Freebies and free stuff

EDIT: Wow, 500 people have signed up! Unfortunately, Yahoo only let’s 500 people in a group, so I’ve created a 2nd official March Madness group. If you’ve already joined the first group, do not join this second group! Scoring will be the same and we’ll just act like both of these group are one giant group.

Now that the official bracket has been determined, I’ve set up a March Madness group for HIF on Yahoo for anybody who wants to participate! Doing so is super easy, even if you know absolutely nothing about college basketball (like me!). Simply click the yellow “Join Group” button, fill out your bracket for who you think will win each game, and earn points for each correct pick you make. Scoring will be as follows:

• First round: 1 point
• Second round: 2 points
• Third round: 4 points
• Fourth round: 6 points
• Semifinals: 10 points
• Finals: 15 points

In addition to those points, you’ll get a bonus point for every correct upset you pick. The games start on March 19, so hurry up and fill out your bracket!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the prizes!

• First Place: $50
• Second Place: $25
• Random Winner: $25

If you win, you get $50. If you come in second, you get $25. And then I’ll pick a random person who participates, no matter what place they come in, to get the final $25. In conclusion, how can you justify not participating?!

And last, but certainly not least, I forgot to mention that we did finally get in touch with a winner for the $50 Amazon giftcard that I gave away two weeks back. The initial winner never contacted me after a week’s worth of e-mails, so I went to the first runner up, which happened to be HiccupQueen! So congrats to her and thanks to everybody who entered

Sorry for the delay in getting this posted. I’m not feeling my best at the moment. In fact, combine my crummy health with the equally bleak weather where I’m at and you’ve got the perfect recipe for staying curled up on the couch and watching movies. I just wish Redbox had a delivery service so I didn’t have to get dressed and go use this free rental code (2GR4N8) in person!

Valuemags is giving away two free issues of Redbook magazine to anybody who signs up (you’ll get the April and May editions). The title Redbook always threw me for a loop. Does anybody else associate it with Mao’s Little Red Book? How many people a year sign up for the magazine thinking it’s a Communist Party ideology guide only to be shocked when the first issue arrives offering 7 ways to wear a bright cardigan? Five? Ten?

For me, coupons have become a shopping staple, but I have to admit that all that clipping and sorting can be a pain sometimes. That’s why I’ve decided to dedicate this post to a few trusty (and free!) paperless coupon sources. The process is simple: sign up online, load their coupons on your store’s shopping card, and they’ll automatically deduct when you scan your card at the checkout. The best part is that you can stack these coupons with paper coupons, so you can often get items for dirt cheap or even free!

The downside is that not every store has these services yet. Most of the following services only work at select merchants.

Cellfire: With Cellfire, you have the option of loading coupons onto a store card or downloading them to your cell phone (if compatible). In addition to grocery coupons, you can also get discounts for restaurants, movie rentals, and more! Sign up and enter your zip code to check out your local deals.

P&G e-Saver: Anyone who buys the Sunday paper for the coupons should be familiar with the monthly P&G Saver coupons for personal care and health products. Did you know they also have the paperless version, P&G e-Saver? The paperless coupons are currently only available at Kroger stores, but anyone can sign up to receive e-newsletters featuring additional coupons and sample offers!

Shortcuts: My personal favorite paperless coupon service is Shortcuts. It’s easy to use, and they offer coupons for a variety of brand name items. You can save up to 50 coupons at a time, create a grocery list, and receive e-mail notifications of new or redeemed coupons. Right now, Shortcuts is only available at about a dozen or so partner stores, but they are always accepting requests for more stores. It doesn’t hurt to ask!

Upromise: Earn some extra money for college or pay off qualified student expenses with UPromise.com. The program has TONS of partners, including restaurants, grocery stores, drugstores, and online retailers. For a more detailed look at how this program works, click here.

If anyone knows of any other good paperless coupon sources, just let me know and I’ll feature them in a future post!

Oprah is giving away free downloads of Jean Chatzky’s new financial book, The Difference, until 10:59 a.m. EST Saturday, March 14, 2009. You have to create a free account at Oprah’s site, which is a slight pain in the butt, but she gives away free eBooks like this from time to time so you’ll only have to do it once.

I haven’t read the book yet, but I’m already trying to guess what Chatzky’s referencing to with the title. Hmmm, the book’s about finances, so what would make the biggest difference in finances? Winning a billion dollars in the lottery? That’s got to be it! Finally, I’ve been waiting for a book to show me how to win the lottery for years!

Today puts us just a few days away from St. Patty’s Day, folks. And up here in Champaign, IL, I could already be done with the holiday. With “Unofficial St. Patricks Day” as a holiday up here for drinking it up, I can tell you that these Illini know how to party. But the real question is, do they know beer tasting?

And that’s where this free Killian’s Brewmasters Tasting kit comes in handy. Why, by registering on the site, clicking on the Brewmaster’s link, and putting in either P3W9L4T or M9N7K3K when I was prompted for a code? I’m now able to say that I’ll have myself 4 more beer glasses and a bottle opener.

Glasses? Who am I kidding! They’ll be juice mugs for me!

[via the forums]

The other day Goob posted some lettuce seeds, and I didn’t get in on that one, sadly. However, I did today find these free tomato seeds from Campbells. You need to enter in some codes and soup names, well just one, but don’t worry, we’ve got you covered:

P8039 – U6 – Cheddar Cheese
P5 – 25 – Chicken Noodle
P5 – 03 – Cream of Chicken
EST4C – 29 – Bean with Bacon
EST4C – 11 – Beef w/vegetables

Five different ways you could go. Not too bad.

And now? I’m just a few months and some additional ingredients away from making my capri salad! Mmmm… Artichokes, tomatoes, mozzarella, olives, basil, and capers… So good!

[via the forums]

Does it not seem like we’re always posting a Kotex freebie? It sure as heck does to me, so much so that I ignored this free Kotex Ultra Thin Overnight Wings for a while thinking surely we’d already posted it. Turns out I was wrong (shocking) and thus I filled out the short survey about my preferred brand of feminine hygiene products. What a perfect way to start off the day!

To make matters even creepier, there’s a really odd drawing on the confirmation page. I don’t know who they’ve got in charge of cartoons over at Kotex HQ, but they should count their blessing that they’re still employed.

Mailed meat.

Try to say that one five times fast without stumbling over it. Or without laughing. That’s exactly how I felt yesterday when I saw this free Volpi Italian Meat sample with joining their e-club. First, I pictured a mailed tray of ground beef instead of a summer sausage log. Why? I don’t know.

But then again, when I did receive Chicago Stockyard hot dogs as a birthday gift a few years ago, I cared more about the dry ice that came with it than I did the actual hot dogs…

[via the forums]

I’ve got to hand it to Pizza Hut. Even if I feel sick whenever I eat from them, they’ve put together a free mix of 25 songs that you can pick and choose from and download whatever you’d like, and some of the tracks on there I don’t feel all that bad about! And they seem to have every genre that they could put on there, just all there. Not bad at all, Pizza Hut…

I mean, seriously, who else could put Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin alongside Joe Bonamassa, Tift Merrit, and Ray J? Well, except for me and some of the mixes I have on my iPod…

[via the forums]