Being Thrifty

About a week and a half ago, I wrote a post about free business cards from MarketSplash by HP. I ordered the free cards and said I’d post if I received them.

Well, I received them and they are great! Very high quality, color cards. They are exactly as I ordered them. And they were completely free - no shipping or production fees.

When I ordered them, the website said it would take 7 days for shipping. I ordered them on March 19, in the evening. I received the order by FedEx ground (the free option), on March 24. So, the turn around time was not bad at all.

So, if you have a small business and you are looking to get some totally free business cards, be sure to check this out.

I said I’d have a magazine offer for you this week, and I have two. I also have some other guaranteed-to-get freebies (while supplies last) for you.

How about two free issues of Redbook Magazine . Get the April and May issues of this popular women’s magazine for free. This is an offer through ValueMags, and I’ve always received the magazines I’ve requested, with no unwanted junk or bills.

If Redbook is not your thing, you can receive two digital issues of Fitness magazine for free . This offer is also from ValueMags. I’ve never ordered a digital magazine from them, so I’m not sure how it works.

Another place that always sends out the freebies they offer is Walmart. Walmart has quite a few offers today. These offers tend to expire quickly, so be sure to sign up for any you are interested in soon.

Old Spice Game Day Body Wash

Roots of Nature Remedies Strengthening Oil Moisturizer for hair

Cottonelle Tissue and Wipes

Remember, samples and offers are only available in the United States unless otherwise noted. Limit one sample from each offer per person or household. Available while supplies last. These freebie and sample offers were available at the time of this posting. Author cannot guarantee receipt or quality of these freebies, although I think it’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll get any of these that you request.

Here’s a great freebie if you are in the need of business cards.  For a limited time, you can get 100 free business cards from MarketSplash, a marketing division of Hewlett-Packard .  These are completely free.  There are no shipping or processing fees in this offer.

The cards are full-color, matte finish.  They do have a marketing message from HP on the back, but according to the template, it’s unobtrusive.  Besides, who looks at the back of business cards?  I don’t, unless someone writes a phone number or something there.

You have to choose one of their designs, but there are 74 templates to choose  from.  If you want your own design, they’ll do that for you, but it won’t be free.  Once you choose a design, a form opens up where you can add your name, business name, and other information.  None of the fields, such as address and phone number, are required, so you can put as little or as much information on the cards as you like.

There’s a limit of one free order per address or user.  Your order is shipped directly to your home or business, by FedEx Ground.  If you want to use some other shipping method, you will have to pay.  Since it’s FedEx shipping, they don’t ship to post office boxes. You do have to provide a credit card at check out, but your credit card is not charged.

I placed an order for free business cards for my freelance writing business.  I found a great design, and the template was easy to use.  The shipping estimate is 7 days, so I should be able to tell you all next week if I got my order and what it looks like.  When I checked out, the site said I’d saved $20.93…$13.98 for the item, and $6.95 for shipping.

I’m not sure how much longer they will offer the free business cards, but you might want to check them out!

If you have an IKEA store near you, they are offering a free breakfast from Friday, March 20 through Sunday,  March 22.

The free offer is for one small breakfast (valued at 99 cents) and one small coffee (valued at 99 cents).  Offer is good for one free breakfast per customer while supplies last.

The free breakfast offer is not valid at IKEA Charlotte, IKEA Hicksville, IKEA Houston, IKEA Pittsburg or IKEA Direct.  Check the IKEA website for breakfast hours at the store near you.

To celebrate the first day of Spring, Rita’s Italian Ice is giving away a free regular size Italian Ice treat .   The free Italian Ice is available on Friday, March 20 (the first day of Spring!) from noon to 10:00pm.

The free treat is available for every customer, at participating locations while supplies last.  2009  marks the 17th year of Rita’s giveaway to celebrate Spring. The Italian Ice is Rita’s signature product.  It combines ice with real fruit flavors.  Italian Ice is fat-free and cholesterol-free, and is available in a variety of fresh fruit flavors.  Rita’s even has sugar-free Italian Ice products.

Rita’s Italian Ice locations are primarily in the Eastern and Southeastern parts of the United States.  You’ll want to check their website to see if there is a location near you.

After you get your free pancakes at IHOP on Tuesday, grab some free tacos for lunch.  Jack In The Box restaurants has a coupon that you can download and print to get two free tacos on Tuesday, February 24 only, from 12:00 midnight to 11:59pm local time. Click here to get the coupon .

