Free Money From Coinstar

It’s time to rummage through the sofa cushions and cash in the coin jar! From now thru Dec 7, take your coins to a Coinstar location (in many supermarkets) and select the Prepaid Card or eCertificate option from the menu when you cash in $40 or more. At the bottom of your receipt, there will be a redemption form for you to mail in so you can get a $10 gift certificate to Amazon, Lowes, Starbucks, iTunes, JcPenney or Old Navy. They also have a Circuit City card, but I’d be wary of getting it until you’re sure that your local store isn’t closing down before the end of the year. The certificate will take 4-6 weeks to arrive.

Sample Sunday

Here’s this week’s list of free samples. To check out other samples that may be available from previous weeks, visit my Sample Sunday page.

Lipstock Chapstock (natural, free of artificial fragrance and preservatives)
Life Gear Glow Stick (great for an emergency kit)
Glad Force Flex Bags
Pantene Shampoo and Conditioner
Sabatino Tartufi Black Truffle Gourmet Olive Oil (100 ml)
Flexitol Heel Balm
Head and Shoulders Shampoo/Conditioner (7 types to choose from)

Three great places for free samples are Walmart, Vocalpoint and Proctor and Gamble. When samples become available, I post them each week.

Walmart
If you visit the free samples section, you’ll see samples that are currently available that I’ve blogged about previously. There’s no sign up at Wal-Mart – you simply give them your name and address and they ship you the product.

Vocalpoint
If you haven’t had an opportunity to sign up at Vocalpoint, I highly recommend that you do so. This week, you can get a free Crest spa hair band from Vocalpoint. There are a lot of sites out there claiming to give away free samples when you sign up, but many of the sites simply bombard you with ads or even worse, want you to go through a lengthy “qualifying process” where they make you purchase products. I know I certainly don’t want to sign up to Netflix, Blockbuster and apply for a credit card to get a free Chapstick! Vocalpoint is a legitimate site that often sends its members freebies. I signed up a while ago and don’t go to the Vocalpoint site very often, but I’ve received several samples and very valuable coupons in the mail (they often send coupons in sets of 5), including free Kashi with coupons, coupons for tuna, a free razor and more.


Proctor & Gamble
Another great free sample site is run by Proctor and Gamble. Free samples direct from the manufacturer! This week, you can get more Pantene and a sample of Tide.

Remember, when signing up for free samples, you will be required to send in an e-mail address. I recommend you set up a special e-mail address especially for this purpose to avoid filling your everyday inbox with mail from product suppliers. Happy sampling!

Free Coffee and More at McDonalds

Free Coffee at McDonalds Dec 1-31 – Atlanta, GA
Participating McDonalds in the greater Atlanta area will give away one small coffee to customers between 5 - 8 a.m. at all participating stores in Metro Atlanta between Dec 1-31, 2008.

McDonalds Buy One Get One Free Coupons – Charleston, SC.
If you’re in the Charleston area, check out the coupons available at the McDonalds Charleston website. You can get a buy one get one free on a Big Mac, Free Sausage Egg Biscuit Sandwich and a Hot Fudge Sunday through Dec 31, 2008.

Free McDonalds with Post It Rebate

Out of post it notes? If you purchase any 2 Post It products, you’ll get $5 worth of McDonalds gift certificates as a rebate. Go here for the rebate form. Yep, I'm loving it!

If you’re an office manager buying on a larger scale, check out 3M’s other rebate offerings: Buy $50 worth of qualifying products, get $10 worth of McDonalds gift certificates or a $10 Macys Gift Certificate, get a free $5 Subway card with Scotch Tape Value Packs or free Haagen Dazs with Scotch Packaging Tape Packs.

Free 2009 Calendars

I’ve never really been in to free promotional calendars until I was doing some extensive work the other day involving dates and couldn’t put my hand on a 2009 calendar. I looked over at my stack of free samples and wished that there was a calendar in there. If you think you could do with an extra calendar or two, here are some free ones…

Oriental Trading Company
Betty Crocker
Xerox
Wildlife Gifts

Affluent Pauper mentioned at Fox Business, Marketwatch and Sharebuilder

I’d like to thank Marty Orgel for mentioning Affluent Pauper in his article entitled “Wealth of Free Items Online Helps You Free Up Cash for the Holidays.” Check out Marty’s article at Fox Business, Marketwatch and Sharebuilder. You’ll find ways to save on a slew of items from free entertainment, books, guides, clothing, video games, art and more.

Some of the free items that Marty mentions in his article that I particularly enjoyed:

Free TV
If you’re wondering if you can part with your cable or satellite service, check out Blinkx currently in beta) and Hulu. You might find that your favorite mainstream TV shows are available online. Also, check out your favorite networks’ websites as they might have downloadable versions of the shows you frequently follow.

Free Music
SpiralFrog offers more than one million songs and 4,000 music videos for free.

Free 411
Call Google's 1-800-GOOG-411. How cool is that?

Free Courses
You can download free course materials, lecture notes, exams and videos from MIT through its OpenCourseWare program. There are hundreds of courses you can download.

Free Books
You can download miscellaneous books at free-eBooks.net.

Trade & Swap
Marty mentions Craigslist and FreeCycle. Read my July 20, 2008 article “Why Buy New When you can Trade?” for more info. on the benefits of trading and swapping.

If you’re new to Affluent Pauper, welcome! Check out the navigation bar at the top of my home page to find frequently updated information on freebies, samples, coupons, hot deals, frugal tips, online printable coupons and more. If you want to stay up to date on all the hottest deals and freebies, click on the orange button on the top left hand side of the screen, enter your e-mail address and you’ll receive blog updates so you’ll always be up to date! In these hard economic times, it’s wise to live large on less. Every bit helps!

Free Starbucks - New York

According to Food and Wine Magazine, on Friday, November 28, at 10 a.m. at Military Island, the intersection of Broadway and 7th Avenue between 43rd and 44th Streets in Manhattan, Mario Batali and Starbucks will take over Times Square, making and passing out (RED) coffee for everyone who shows up. If you decide to make a holiday drink purchase, for each beverage sold, Starbucks will make a five cent donation to (RED) in the fight against aids.