Thrifty Shopping

You can request free mailing labels from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.  Choose from two designs, Roses or
America.  A valid email address is required.

Cystic Fibrosis is life-threatening disease that causes excessive mucus build-up in the lungs and digestive system.  It is an inherited disease that affects about 30,000 adults and children in the
United States, and 70,000 worldwide. An additional 10 million Americans are carriers of the defective gene that causes Cystic Fibrosis, but do not have the disease themselves.

A donation to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is not necessary to request the free mailing labels.  However, if you do choose to donate, your contribution will be used to advance research toward finding treatments and hopefully a cure for this genetic disease.

Tip #7 – Price Your Items

Pricing items for your garage sale can be time-consuming and tedious, but it’s also beneficial for you and your shoppers.

If you price items as you set them aside for your sale, it’s not as daunting of a task as it would be if you priced all your items at once.  Use pricing stickers or even a small piece of masking tape, and a crisp, black marker.  Make your prices legible.  If more than one person is participating in your sale, include your initial or some other distinguishing mark on your tag so that profits are divided up properly at the end of the sale.

If you have a large quantity of one type of item, you can probably get by with a pricing sign, rather than pricing each item individually.  I do this with books and clothes.  I gather all my books together and put up a sign that says “Books, 25¢ each or 5 for $1”.  Generally, at least in my experience, people are more likely to buy 5 books when the sign is worded this way; after all, who can resist a bargain?

Another thing you can do is have table prices, such as “everything on this table, $1”.  If you do this though, periodically check the table to make sure some sneaky shopper hasn’t placed grandma’s antique do-hickey on the $1 table and removed your $10 price tag.

When I go to a sale, I like to know how much I’m spending before I get to the cashier.  I personally hate sales where items are not priced.  Two recent incidents illustrate why.

Last weekend I went to a sale where some items were priced (there were signs for books and clothes), and some were unmarked.  When someone was interested in an item, they had to take it up to the woman running the sale, who would then quote a price.  Nine times out of ten, the price seemed ridiculous for the item and the shopper usually put it back.  I was there long enough that I saw two different people take the same item up to the woman.  Each person was quoted a different price for the same item.  The woman holding the sale seemed to be pricing the people rather than the item.  She had several books that I was interested in, but after I witnessed her pricing game, I left the books and walked away.

Several months ago, my brother and sister-in-law had a sale.  Since my husband and I were getting ready to move, they let us put items in their sale; in exchange, we went and helped them out at the sale.  I had priced each one of my items; my sister-in-law had not.  Even though I had less ‘stuff’ in the sale, I sold more, and I believe it was because my items were priced.  Another thing that hurt them was communication.  If you’re going to have a sale and not price your items, make sure that everyone helping out with the sale knows how much you want for your items.  At one point my sister-in-law left my brother in charge while she ran some errands.  A shopper came in while my sister-in-law was gone, and was interested in a particular item that was not priced.  My brother quoted her a price, and the woman bought the item.  My sister-in-law returned and saw that the item was gone.  She asked my brother what he got for it, and was then upset with him because he quoted a lower price than she would have.  If the item had been labeled with the price my sister-in-law wanted, there wouldn’t have been a [problem.

Price your items sensibly, no matter what method you use.  Probably no one is going to pay $3 for your half-used can of White Rain hairspray from the 70s.  (Seriously, I saw this recently.  I remember my mom using that stuff.  Do they even still make this?).  And, if you have people helping you at your sale, make sure everyone knows the going price for all the items.

Have you recently gotten engaged?  If so, Condé Nast Magazines’ Bridal Group – Modern Bride, Brides, & Elegant Bride – would like to send you a gift, for free.

To request your gift, fill out the form at the Bridal Group website.

It doesn’t specify what the gift is, but I suspect it may be a magazine subscription.  Since my wedding has already occurred, I’m not able to take advantage of this offer.  However, about six months before my wedding, I started getting Modern Bride.  Mysteriously. It’s a great magazine though, and I’d recommend it if you’ve got a wedding coming up.

If anyone signs up for this offer, would you mind letting us know what the gift is?

McDonald’s is giving away their Southern-Style Chicken sandwiches and biscuits again.  They gave them away several months ago when the sandwich was first introduced.  This time, I think it has something to do with the Olympics.

Download and print your free coupon to get one free Southern-Style Chicken sandwich or biscuit with the purchase of any medium or large drink.

You can also make your own “Face The Glory” Olympic video at this site.

This offer expires on September 1, 2008.  Limit one sandwich per coupon. Limit one coupon per person, per visit. Valid only at participating McDonald’s restaurants in the 50 United States.  Coupon must be printed on a color printer.  Black & white copies will not be accepted. 

