Freebies and free stuff

The freebies are a bit weak today, so I thought I’d take a stab at whipping together a random coupon post. It’s not nearly as good a post as the ones Jenna puts together, but I’m running short on time if I want to make the 3:00 newsletter deadline. Fun trivia, I was watching Jeopardy the other night and learned that the term deadline can be traced back to Civil War POW camps, where they would shoot people who crossed a “dead line.” Wait…what the heck was supposed to be fun about that trivia?

As always, there are 100 times more coupons like these available through sites like Coupons.com and SmartSource.

Groceries:
A-1 Steak Sauce: The good? You get a free printable $2 off coupon. The bad? You have to suffer through an autoplay video.
Hidden Valley: Save $1.50 on any two bottles of dressing. (printable)
Jello Pudding: Save $0.60 on any Jello pudding snack packs. (printable)

Around the House:
Tide: Save $1.50 on the new Tide Stain Release in-wash boosters.

Health & Beauty:
Advil, Centrum, ThermaCare, & More: There are a ton of coupons for Wyeth products here available. You have to take a short (1 to 5) question survey for some of them and the three that I signed up for are all printable, but you don’t need any software for them. This free $1 Advil coupon is an example of what you’ll get. *hint, wink, nudge*
Coppertone: $1 off any Coppertone product. (printable)
Johnson & Johnson: Buy 3 Johnson Baby products and use this coupon to save $3. (printable)

Clothing:
JCPenney: Use the code GR8DAD to save $10.00 on any order. Code expires 6/21.

And finally, it’s worth noting that Kmart is holding a Double Coupon week right now. They’ll only double up to 10 coupons per customer, per day, but it might still be worth the trip depending on what coupons you happen to have on hand (or print today!) If you happen to head their way, this free $5 off any $50 Kmart purchase coupon might come in handy.

EDIT: Their site is having “technical difficulties” at the moment. Too bad they don’t have a bandage for that.

Only a limited number of people can sign up for these two free Nexcare bandages each day, but it’s currently active. I’m always mystified by band aid shapes. Some are circles, others are rectangular, while these are….uh, diamonfied? Diamondoids? Diamondly? Whatever. I just want to know if companies research effective shapes for wounds on different parts of the body. If so, how do they even test that? Simply by hoping their test subjects get hurt in the right place or do they actually slice them open in the lab? And who would sign up for that?!

It doesn’t really matter though, as all of these questions should be moot by now. It’s 2009 and I’m still waiting on my robotic appendages. When I get a paper cut, I don’t want a weenie bandage – I want the finger surgically removed in favor of an indestructible replacement. I don’t think I’m being too demanding here.

EDIT: Unfortunately they’ve run out of subscriptions.

I’m already a subscriber, so I guess I shouldn’t register for this free Popular Science magazine subscription. Instead, I’ll sign up my brother under the same bogus name we always use when secretly communicating with each other: Kaiser Shyzer. It’s like our version of Art Vandelay.

Although it’s dawning on me now that the name probably isn’t so secret anymore. Do me a favor and pretend you didn’t read any of this. Phew, that’s was close. Crises: Averted.

Geez, the signup form for this free bottle of Country Bob’s Sauce coupon is quite thorough. 10 different fields just for your address! All they needed to do was ask which potted plant you keep the spare key under, directions to your bedroom, and voila – freebies delivered in bed.

Stop by your local T.G.I.Friday’s for a free entree with the purchase of another entree. This coupon can be used for lunch or dinner, and you can reprint and reuse the coupon as many times as you want (in separate visits) through June 22! They have some new sandwiches and salads that look pretty tasty!

Also, if you haven’t already signed up for T.G.I.Friday’s Give Me More Stripes rewards program, you should! Just for signing up, you’ll get a coupon for get a free dessert/appetizer and a “skip-the-line” pass entitling you to bypass other parties waiting to be seated. Members will also receive exclusive promotional offers and the chance to earn points for free food. But be warned of 2 things: 1. You can’t combine the free appetizer/dessert coupon with the BOGO entree coupon; 2. When using the “skip-the-line” pass, the waitstaff really frowns upon you insisting on your own dressing room and handing out autographs to all the other customers.

