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While I was a student I got as much as I could for free. Many of the things that I have received for free were ordered on the internet I also obtained many items from local sources. A good place to begin is your local newspaper or the event section within your local paper.

The cheapest lunch that that I indulged in weekly began with a trip to Costco. Costco had free samples of the food, and often I could convince the food sampler to let me have more than one. Also, on the off chance we were still hungry there was always the option to have a hot dog and a drink that you could refill before you left of course for the low price of $1.99.

There are events in every community that have free food, entertainment and opportunities. At your local school there is often free movies shown, free access to internet, and many activities!

From the internet I obtained samples of soaps, deodorants, food coupons, household items, condiments, beverage samples, beauty samples and magazines as well as free gifts with purchase. There are many various free websites, and often you can contact your favorite company to ask for a sample, or a coupon.

Granted it is going to take some time to find the websites and enter all of your information to receive your free product. Why do these websites give you samples of their product for free? Companies give consumers free samples to entice them to purchase their product and hope that after the use you enjoy their product and will purchase a full size.

There are websites that you can print coupons from to reimburse yourself. I am the coupon queen. The mistake that many of us make within regards to coupons is buying something that we would not usually just because of the opportunity to save an extra two dollars.

Many of these websites are directed at an audience within the United States. I have been made aware of one of these sites offered to Canadians only. I checked out the website, and although ineligible, there were some very good offers! The website is called www.save.ca and once you visit the site and choose your province you are able to choose which coupons that you would like. The site offers to send you the coupons quickly, usually within the week!

Reward yourself with a rewards program. Rewards programs such as Airmiles, Aeroplan and the like give you points on the things that you regularly buy to get gift cards, products or free flights. Take advantage of these and you will see how fast that they often add up.

If you are a point collector there is a great site called www.points.com that enables you to convert one points into another. Kind of a currency conversion for rewards points.

Online surveys have earned me gifts, rebates, and cash prizes. One site in particular, www.hotspex.com enables you to go to www.points.com and exchange these Hotspex bucks' into Aeroplan, or some other reward that you collect. In the last year, I have collected enough Hotspex bucks and converted them to Aeroplan Miles to Reward myself with two gift cards.

Five-dollar checks here and ten-dollar checks there tend to add up over a period of time. Find a couple valid sites to work with and complete surveys and you will be rewarded. There are often sweepstakes which I was personally shocked to win. Unconvinced, I took the five-hundred dollar check to the bank to deposit into my account.

Don't trash that junk mail so fast! Often there are offers and coupons in there that you can use to get rebates off of certain products.

Learn more about this author, Lori Godin.
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