Hi and welcome to this week’s edition of Freebie Friday.  Sorry this is a little late today.  I hope that everyone has had an enjoyable week.

The list is rather long and varied this week.  I’ve got some international offers on the list this week as well.  I hope you’ll be able to find something you can use.

 Health & Beauty Freebies

Remove plaque and freshen breath with this interdental stick and floss in one convenient Flixstick.
*international offer

Super Tough Hand Scrub industrial hand cleaner.

Free Lizard-shaped soap. Great for the kids. Click free soap link to send email to request free sample.

Get a free perfume sample of Inspire by Christina Aguilera.

Household freebies

Get a sample of Cascade Complete All-In-1 dishwasher detergent from Wal-Mart and get a bonus sample of Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

Free Clothing

I found several offers for free tshirts.

Free tshirt from Travelusa.com. This shirt has the travelusa.com and hotel.us logos.

Army National Guard tshirt. This is a cool shirt. Remember to uncheck the box unless you want a recruiter to contact you. Requires email verification.

Free tshirt from Shareware Island

Food Freebies

Get a 12 ounce bag of Al’s Pistachios. Note: this website is having difficulty displaying properly in Mozilla Firefox browsers.

Here’s a sample of Just Like Sugar all natural sweetner.
*international offer

Free Magazine Subscriptions

Get a free two-year subscription to Lego Club Magazine.
*Offer available in the United States, Austria, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

A free subscription to The Sportsman Magazine from The Sportsman Channel. Published quarterly.

Free Bumper Stickers

Free Rodeo bumper stickers from Days of 47 Rodeo. Choose from 3 designs: 1) Honk If You’re Wearing Chaps 2) My Honor Student Has A Bigger Belt Buckle Than Your Honor Student 3) WWCD? (What Would A Cowboy Do?)

Life’s A Dog bumper sticker from lifesadog.com, gifts for dog lovers and their dogs.

Home & Office Freebies

Perry Uniform, a UK company, is offering a free tape measure.
*international offer

Free computer monitor wipes from Ringtonica.

All offers were available at the time of this post. Most offers are one per household. Offers available only in the United States unless otherwise noted.

Wednesday, September 3 is the 14^th Annual FTD Good Neighbor Day.  On this day, you can visit a participating FTD florist and get a free bouquet of flowers.

Started in 1994, FTD Good Neighbor Day was intended to encourage people to create a friendlier, more caring and compassionate world through the gift of flowers.

On FTD Good Neighbor Day, customers are encouraged to pick up their free bouquet, keep one bloom for themselves, and give the rest of the bouquet away to neighbors, friends and even strangers.

Free bouquets are available while supplies last, and only at participating FTD florists.  To find a florist near you, go to the FTD website.

If your child is wild for Hannah Montana, surprise her (or him) with a pre-recorded greeting from Hannah Montana herself.

Wal-Mart and Disney have teamed up to offer free Hannah Montana wake-up or activity reminder calls.  Sign up at www.hannahmontanacalls.com.  Calls are free to land line phones.  Standard charges may apply for cell phone calls.

There is a limit of five calls to one phone number and a limit of five requests for calls from one email address.  When registering for a call, you can specify the type of call – wake-up, activity reminder or back-to-school shopping reminder – the name of the child receiving the call, and the date and time for the call.

What better way to start off the school year for the Hannah Montana fan in your house.

I hope that everyone has had a great week. 

I’ve got quite a variety of freebie links for you today.  I hope you can find something here that you can use.

Enjoy!

Freebies for babies 

Free bag tag from Nursery Purified Water.  Keep track of your diaper bag or other belongings with this ID tag featuring Elmo.  The Nursery Purified Water site is giving away 100 tags a day while supplies last. 

Freebies for home & office 

Here’s a free cellphone holder for your desk from Ringtone Hall.

Digilake.com ~ online retailer of consumer electronics has two freebies available, both with the digilake logo on them: a free blank DVD+R and free post-it notes.  You need to complete each offer separately.

If you like The New Yorker magazine, don’t miss out on this free bookmark

Food freebies 

Get a free sample of Sundance Organic Life Natural Teas and other cool stuff.  They don’t say what the other cool stuff is, but I’m sure it’s, well, cool.

Original Pho Instant Noodle Soup.  Choose Savory Chicken, Traditional Beef, Garden Vegetable or Succulent Seafood.  Comes in an environmentally friendly reusable plastic cup.

Health & beauty freebies 

Got dandruff?  Try Head & Shoulders Dry Scalp Care or Smooth & Silky Shampoo

Here’s an offer for a sample Mary Kay TimeWise Microdermabrasion Set

If you’ve got red skin, try Eucerin Redness Relief Skin Balm

This is an interesting one: it’s for a sample of SweatBlock, which claims to eliminate underarm perspiration for a week at a time. Be sure to check the ‘free sample’ box on the form to get your sample.

