Freebies and free stuff

You’ll need a prescription from your doctor in order to get this free Contour Diabetes meter, but regardless I thought this was a pretty good offer. Of course diabetes runs in my family. Why couldn’t my family have a hereditary case of something cool? X-ray vision or extendable arms like Inspector Gadget. Heck, I’d settle for something lame like super slow growing finger nails. Just give me anything other than a disease!

After you fill out the form, you’ll get a coupon for the meter.

If you’re never played the game Portal, you’re really missing out. It’s a crazy game that … I don’t even know how to explain it. The object is to get from room to room and your only weapon is a little gun that zap you around. Okay, that makes it sound stupid, but trust me when I say it’s one of the better puzzle games out there.

Making it even better is that from now until May 24, you can download it onto your PC or Mac for free via Steam. The download is fairly large, so you might want to start it before you go to bed.

[thanks Allyson!]

EDIT: This is no longer available.

Does anyone else ever get a free pedometer and then vigorously shake it for a few minutes to make it look like they’ve been more active than they have? No, just me? Okay, carry on.

EDIT: The sale ended.

The freebies are a bit slow this week, so I’m posting this deal that I just found. If you’re in the market for a Blu-ray player, there’s a Sylvania NB530SLX Blu-ray Player available for $59.99 with free shipping, which is 70% off the cost of it’s normal $199.99 price tag. I know it’s not free, but I snagged one for myself after using a $10 gift card from Swagbucks and only paid $50 for it!

Now I have to figure out who to give it to. With Easter, birthdays, Mother’s and Father’s Day all fast approaching, there’s no way I’ll be able to decide. So I’ll stick with the safe bet and keep it for myself.

[thanks Southern Savers!]

Sirius radio is offering a free download of Martha Stewart’s Thanksgiving Hotline Recipes cookbook. Maybe this Thanksgiving I’ll whip up something a bit more fancy than my usual peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I was hoping it’d also have some stock tips, but oh well, at least the desserts look tasty!

[via Jeff - thanks!]

For the third holiday season in a row, MacHeist is offering free applications for Mac computers, all of which normally would cost a pretty penny. Around 10% of Hiffers are on a Mac, so to those of you, enjoy! Currently, they’re offering the following pieces of software for free. I’ve also included what they’d normally cost:

• ShoveBox – $25
• WriteRoom – $25
• Twitterrific – $15
• TinyGrab – $14
• Hordes of Orcs – $25
• Mariner Write – $50
• Virus Barrier – $70

Mariner Write will only become available if 500,000 total sign up before this round is over in the next three days. Virus Barrier is available only if you share MacHeist on your Facebook account. And finally, the Orc game is pretty darn fun, as the four hours of lost productivity yesterday can attest to.

This free crock-pot recipe e-book has 33 total recipes in it and I couldn’t be happier. I just may live through the winter now! I don’t know who invented the crock-pot, but they deserve an award. It’s literally a magic pot – I throw in a bunch of raw ingredients in the morning and by dinner time, I have something edible and tasty. Why don’t we have more devices like this in our lives?

To get the recipe book, enter your e-mail address in the box that pops up on the first page and then select the option to skip straight to the recipe book. I didn’t print mine out since it’s 50 pages long, but I did print one or two recipes that I’ll try this week.

Audiobooks.net is offering over 460 free audio books to anybody who wants to download them. I have a rather lengthy road trip coming up soon, so hopefully I’ll be able to put some of these to good use and not go mad with boredom. Not to be confused with going mad with anger, which is actually kind of fun as long as there are nearby objects you can punch.

You have to sign up for a free account, but there’s no software to download. Just log in and start downloading whatever you want.

One of the offers that started while I was busy sleeping last week was Kellogg’s new $10 Bonus Bucks promotion. You have until 09/30/10 to do the following:

• Buy three (3) specially marked boxes of Kellogg’s® cereal and collect the codes inside each box.
• Enter codes at Kellogg Bonus Bucks.
• Receive your $10 Bonus Bucks certificate by mail.
• Redeem your certificate at a variety of participating retailers.

So basically buy three boxes of cereal and get a $10 giftcard that can be used at certain stores like Target, Walmart, Toys R Us, and more. Not too bad, especially considering that I go through three boxes of Frosted Mini-Wheats a day. I only eat a bowl every morning, but I use the rest to throw at people walking in front of my apartment every day. Makes for a perfect way to pass the time and let your neighbors know what you think of them!

The four participating cereals are Frosted Flakes, Froot (sic) Loops, Mini-Wheats and Raisin Bran. Also, Redplum has a $1.50/2 coupon for Mini-Wheats that can be applied towards this!

Umm…folks, we’ve got a problem here. The very first sentence on the site for this free Safety Around Dogs video states “Children and dogs go together like peanut butter and jelly.” I hate to ask, but I think somebody needs to. Who’s eating children and dog sandwiches? Isn’t this sort of, maybe, potentially a crime and worth looking into? Why are we being so nonchalant about our nations dwindling children and dog population? Am I the only person worried here?

The video is designed for children in grades K-6 and is offered to teachers, librarians, youth group leaders, animal control officers, animal shelters, veterinarians and community and civic leaders. In order to get it, simply e-mail orderdesk@akc.org and include your name, school or affiliation (for example, the Boys and Girls Club), mailing address and daytime phone.