Internet Freebies

When you sign up for Internet newsletters, deals, coupons, and so forth you almost always have to give and validate an email address.  This is just how things work, and the provider of the goodies has to advertise.  If you fill out a survey, the odds are good you are being profiles and having your information (the subject of the survey) and you email address sold to another advertising group.  It can be a very harsh lesson in spam if you use your regular email address for such things.  Fear not educated consumer, there is hope and a way to turn this strategy into a benefit for your self.

Step 1:  Create a FREE gmail account.  You can call it something like "familyname.specials@gmail.com" or something similar to that.  You;ll get practically unlimited storage, some incredible email search, labeling and archiving tools, advanced filtering, and a place that doesn't care how many emails you get a day.  You can collect all your rewards cards signups here, you coupon groups, and so forth.

Step 2:  With that Google Mail account you can also sign up for a Google Voice account and get a free telephone number that you can use for any offers that require it.  This will keep your home/mobile number free from telemarketers and spammers, and unwanted solicitors.  This is another totally FREE service you can get from Google and it works great.  You can also use this number for all those savings cards and barcodes every store wants to use these days to track your shopping habits.

Step 3: Google Documents comes with your Google Mail account and you can send you coupons straight there from email and categorize them, save them and print them out when you are ready to use them.  Some places will even scan images from your smartphone, so this can go a long way to saving time, paper and clipping.  Think of it as your online envelopes from stashing your coupons.  You can even go so far as to scan the mailers and such that come in the mail if you have access to a sheet fed scanners and a little savvy.

Other Ideas:

• Smartphone Apps: A lot of retailers have very handy apps with exclusive offers to users.  One that I use is from Walgreens, and with it you can even scan your prescriptions to get refills without having to make a call, and then get a text message when they are ready to be picked up.


• Wanting to cancel a service will sometimes get you a bonus of some sort if you decide to stay with the service.  Audible.com is one that comes to mind for me.  If you try to cancel your account they will offer you a bonus title and a $10 service credit, and you can do this once every 6 months.  There have been a few times I wanted to cancel my account, and each time I did I decided to stick with just because they made me the offer.  Cell Phone carriers will often try to keep you as a customer with special offers and credits as well.


• Don't be afraid to ask, a lot of offers are not advertised for the obvious reasons.  One example is my Bank (Mountain West Bank) will refund you ATM fees from other banks up to 4 times a month!  I never would have known that if I did not bring up the fact that another bank automatically does this and a teller told me about the policy.  We rarely use ATM's but this last year at the State Fair we needed cash a couple times and they charged $5 (a total rip off) at the ATM's on site.  That tip from the teller saved me $20 that day and that's nothing to sneeze at!


• Following companies on Social Networking sites can get you deals as well.  GetGlue is one that has 10% off codes and such for following certain brands and tv shows.

In summary keep your personal information close, ask around, share with your friends and keep saving money in mind!