I consider myself a lucky person, although I don't necessarily believe in luck per say. Rather I think that the energy that you put out into the world (including thoughts) you get back. I would like to think of my recent lucky moment, winning a $500 gift card, as a reward for the hard work I've done the past year. The gift card was for Lands End and I was able to use it at Sears on anything. I bet you're wondering where I won this gift card. I enter the
Lucky Mag sweepstakes on a regular basis. They have new ones every month and you can register and save your info so you just have to click through a couple pages to enter (make sure you click
no for ordering the catalog, I also choose to not receive any emails).
Other ways I've won:
- Winning raffles for gift cards for helping fellow students on their dissertations which usually involve short surveys. I also won a gift card for completing an Online Diversity Training.
- California Pizza Kitchen had a promotion going where you brought back a card for the manager to scratch. We ended up getting 50% off.
- I have one other raffles...the kind where you put your name in a bag and they draw a winner. One item I received was a high power water pump for a fish tank.
- Items from other magazine giveaways.
- I have also entered, but have yet to win from blog giveaways and surveys at the end of receipts from a variety of stores.
You may have seen the extreme couponers on TLC, well I'm definitely not one of them. I have, however, used coupons for items I buy normally although half the time I forget coupons at home. I also go to
http://www.allyou.com/ where you can get daily free samples.
http://thekrazycouponlady.com/ has a freebies section as well. There's a lot of overlap between these two, but not always. I don't do any Facebook likes for free samples, but I am willing to fill out a short form to get free stuff. I also use an email that is mostly for spam/junk mail when I sign up. I only get samples that are completely free and pass on any that you have to pay for shipping and handling for. Along with free samples you are bound to get really good coupons for those products.
Some free items I've gotten:
- A coupon for free coffee creamer (I love coffee so I go through creamer like crazy!).
- A coupon for a free bag of rice.
- A bunch of samples of shampoo, conditioner, body wash and so forth which is perfect for traveling or if you run out of your normal stuff.
- Emergen-C packs
Even though I don't save a ton all at once every little bit counts and definitely makes a difference with my grad school budget!