I found this listed as a freebie for teens, but it’s good for anyone with oily skin: Clean & Clear Morning Burst Oil Absorbing Sheets

Freebies for pets: 

Doggy Delightz All-Natural Baked Dog Treats.  You’ll need to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page for the free sample form.

That’s it for this week.  Remember, these offers are only good for
United States residents unless otherwise indicated.  Good while supplies last.  Offers were still available at the time of this posting.

At the end of Tip #5, I indicated that once your sale is over, to make sure you take down your signs.

Because of my experience this past weekend, I’m going to reiterate that statement and make it Tip #6.

Tip #6:  ONCE YOUR
SALE IS OVER, MAKE SURE YOU TAKE DOWN YOUR SIGNS!

Sorry for yelling, but I’m making a point here.  It’s important that you take down your signs after your sale.  Here’s why:

My husband and I just moved across country.  We’ve been in this town less than two weeks now.  We don’t know anyone here, and we sure aren’t familiar with the lay of the land yet. 

Last weekend we decided to check out a few of the garage sales in town.  We figured it’d be a good way to become familiar with the town, and maybe pick up a few bargains for our new home at the same time.

So, armed with our trusty city map, we climbed into our Wrangler and headed out.  There were signs on almost every street corner advertising garage and yard sales.  Most of them contained addresses, so, using our friend the map, we managed to figure out where they were.

As we were driving around, we kept seeing bright green signs touting “HUGE SALE! FRI & SAT”, with arrows pointing the way to the sale.  Being as it was Friday, we decided to go check it out.  So, we’re driving along, following the trail pointed out to us by the signs.  It was easy enough to follow, all the signs were the same color, so we just kept our eyes open for the fluorescent green signs.  The arrows led us through winding streets, in a part of town I didn’t know existed. (Ok, so being here less than two weeks, there are lots of parts of town that I don’t know about yet, but that’s beside the point of my story.)

Anyway, as we get closer to the destination, the signs begin to reveal the address of the “HUGE SALE!”  We finally get on the right street, but something doesn’t look right.  There are no cars parked along the street, no yards or garages that look like they are having the advertised “HUGE SALE!”  We finally find the address, and THE HOUSE IS EMPTY!  As in, the people who were living there were not anymore!  There was a “For Sale” sign in front of the house, but that was it.

I was a bit angry.  We had just spent around 20 minutes following a trail of signs that led us on a wild goose chase.  The people who had held the sale did the right thing initially with their signs by leading would-be customers to their door.  However, they should have taken the 20 minutes or so that it would have required after the sale to remove their signs.  It would have saved us, and the two other vehicles that I know of who were on the same journey, some frustration

So, please, please, please, if you plan to hold a sale, take the time afterwards to remove your signs!

Thanks to those of you who inquired about our move.  The move itself went well (cross-country from Missouri to Arizona), but getting everything established at our new place has been slow.  Things progress at a much different pace in a small town! 

I’m finally back on-line, with a new list of freebies.  Since I wasn’t able to be here as promised on Friday, here’s a special Monday edition of my Freebie Friday listing.

I hope that you’ll be able to find something here that you can use.  These are not affiliate links. 

Food freebies 

Do you like Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn?  How about rice cakes?  If you enjoy both, and are looking for a healthy, new 100 calorie snack, check out the new 100 Calorie Mini SmartCakes from Orville Redenbacher.  This sample is being offered by Wal-Mart. The samples are available in either Caramel or Cheese flavors, but the product is also available in Chocolate.  There’s also Natural Mini Popcorn Cakes in Buttery Garlic, Garden Herb, and Wild Berry.  Unfortunately, there are no samples of this line available.  That’s too bad; I love his natural microwave popcorn, and these Popcorn Cakes sound yummy!

Cleaning samples 

Here’s a cleaning concentrate that’s concentrating on being green.  Econo-Clean claims to replace up to 95% of your cleaning products, by using just this one product for most of your cleaning needs, instead of different products for different purposes.

Sports freebies 

Do you play lacrosse or know someone who does?  If so, you can probably use this lacrosse tape sample roll being given away by a new manufacturer of lacrosse gear.

For the golfers out there, here’s a biodegradable golf tee.

Free clothes! 

Reward Universe is giving away a free t-shirt and cap through September 28^th.  Shirts are organic cotton and are available in the standard sizes.  Caps are one size fits most.

Magazine subscriptions 

Get the November and December issues of Family Circle Magazine for free.

These links/samples were available at the time of this posting.  Offers are limited to one per household.  Most offers only available in the
United States.