EDIT: I’ve been contacted and told they are out of shirts.

I like hummus. I’m not afraid to admit it. While sometimes folks around me might not like it as much, that’s what they have to live with.

A hummus t-shirt, though, might be a different thing. I’m glad that this free Tribe hummus shirt isn’t actually MADE of hummus. That might be a problem…

*Mmmm-hmmmm*

*Mmmm-hmmmm!*

I’m clearing my throat in a condescending tone here, people. It’s Friday! Don’t you dare tell me you forgot about the free Mars chocolate candy coupon offer that’s available every week. Let me guess, you’re going to forget about my birthday too. And our anniversary… This happens every year! I get up early, cook a huge breakfast for all the Hiffers who are celebrating their one year anniversary since finding the site, and then I get upstairs and you’ve all left for work already. And don’t even get me started on the five course meal I cook every night.

Look, I think we need to talk…

EDIT: They’ve run out of supplies.

Rewards Gold has two free fitness magazines available for men and women right now. We already wrote about this free Muscle & Fitness magazine subscription, but the offer recently came back to life and I happened to get my first two issues on Tuesday. I haven’t read any them yet, but judging from their covers, they’re perfect for anybody with road rage. June’s issue has a picture of a shirtless man screaming while flexing and holding a slab of raw meat. YEEEEEEAH! RWWAAAR!

Call me crazy, but appealing to my animalistic side and then asking me to read more on page 72 seems like two desires a bit at odds with each other. M&F could learn a thing or two from this free Shape magazine subscription. It looks far more tame while having a much higher bikinis to pages ratio. It’s what I like to call win-win.

Over the past few months, I’ve noticed a familiar trend: a trickle of emails each day arrive with the basic message of “help, I can’t get X coupon to print” and then I respond with an e-mail that links to the FAQ of the coupon printing site. Low and behold, a few hours later I find a batch of “thanks, I figured it out!” messages in my inbox.

The thing is, I doubt this trend will stop any time soon since most coupon printing companies which require you to download their software in order to print the coupons have FAQs buried in their website. Talk about not being very user friendly. But thankfully, you’ve got Goob on your side! Below, you’ll find a direct link to each of the main coupon providers FAQs. If none of them provide the answer your problem, then please feel free to leave a comment here. I might not be able to find an answer for everybody’s problem, but darn if I won’t try.

Coupons.com Printing Help – It’s worth noting that if you still have trouble printing coupons from Coupons.com, even after you go through their FAQ, then they will sometimes mail the coupons to you. Take this $1 Sudafed coupon. Look in the lower, right hand corner and you’ll see a tiny link that says “help.” Click that and you’ll be taken to a “mail my coupon” page.

SmartSource Printing Help – By far the hardest to find, yet most thorough, help guide for an online coupon printing site.

Redplum Printing Help – I haven’t received too many complaints for RedPlum, but I thought they were worth adding to the list since you do have to install a small program to print their coupons as well.

Valpak Printing Help – And finally, Valpak. Their FAQ is a bit harder to link to, so go to their site and look for the “Help” text in the lower, right hand corner of the site. They don’t actually require you to install any printing software, but I still get a few emails each week asking about their site.

I understand that not everybody is going to be get printable coupons to work. Law of averages simply tells us that with all the different computers, operating systems, errors, and who knows what else out there, some people will just give up on printing these. But that percentage of Hiffers should be as small as possible since online coupons are a huge source of savings of me and countless others. So what kind of problems are y’all having?

EDIT: No longer available

My associates laugh at how prepared I am. Not only do I carry two black pens, a sharpie, a red pen, a notepad, a mini planner, and hand sanitizer on the sales floor every day at work, I seem to always have an answer. My secret? I just carry it all on me, or call someone for an answer and get it right away.

So it would make sense that I’d like this free Rohto eye drops offer. Just another thing I could carry on me to be prepared. Maybe I should also carry some bandaids in my sportscoat’s pocket… Hmmm…

[via the forums]