I love the little bottles of complimentary shampoo and conditioner you sometimes get in hotels, and I still get a thrill when I turn the page in a magazine and there’s a sample of a new face cream stuck to an advertisement.
Everyone loves a freebie, but they can be hard to find.
I thought I’d share a few tips on how to score some for yourself, but first it’s a good idea to set up a new email address to use just for this kind of thing.
The products might be free, but for the business, it’s all about marketing, so you’ll also end up subscribed to a lot of newsletters and receive numerous promotional emails which can clog up your inbox.
Sometimes you’ll also be asked to cover the cost of postage in order to get the freebies, so do the maths to make sure it’s worth it.
Birthday freebies
Joining and downloading the apps for rewards clubs can score you free delicious treats for your birthday.
Try McDonald’s MyMacca’s, Bakers Delight Dough Getters, Boost Juice Vibe Club, Hoyts cinemas Hoyts Rewards, Gloria Jean’s GJ’s Rewards and Nando’s Peri-Perks.
Be sure to read the fine print first so you understand what you need to do to qualify.
Try before you buy
Knowing whether cosmetics are suitable for your skin or if a certain scent will send you into a fit of sneezes can be tricky, especially when shopping online.
Free samples are a great way to try before you buy.
Websites like Free Samples Australia and WOW Freebies Australia update their list of free stuff depending on what promotions and offers are available.
You can also receive a sample of incontinence products from poise.com.au and depend.com.au, and Pharmacy Online has an entire page dedicated to samples.
If you find a new product you wish you could try, it doesn’t hurt to contact the company and ask if they can send a sample.
Learn something new
Learning keeps our brain cells in good shape, and if that learning is free it’s even better!
The government offers fee-free Tafe courses in clean energy, care and support, construction, tech, and childcare.
Visit the yourcareer.gov.au website for more information.
Some Aussie universities offer personal-interest online courses too, such as studying Shakespeare through the University of Adelaide, or how nutrition affects mental health through Deakin University.
TIP: Don’t get caught in the comparison trap!
Scrolling through my social media feed, I gasped. ‘How can they be on another holiday? Isn’t that the third one this year?’ I asked my husband, Shannon, showing him the photos a friend had posted of her family on a white-sanded beach in the tropics.
I don’t begrudge them their getaways, I just wish we could afford to do the same!
And I’m not alone.
According to a Finder survey, one in three of us has felt pressure to spend money we don’t have in order to keep up with the lifestyles of our friends.
For one in eight of us, it’s meant going into debt.
It’s helpful to remember that people usually only share the best bits of their lives online.
We don’t get to see the huge loan needed to pay for that new car, the credit card bill from those fancy restaurant meals or the Buy Now, Pay Later debt those designer shoes may have accrued.
Ms MoneySaver’s tips are prepared in good faith. That’s Life cannot assure readers that they will be effective in all cases and is not responsible for any loss or damage resulting from following them.
