Helping Out and Freebie Tips

So now quite a few of my relatives are requesting my help in locating good deals, samples, coupons, and freebies. So lately I've been keeping them informed on "where and when" this stuff occurs. And the great thing with family, is that if they don't use a product I do, and there's a free item with a limit of one per household, they'll get it for me and I'll do the same for them if there's something they want and I'm not that interested in. So I make sure to include them in on everything that I find out about just in case.

Here are some quick tips that I can think of off the top of my head before I rush over to the dining hall to get something to eat.

1. You might want to create an email account specifically for getting deals, coupons, newsletters, and other various forms of information. Sometimes before you get an item you have to subscribe to a company's newsletter. I tend to get more spam messages than I used to, and there are generally 10 new emails every day.

2. I'd have to say All You magazine is one of my favorite magazines that offers a lot of coupons. Not to mention on their website for the past few months, every day they'll inform you about one freebie item you can get online. Sure, some days it's repetitive or if you might be faster than they are and have already gotten the giveaway item hours or even days before.... but occasionally it's something that has slipped past the radar of major freebie websites or fan pages.

3. Get on Facebook. Facebook has become the new "in" thing. Many popular and even some lesser known companies are creating Facebook Pages for themselves in order to advertise to a larger audience. And they're looking for ways to get you to "Like" their page. So many of them will offer an occasional giveaway of full size products, sample items tend to happen a bit more frequently, and coupons are almost a given. There are very few large company pages that don't have any coupons. So think about some of your favorite brands and look for them on Facebook.

Well that's all I can type up for now, because the dining area is open and I must be going.

You know, maybe I should just create a facebook page to help out people with finding these things.... at least I know I'll get quite a few fans just with all of my relatives....

Happy and Disgusted

So the Tide giveaway was supposed to be today, but they were having technological difficulties. And the thing that disgusted me was..... the "fans" of Tide. A lot of us patiently waited and refreshed the page every now and then.... checking up on the updates Tide was giving us.... but then there were immature and rude people posting hateful, negative comments, some cursing.... Here's my take on the issue. Tide is NOT obligated to give out free samples. The company chose to, which is great. And it's not their fault that there were problems. Technology isn't perfect, things happen. A lot of those comments upset me, and you just KNOW that a lot of these people only "liked" the page probably a few minutes before the contest only to get the sample and then immediately "unlike" it. I, for one, have and always will like tide. I was exited for this giveaway because my mother LOVES the stain release tablets and says they smell amazing. So I was going to get them for her. I'm still happy, because Tide is going to retry this whole thing, but this time with 150,000 samples. I just hope it's at night again, because I don't think my professors would understand the concept of me being late to class to get a sample of a product. :) Hehehe. Anyway, to sum it up, I think it's perfectly fine for Tide not to be able to do the giveaway. I just think rude people should keep their comments to themselves or not be on the page. I still love you, Tide!!!!

Anyway, I'm happy because a few minutes after Tide apologized and whatnot.... I found out that I won a contest. And at first I'm like, what the heck? I had completely forgotten that I entered a contest about six hours ago. And I was one of the lucky random people who won.

I'm pretty sure I got some other free items today as well, but I can't remember what they are. Oh well. I'll post about them and reviews etc. when I receive them in the mail.

Ciao!

Facebook Freebies are the Greatest Thing Since...

Sliced bread?

I can remember back in the day (I can't believe I feel old enough to say that.... I'm only 19 goin' on 20!!!) when the only way I heard about getting free products or samples was through magazines and occasionally a store would be doing a promotion, but that was quite rare.

Now I don't know why this hadn't occurred to me before, but recently with my whole big "You can save money?" awakening after watching TLC's Extreme Couponing, I thought.... why not "Like" some of my favorite brands on facebook and see if they offer coupons there? And not only did I find out that they offer some great coupons.... but a few brands will once in awhile give out samples or a free product. So this has officially become my new favorite thing.

What are some of the issues with this, however? You have to be extremely fast and know where to look. Not even 3o minutes ago there was a free sample promotion on Pantene products.... only 8,000 samples were available. I was of course waiting on the page before it even began so I would be ready. Lucky that I was, because either their time was a bit off or mine is... because 2 minutes before they were scheduled to start, the offer was open. I managed to be one of the first to sign up for it. And in less than 13 minutes, 8,000 samples were gone. My favorite thing to do is to watch the page's number of fans increase by the second. If you're on the page beforehand and you refresh it you can watch the numbers go up. They increase dramatically when the offer begins. If I remember correctly, in the first 2 minutes the page's fan count increased by over 2,000 people. So yeah, these are people who are following multiple freebie pages and learn where to go and when, and you have to be ready... and faster than they are.

What have I got so far from Facebook, after barely starting this, maybe not even a week ago?