Somehow, these free tacos are supposed to help Jack get better.  Remember, Jack was hit by a bus in a commercial that aired during the Super Bowl.  Personally, I think Jack’s kind of creepy; he reminds me of a radio antenna ball so you can find your car in the shopping mall parking lot.  But, personal feelings aside, free food is always good.

Limit one coupon per guest per visit, valid at participating restaurants only.

IHOP restaurants are offering free pancakes to customers on National Pancake Day , which is Tuesday, February 24.  Get one free short stack of three pancakes from 7:00am - 10:00pm local time on this date.

In exchange for the free short stack, IHOP asks guests to donate the cost of the breakfast to Children’s Miracle Network or another local charity.  IHOP’s goal is to raise $1,000,000 for Children’s Miracle Network this year.  So far, they have received $35,000 in donations prior to the event.  In 2008, $875,000 was raised for CMN, and 1.5 million pancakes were served. The first IHOP National Pancake Day was in 2006.

Over 1400 IHOP restaurants are participating in National Pancake Day.  There is a limit of one free short stack per guest. Offer is valid only at participating IHOP restaurants while supplies last.

National Pancake Day is celebrated on Fat Tuesday, also known as Shrove Tuesday and Mardi Gras.  It occurs the day before the Catholic season of Lent begins. Lent is a season of fasting.  Pancakes are traditionally served on Fat Tuesday as a way to use up dairy products such as milk, butter and eggs that couldn’t be used during the Lenten season.

It’s the first edition of Friday Freebies for February, and he freebies are really scarce this week. So scarce that I’m listing a few that I’ve listed in the past that are still available. Hopefully there is something here that interests you.

Free Dove hair care samples

Free decal from Black Cloud ammunition. Must be 18 to request this freebie.

Free sample of Natural Persimmon tea

Sample of Ibunex spray-on pain reliever

Free sample of Metamucil from Wal-Mart.

Sample of Celine Dion Sensational fragrance from Walgreens

Sample of non-medicated Nicoderm CQ plus $7 off coupon from Kroger

Sample of Lactaid Fast Act dietary supplement from Sam’s Club

Free sample of Kotex Light Days pantiliners from Costco.  For some reason, the link isn’t working, so copy and paste this code into your browser.

https://secure.startsampling.com/sm/100324/captureAddress.iphtml?item=100324&source=costco&p=&key=9ef0ea062e01895228a473c227f6c544

All freebies listed were available at the time of this post.  Limit one sample per household per offer.  Offers available only in the United States unless otherwise noted.  Author cannot guarantee receipt or quality of freebies.

Since I wasn’t able to post my freebies post on Friday, I’m posting a special Super Bowl edition today.  There are a few offers I found for you today.

Get a free horoscope pendant. Scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up for the free pendant. This offer is available to international customers as well.

Get a free CD and poster from the U.S. Space and Rocket Center’s Space Camp in Huntsville Alabama.

Order a free aspirin pill tote/keychain from Bayer Aspirin and the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease.

Get your free sample of Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almond True Delights from Quaker

Here is a free 2009 Prayer Diary.

Take the Lions Challenge. Order a challenge kit containing one 8.3 ounce can of Red Bull and one 12 ounce can of Roaring Lion Energy Drink and see for yourself which is better.

Get a free sample of Yo-Yo lip gloss.

Offers were available at the time of this posting. Offers available only in the United States unless otherwise noted. Offers available while supplies last. Limit one per offer per household unless otherwise stated.  Author cannot guarantee receipt or quality of any freebie offer listed.

Back on December 12, I listed an offer for 5 free issues of Cosmopolitan magazine.  I’m not in their demographic, but I figured what the heck, free is free, right?  Besides, I really haven’t read a copy of Cosmo since I worked for the company that produces it, and got a free subscription through work.   Now, I read the cover while standing in line at the grocery store, and flip through if a tag line catches my eye, but that’s about it.  So, I signed up for the 5 free issues.  I got the January and February issues both on Saturday.  Now, I have my all-new 2009 Bedside Astrologer booklet, I can find out how to deal with my man when he gets moody (boy do I need that article!), and I know the eight things in my closet that make me look chunky.

Unfortunately, the offer is not available any longer, but if this service is any indication, you should get any of the free magazines you order from Value Mag.