Freebies and free stuff

We’re fast approaching crunch time, so if you’re about to dash out for a few last minute presents, then maybe some of these coupons below can help. Not with dashing, but with saving you money. All of them are Christmas specials, so they expire within a few days and are meant to be used by last minute shoppers.

Borders: 33% off any one item both in-store and online. (thanks Andrew!)

CVS: Like them on Facebook and get a 20% coupon to be used in-store.

Old Navy: 30% off any in-store single item.

Sears: For today only (12/22) you can get $10 off any $20+ in-store purchase of apparel, intimates, accessories, fragrances & cosmetics.

I know some people like to open a Christmas present a day or two early, but I’ve never understood why. You have one less present for Christmas now! Where’s the fun in that? Fortunately I’ve got you coved. On Thursday and Friday (Dec. 23 & 24), use code thanku to get one free Blockbuster Express movie rental. Your guess is as good as mine in figuring out what they’re thanking us for, but I like to think it’s for our beautiful smiles and sparkling personalities.

My mom’s box of Christmas CDs were “mysteriously” “misplaced” by “me,” but it looks like I taught her how to hunt for deals a little too well because within minutes she’d found 99 Christmas songs for $1.99. It’s pretty much all orchestral and choir music, but heck, I’ll take it. In the spirit of the season, I’ll put up with the unending Christmas music in exchange for the unending baked goods that are being produced.

In my quest for music that’s all over the place (like Das Racist, for example), I happened to stumble across this free Jay-Z and Radiohead mashup download. Needless to say? I now have well over “99 Anthems” on my iPod and its just one of many!

Parental Advisory: This is all uncensored, so you miiiight want to keep this away from little ears…

I wouldn’t say I’m amazing at math. I’m better than an associate of mine who when I asked him what 1 + 1 was, he stared at me with a blank face. But when I see this offer to “like” Ruffles for a 99 cent coupon for a 99 cent bag of Ruffles chips? I have enough common sense to know that its essentially a free bag of chips. Sure, I’m paying tax, but with my income tax return, I’m bound to get that money back.

The extra money I get back in April is just the interest that I’ve accrued for my 8 cent chip purchase…

I’ve read a lot about things like this free red wine supplement tablet, but in all honesty? If I want the benefits from the wine, I’ll just drink a bottle or two… I mean, I work in retail, tis the season, right?

Whenever my family gets together for the holidays, somebody gets sick. Every freaking time! That’s why this year I’m taking a preemptive approach and forcing everybody who comes home to take boat loads of medication. Got a sniffle? Here, take these vitamin D pills. Watched a movie where somebody vomited? That’s it, you’re chugging a bottle of Pepto-Bismol. I’m not playing around this year.

Of course, this is going to cost me a little more money than I’d like, so I’ll be using a few coupons, such as:

• $2/1 Aleve coupon
• $1.50/1 Theraflu coupon
• $1/1 Bayer Aspirin
• $4/1 Benefiber

Eh, you know what? I’m just going straight to the “Health Care” sections of Coupons.com and SmartSource and printing everything they’ve got.

EDIT: Looks like this offer is gummed up. Get it? The gum offer is gummed? … You’re right, I’ll be quiet now.

The whole family is getting together tonight, so no joke for this free pack of Stride Gum on Facebook. 15% of HIF’s readership is actually thankful for this development.

Ugh, the site doesn’t work in Safari or Firefox. I finally managed to get it working in Chrome.

We’re T-Minus 5 days away from Christmas, which is depressing not only because that’s the closest I’ll ever come to being an astronaut, but also due to the fact that I have a ton of presents left to buy. However, thanks to the free Amazon Prime trial being offered, we all have until the end of the day tomorrow to make sure our gifts arrive by Christmas.

Prime is a program that normally costs $80 a year to guarantee two-day shipping on hundreds of thousands of items that Amazon sells. The trial is free, but this won’t work if you’ve been an Amazon Prime member in the last 13 months! That means if you signed up for a free trial last year, then you don’t qualify this time around. Are you out of luck? Heck no! Just sign up for Amazon Mom! It’s a program that gives free two day shipping as well and is aimed at anyone with a kid, though, uh … it’s not like they can check. Dig me?

There’s also Amazon Student, which gives anybody with a .edu email address a full year of Amazon Prime.

Of course chances are you only want these shipping deals for this week. Well that’s cool, just make sure you cancel the service by doing the following:

Go to the Manage Your Prime Membership page and click “do not upgrade.” You’ll continue to enjoy your Amazon Prime benefits until your free trial period is over. Then your membership will automatically cancel. Your credit card will not be charged.

Now what’s up with the free one-day shipping? Well, Amazon is offering this on certain electronics, video games, and software. A full list of free one-day shipping items can be found here.

The free two-day shipping end tomorrow night (Tuesday, Dec. 21) while the free one-day shipping ends the following night (Wednesday, Dec. 22). Good luck!

The freebie drought from a few weeks back has finally caught up to my mailbox. If it weren’t for the recurring free magazines and items I ordered months ago, this week would have been abysmal. All of those magazines are going straight to the recycling bin though because I s*&t you not I still have Christmas gifts to but. Like, all of them.

Actually, I’ll probably thumb through that Macworld. And is that Tron on the cover of ESPN? Oh, who am I kidding, there’s no way I can pass up reading Redbook’s articles on the seven things he isn’t telling me or their cheap beauty tricks.

Freebies Received

• Eat Better America 2011 calendar
• Random Diabetes journal that I have no idea how I got
• Coupon for one free Dream Water
• Woolite Dry Cleaner’s Secret
• Mariani Cinnamon Raisins
• One weeks worth of Wall Street Journal newspapers
• January 2011 issue of Harper’s Bazaar magazine
• December 27, 2010 issue of ESPN magazine
• December 20, 2010 issue of Sports Illustrated magazine
• January 2011 issue of Redbook magazine
• January 2011 issue of Town & Country magazine
• January 2011 issue of Macworld magazine
• Dec. 20, 2010 – Jan. 2, 2011 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek magazine