2 free Suave full size products

1 cosmetic item, don't remember the brand...

Crystal light sample

Pantene Sample

And in about 2 hours Tide will also be having a sample giveaway. And tomorrow morning (10 minutes before I have class so I have to run if I'm staying for it) Biore is also apparently doing something.

So make sure you stay up to date with these things on Facebook. It's quite fun.

Trying a New Lotion

On the way back to college from Spring Break, I realized I left my lotion at home. So during one of my store stops to pick up last minute items I went to look for lotion at Walmart. Now, I don't know what's going on there, but recently I haven't been able to find a heck of a lot of variety like there used to be. And my favorite lotion wasn't there so I had to choose something different from the limited selections. I picked up Neutrogena Moisture Wrap.... this is the first neutrogena product that I've ever used.

So I've been using it for about two weeks now and it works just as well as my favorite lotion. Only a better thing is that it's fragrance free. Sometimes you don't realize how many products you use and how sometimes scent can be overpowering when mixed or when using multiple products. So now I can use this lotion and body spray among other things, and not be overwhelmed by an over powering scent.

Sometimes...Mistakes are Good

So yesterday I was in a bit of a hurry.... let me say that again just to accent the point-- yesterday I was in a bit of a hurry. I stopped at my college's campus store to pick up some food, beverages and snacks. As I was grabbing the last item, a microwaveable soup, the word "Bugles"caught my eye. And in less than a second I managed to think to myself..."You know... I haven't had Bugles in a long time." Then I grabbed the bag and headed to the front desk to buy the items. I didn't read the bag at all. So I get back to my dorm room and later that night I was starving. Yes, for some reason lately even after eating an entire meal... 2 hours later it's like I never ate. So I grabbed the bag of Bugles to snack on, only to wonder about the color of the bag. It was then that I read it... Bugles Hot Buffalo Flavor. So I'm almost positive you can't return things to the store, so I thought, what the hell I'll try them.

First bite they actually taste a lot like regular Bugles. The Hot Buffalo Flavor comes a few seconds later. Now I don't know if it was because I had just brushed my teeth (yeah, stupid idea), but it was HOT. I couldn't grab my water bottle fast enough. So today, here I sit, munching on them again and this time it's not as bad. The flavor kind of reminds me of Doritoes, except hotter. I can in all honesty say that I never would've bought these at a store to try. I mean, I'm all for trying new things, but sometimes it depends on the wording of the product and flavors. I'm not a huge fan of "hot" snack products.... but these are good. I can't say I'll buy them often, but I may pick them up again sometime. But I'll always make sure to have some cold beverages around to go with them.

Benefits of Going to Auctions

So I'm a movie lover.... or basically a movie addict. I buy a lot of movies, I rent a lot of movies, I watch a lot of movies....

And at a recent auction there were dvds up for bid. I managed to score 46 DVDS for around 40 dollars. They were all in PERFECT condition. (Make sure you check any DVDs or CDs for that matter if you plan on buying some at an auction or a garage sale. Some could be horribly scratched/scuffed up or as was the case when I looked in the cases of some cds at a garage sale... they might not even have the disks in them!!!) A few of the DVDs were still in plastic wrap and had never been opened or watched. So this is one of the cheapest ways to get movies, unless like myself you manage to find a few sites where you can occasionally get them for free which is niiiiiiiiiiice for movie lovers like myself.

Now of course, I'm not going to keep all of them. Some of them I'm not interested in at all so I'll be selling them at our twice yearly garage sales and if they sell I will definitely be earning a profit on them, because many I could probably sell for around 2 or 3 dollars.

Oh, and if you go to garage sales.... for movies or anything make sure you try to bring the price down if they're a bit too high in your opinion. I've found that 8 times out of 10 I can get a person to lower their price on anything. Heck, even a 25 cent reduction is saving money.

Extra Dessert Delights Review

So I've been chewing Extra gum for years. And awhile back I "Liked" their page on facebook, which caused me to learn about their latest flavors--- Dessert Delights. They come in three flavors; Strawberry Shortcake, Mint Chocolate Chip, and Key Lime Pie. The concept and flavors alone made me curious and wanting to try it. It slightly reminded me of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory... you know the gum that's a whole meal? Well this gum is dessert flavored.

So a week or so ago I was wandering around Target to see what kind of deals there were, and they had three packs of desserts gum on sale (it was like half the price of a 3 pack of the regular Extra gum flavors) so naturally I bought a three pack of each dessert delights gum flavor. And here's my opinion (I'll be chewing on the pieces as I write about them, because you tend to forget exactly what the gum tastes like).

