Shoppers can earn one point per dollar spent in the store.
Free dishes were available as a special promotion at IGA.
There were a variety of dish sets being offered for points. I shop at more than one store and often find IGA’s prices in my area to be higher than others so I don’t buy a major amount at IGA. In spite of that, my husband and I earned enough points to get this free bowl which matches the dishes that I entertain with. And this free orange mug. Orange is my favorite color and now this mug is one of my favorites.
The clear rectangular container is part of a promotion that is going on right now. You may wonder if I need this? I have plenty of storage containers. Someone once told me to never say no to anything free. Well, I don’t agree with that because sometimes that means you end up with just a lot of clutter that you will never use and it gets in the way of living a productive and positive life. BUT in the case of these glass storage containers, they make very nice containers to give food gifts in. Wrapped with a ribbon, and filled with cookies or candy for Christmas or a birthday gift, I have a very nice gift for friends or family members.
How can you get free stuff at grocery stores? Pay attention to promotions stores near you offer. Ask staff if they have a free item program, or a points program to earn items or free turkeys during the holidays. By all means, if you ahve a Kroger or IGA near you, sign up for their Free Item Friday Program by downloading the store app to your phone.
Harbor Freight gives coupons for free items in their store fliers. Here are a few recent ones I have gotten.
Harbor Freight
Not only does Harbor Freight offer a 20% off coupon in pretty much every ad they print, but they also offer coupons for free items. You have to purchase something else, anything else to be able to use the coupon to get the free item. But I perused the Harbor Freight store shortly after it opened in my area and here is a picture of some of the items you can purchase in order to use the coupon. None of these cost over $1.99. When I got enough of these for our house, I got more to give to relatives in stockings for Christmas.
Here are only a few of the free items I have gotten for free over the past few weeks. My favorite free item is the mini flashlights because we have a guest room and need one for each nightstand in there. I also got one for my car and my nightstand.
Now of course once again you don’t want to go get a bunch of stuff you don’t need. But the tarp is nice to have and we didn’t have one. I got my husband a Multimeter for Christmas because when I asked him what it was and showed him the coupon, he told me he actually needed one. Um, okay, it was free and he needed it. That’s one of my favorite kind of gifts to give!
How can you get free stuff at Harbor Freight? The coupons are in most Sunday papers and they do require you to buy one other item in order to be able to use the coupon to get something free. But there are plenty of items at Harbor Freight that you can buy that every household needs. Below are only a few that I took a picture of, and none of them cost more than $1.99. Who doesn’t need an extra pair of scissors or a mini flashlight for their car or guest room? And if you don’t need it, I am sure you know someone who does!
(OOPs, by the way, the 6 piece drawer organizers were not $1.99 or less. They just happened to be on the table where I was arranging the other items.)
Items that cost $1.99 or less at Harbor Freight that will allow you to use the coupon for a free item!
A free lunch at Zaxby’s can be yours if you sign up for the Zaxby’s Birthday Club! It was delicious!
A Free Lunch is a Real Treat
I have saved the best for last. Last year on my birthday I decided to eat for free all day long. I had a blast and the people I met during the day at each of the food establishments seemed to enjoy celebrating my birthday with me. The way to accomplish this is to head to the website of all of the restaurants you enjoy and sign up for their birthday club. Then you will get sent a coupon via email or in the mail for either a discount or a free meal on your birthday.
One of the nice things about this is that two of the restaurants give coupons that are good for the whole year. They are Jersey Mike’s and Zaxby’s. So one day in the middle of December when I went Christmas shopping, I used my Zaxby’s coupon and treated myself to lunch and it was a very nice break in the middle of a busy day.
How can you get a free lunch at Zaxby’s or another restaurant? Sign up for their Birthday Club online.
If you would like to read more about how I spent my birthday, you can find the article here:
https://delishably.com/misc/How-I-Ate-for-Free-All-Day-on-My-Birthday-and-You-Can-Too
Hopefully, this post has taught you some new ways to get free stuff. Please feel free to leave a comment below if you have gotten free stuff from other sources. Youc an click on the word comment above this article and it will bring you to the comment section.
And don’t forget, if you share this post on social media using the sharing buttons below the post, AND leave a comment as to which social media sites you shared it on, you will get 1 entry into this month’s drawing for each!
