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I completed a survey for Wendy’s and received a $5 gift card via mail last month. While waiting for my gift card to arrive I stopped at Wendy’s and ate. On the back of my receipt was another survey for $2 off a large sandwich or salad. After completing it I received a confirmation number via email which I wrote on the back of the receipt. Just again, last week I ordered from Wendy’s and this time I had both the $5 gift card and the code for $2 off. I wanted to try the new single they keep advertising on the radio so I ordered a single and a baked potato. After the $2 off I owed $2.53. I then handed the cashier my gift card. I still have $1.10 left on my gift card and never paid a dime for lunch. Completely FREE.

Do you eat at Boston Market? Sign up here for $3.00 off and future specials.
We just ate there last month. My kids ate free with an adult purchase. We saved $5 off each kid. cool.

Years ago I had a friend who introduced me to sweepstakes. Once I started entering and winning I was hooked. I won items as small as music cds to as large as a satellite dish with a year of service. Then I started thinking “what else could I get for free”. With a lot of research and a little effort I discovered companies willing to give. I would read and inquire about new vehicles and receive incentives for test driving them. Some car manufacturers wanted my input on the test drive while others just wanted me to see what their car offered. For my time they gave me gifts ranging from prepaid credit cards to restaurant and store gift certificates. One manufacturer gave me a palm pilot: all this for a few minutes of my time. What else could I get for free? I was always upfront about my intensions not to purchase anything and many times the salesperson would sign my test drive certificate and I was off dealership property in 30 seconds. I was determined to find what else I could get for free. I was spending a lot of time shopping in stores and always disappointed not finding what I wanted. Buying online was great except I had to pay the same price as the local store and pay for shipping. This was not the solution. I started thinking “if stores are offering printed coupons maybe they offer online coupons too”. When I found a store I wanted to buy from I would search for coupons. Some online coupons gave a percentage off the order while others gave free shipping. In the beginning my main goal was to get the item for the same price as the store. I used coupons to get free shipping. If I could not find a free shipping coupon I searched for coupons to save the equivalent of what shipping would cost. One day I decided to try and see if I could get the same item cheaper than the local store. I searched for the same item from multiple places and compared prices. Once I found the store I was going to purchase from I looked for coupons. I bought the same item the local store sold for significantly less. I saved time and money by not driving around. I no longer had to put miles on my Subaru looking trying to find that perfect sale and I had more time to spend doing the things I liked and needed. There were crowds to fight online and no people to catch germs from. When I shopped locally for something I always came out with other items I could not resist. Where were the savings! After adding all the changes I made together I determined I was saving a minimum of 50% off the cheapest local store. This led me to dig deeper, what else could I get for free. Is there a way I can make money back from buying necessities and wanted items? The more I can save the more I have to spend on other items. I signed up for reward sites. I did the same as before, researching the best price and finding coupons to go along with it, but I now visited the reward sites to make my purchases. I earned the best price from comparison shopping, coupons to save more, and money back for the purchase. Here is an example: My daughter, Mira, lost one of her new shoes for school. They were a gift that cost $40. She can’t go to school barefoot, even though I would like to send her that way since she lost the shoe, so I went online in search of another pair just like them. I visited a few sites but kept seeing the same price, $39.95. I moved on to determine which company offered me the best reward percentage. I found a reward of 4%. I then looked for coupons for the store I selected. In just a few minutes I found a 20% saving coupon with free shipping and free returns. The $39.95 pair of shoes now cost 7.99 less, for a total of $31.96. This price includes free shipping, free returns and no tax. Oh, and I also made $1.28 (remember the 4% reward). I also earn rewards for shopping locally (for those times I can’t wait to receive the merchandise) and for groceries. And my mind wonders, what else can I get for free?

Today I saved at Lowes. Here is my story. We are having a patio installed with stepping stones (irregular shaped ones, to make a unique pattern). The installer has told us for almost a year when he gets time he will do it for us. We waited because he takes his time and does a nice job and I want it done right. He finally called last night to say he would start work today. We had 54 stones already but after laying them down he figures we need 104 more. That sounds like a lot of money to me, especially when they are $5.98 each at Lowes. I decided I did not have much time to look around and he was ready for them so I checked online and found them same ones at Home Depot for $4.98 each. I decided to see if Lowes does price match and searched their site. Sure enough they do. I printed out the price match policy and both the prices from Lowes and Home Depot websites, I did not want anything stopping me for getting a bargain.  I headed to the customer service desk at Lowes and told them what I wanted: 104 stones. I gave her the Lowes price I had printed and then I said Home Depot sells them for $1 cheaper each one. She said I have to confirm this. I waited for her to call Home Depot to see if they had them, they did.  Since Home Depot did validate they are $1 cheaper Lowes had to honor they policy which states: Find the same item at another store and we will give you their price and 10% off. I purchased all 104 stones for $4.49 each. It always pays to ask if they price match and be prepared to prove it to the store you want to purchase from. They are not very eager give you a cheaper price and extra off. A little time spent can save big.

Hey everyone, I just wanted to tell you about the great saving I found yesterday. I am a JcPenney’s reward member and earn points for shopping there. The points get converted into JcPenney gift certificates when I reach 250 points. Several months ago I turned in a few certificates when I shopped however one was declined at checkout. They said I must of already used it. I threw it out thinking that was the case. Last week I signed on to see if I had any other certificates ready to cash in and that particular one showed I never used it. I wrote to JcPenney’s and asked if there was any way they could re-validate it for me. They were kind enough to do that and I printed it out. In the meantime I completed a survey (they are always on the back of their receipts) for 15% off any purchase. I also had a another gift certificate that I bought myself through another reward site so I could earn 2 points per dollar, I knew I would be using it since I was planning on shopping here for another pair of work pants.

I walked into JcPenney’s, found the pair of pants I wanted and headed to checkout. I did not look around for other items since I did not have the time and did not want to browse shop. The pants were $36.00 and on sale for $21.00  I gave the clerk the 15% off coupon first (to get the maximum savings), then the $10.00 gift certificate that JcPenney’s re-issued me. The pants came to $9.21 with tax. Then I gave her the gift certificate that I purchased above.  I then left there with 79 cents left over on the that gift certificate.  The $36.00  pants only costs me $9.21. This is awesome.

Saving Money and Receiving free items is My Passion!