Strawberry Shortcake---It smells great. It actually has a bit of a cake scent to it. Tastewise.... at first it seems like regular old bubble gum. A bit of chewing and you start to get the strawberry/cake flavor going on. It's decent. It seems like something I would chew if I'm trying to stay away from major calorie junk food temptations. Not necessarily something I would use if I wanted fresh breath (that's reserved for the more minty flavors).

Key Lime Pie--- Let me tell you right now that I've never actually had key lime pie the dessert.... so I can't judge whether the gum tastes like it. I eventually plan on having one of my relatives who eats key lime pie try it and give me their opinion. It smells like lime.... it reminds me of the scent of lemon-lime sodas. It kind of has a creamy feel to it when you chew it, which is interesting. I can taste the lime. I think my favorite part of the gum is the feeling of chewing it.... This one is also decent. I'm not sure if it's something I'd go out of my way to buy.

Mint Chocolate Chip---You can definitely smell the mint, and I swear you can slightly smell the chocolate. Now let me tell you that I've tried Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream and I absolutely hate it. And the funny thing is.... this is my FAVORITE desserts gum. I LOVE it. You can taste the mint and the slight hint of chocolate. It is just simply amazing. I'm going to eventually try to get my mother to try it because she likes mint chocolate chip ice cream, so I'm curious how a mint chocolate chip ice cream lover will feel about this gum since myself, someone who doesn't like the ice cream, absolutely loves the gum. For the past few weeks I've had it, it's been the one I've been chewing the most often. The flavor lasts a long time, as Extra's Gum tends to do. My favorite gum to chew during college classes. This might even replace my Extra Peppermint gum.

So I encourage you to try some of the flavors if you ever find them on sale or have a coupon, because sometimes you don't really want to spend the full price on something you may not like.

Just Dance 2 is the Reason I Bought a Nintendo Wii

It's true!

So a few months ago at a birthday party my cousins brought along their Nintendo Wii. Eventually they put in the game Just Dance 2 and I decided to try it. I instantly loved it.

I'm the kind of person who when a song comes on the radio or I'm listening to my MP3 player, I just want to dance and sing along. I find myself randomly dancing in my room if I'm listening to music. So this is definitely my kind of game.

When the Wii console was on sale at Target, I immediately went out and bought it, using the Target card which saved on additional 5%. I also bought the Just Dance 2 game that day. This was a little over two weeks ago, and I can't think of a day since then when I haven't played it. Every day I do at least 1 song and on average play for an hour or more. You can definitely tell you're getting a workout. I'm not really in shape, so after the first night of playing it non stop I woke up in the morning incredibly sore. That's starting to fade the more often I play the game.

The game comes with over 40 songs, some you can download for free or for a small fee online. I haven't been able to download any yet, because my college's internet doesn't really allow for me to hook my game up to it, so I'll have to wait until I go home again. The majority of the songs are ones that I've heard of, which is nice. Although the ones I haven't heard of and have tried are also entertaining.

There are various levels of difficulty in the songs/dances. Some songs are easier than others, and some make you sweat more. Which reminds me of my favorite dance mode which is Just Sweat- it allows you to keep track of the calories you're burning every week. I love it because I have yet to buy more controllers so I've been playing by myself.

I plan on buying the first Just Dance game eventually, and hopefully some of the others coming out or already out.

If you're like me, and love dancing to music this game is for you. Right now my favorite song to dance to is Rasputin... which is a bit difficult at some points and makes you sweat a lot.

BzzAgent Site

So I've recently joined this site where you can review a wide variety of products and sometimes receive free products and samples to review. So we'll see how that goes.

It is quite fun reviewing products, and reading the reviews of others...especially if you don't agree with them.

Starting Off

Well, quite a few months ago I was watching Extreme Couponing on TLC and was just amazed at the amount of money people can save and the various ways you can use coupons that you never realized before. How sometimes store just might have to pay you to walk out with the products.

So now I'm intrigued and decided to use coupons more often. But the other main thing- I plan on getting free stuff. At first I thought I started today, but I realized that in reality I've been getting free things for a few months now, I've just forgotten about them.

Things I've gotten for free:

DVD I'm No Dummy

DVD The Day After Tomorrow

$25 dollar Amazon Gift card (for taking surveys.... about to get another one soon)

Things that I should be getting soon:

2 Suave Professional Hair products

1 make up product

And pretty sure I'll be getting a few more dvds within the next few months. I buy a lot of movies so it's nice getting free ones every once in awhile. And sometimes I basically get them free once I sell them at our garage sale. Take for instance an auction I was at recently.... bought over 40 dvds, all in new condition (some were still in the packaging). And I'm still sorting through them deciding which ones I want to keep. But the rest, if I manage to sell them for at least 2-3 dollars a piece I'll be making money off of them and the ones I decide to keep.

I also just got started in that whole www.swagbucks.com website. So we'll see how that goes.

That's all for now.