Freebies and free stuff

Thanks to everybody who entered the Amazon Kindle Fire contest this week. I think the total number of entries broke the previous record for any of our previous contests, which is nifty. But you don’t care about that, you probably want to know who won.

So congratulations to Katelyn (kjb222***) and Pat K (patkaneshiro8***)! Both of you should have an email with instructions on how to get your prize, but if you don’t see it, hit me up.

Thanks again to everyone who entered and I’ll be doing another contest shortly!

First, the Amazon Kindle Fire giveaway ends on Wednesday. If you haven’t already entered, what the heck are you waiting for, an invitation? Well consider this your official invite. Also, please bring cake.

Next, I hope you entered the Papa John’s Super Bowl coin flip contest, because America called it right. That means those who entered get free pizza and Pepsi! According to their latest statement, we’ll get an email at 4pm EST with a promo code on how to redeem our freebie. And contrary to what some sites reported, the code will be valid through March 4, so there’s no rush to use it.

Want to win a Kindle Fire? Sure you do. Why wouldn’t you? They’re portable, fun to use, and great for secretly reading goofy books without others judging you. That’s why I’ve teamed up with nine fellow sites to give away two free Amazon Kindle Fire tablets to our readers!

• Adventures of a Couponista
• I Heart the Mart
• Deal Seeking Mom
• Budget Savvy Diva
• Cuckoo for Coupon Deals
• I Heart Publix
• My Litter
• Wild for Wags
• Coupon Mamacita

In order to enter the contest, simply Like the Facebook pages below then fill out the entry form with your name and email. 30 seconds of work – that’s all it takes to win an awesome prize. Maybe 60, tops, and that’s only if you’re also talking on the phone or holding a baby or wrestling a co-worker.

The contest ends on Feb 8th at 11:59pm EST, but there’s no reason to wait that long.

Don’t forget to “Share” this giveaway with your friends!

For some reason I really enjoy saying “new newsletter.” Life is all about the small pleasures.

As many of you probably inferred, I updated HIF’s newsletter service to the fine folks at Mailchimp. I’ve been working out the kinks over the past few months and now it should be good to go. If you want to join up then check out the box over to the right titled “Join the newsletter!” or use this handy dandy link. Either way gets the job done.

Additionally, if you want to make absolutely sure you get the daily updates, add newsletter@heyitsfree.net to your contacts list. Some email providers have been known to send newsletters straight to the spam folder. I promise I’m not a Nigerian Prince nor am I peddling cheap knockoff prescription drugs.

Why join the newsletter? Well besides being able to send me an “out of office” message every day (seriously, what’s the deal with those?) the newsletter is your one stop freebie dose each and every day. As a bonus, I’ll pick two subscribers at random to win a $50 American Express gift card! I’ll use Random.org to pick the winners on Wednesday, January 12, at 8:00pm est and email them!

If you’ve got any questions about the contest or newsletter, please leave a comment.

EDIT: If you were already a subscriber before today, then you’re already entered into the contest.

I read all 1,482 entries to the latest $50 gift card contest (I only counted entries submitted by the deadline) while watching football this weekeend. There were some pretty funny answers and Hiffer Ines’ unique freebie rendition of O’ Christmas Tree was pretty awesome as well. In fact, there were so many good answers that I wanted to add three addendums to the Top 10 Freebies List. How I forgot about these three awesome freebies is beyond me.

#11 – Mrs. Fields cookie tin – These were downright delicious. I polished the tin off a littler quicker than I should have, but on the bright side I got my months worth of calcium in only a day!

#12 – Amazon Prime Membership – This badboy saved me during the holidays. It’s actually still available through Amazon Mom!

#13 – Picaboo Photo Book – This took me a little while to design, but it was so worth it. It was one of those freebies that was so nice that I would have easily felt comfortable giving it away as a gift or putting on my coffee table.

I’m extremely jealous of everyone who got their Newcastle Brown Ale beer glass too. I’m left drinking my brews out of the free sippy cup I got.

Oh yeah, the contest winner! It was comment #775 authored by Shell H. Thanks to everybody who entered and the next contest starts later today!

So, let’s see. 2010 for HIF saw:

• 1,242 Freebies Posted
• 1,026 Freebies Received (including movie rental codes and online free points)
• 268 Magazines Received
• 1 $50 Gift Card being given away in this post

These stats don’t count anything I got in January 2010 since I didn’t start the Freebies Received series until February. It also doesn’t count freebies that were posted in the past few weeks that I’ll receive in the future, so I have to be ecstatic with those numbers.

One thing I noticed while going over the past year was the number of food items given away this year. Granola bars, oatmeal, cookies, tea, coffee, cereal, crackers, popcorn, candy, gum, deli meat, bacon, macaroni, Bisquick, chips, energy bars. I’ve always food is one of the three most common freebies, but geez, you don’t realize how much we got until you add it all up.

But what about my absolute favorite freebies? I thought for a bit, looked around to see what freebies I still use to this day, and came up with the following.

Top 10 Favorite Freebies of 2010

1. US Postal Office Sample Showcase – This box came with 12 freebies and it was glorious. Coffee, shampoo, steak seasonings, lotions, soap, and more – it was all put to good use!
2. Uniball Super Ink pen – I haven’t used a different pen since the day this baby arrived. I actually lost it a few weeks ago and bought a few packages of them at the store. Anybody who says freebies don’t convert to paying customers should think again.
3. Multi-tool pocket knife – No more opening packages with my teeth!
4. Kraft Sample Pack – Ten food products (including three free full-sized ones) came in the box. I buy Wheat Thins now due to this freebie alone.
5. Kraft Coupon Book – Kraft again? You better believe it. One tiny brochure brought six coupons for free full-sized Kraft products from deli meat to macaroni to a free pizza. I ate well that week.
6. American Apparel thong – Only because I had a heck of a time explaining it to my friends who saw me open it.
7. Tena Adult Underwear – These freebies helped me execute a longterm prank where I convinced my youngest brother that I wasn’t potty trained. It ended when his teachers started sending home notes about the topic he brought up during “Share Time” in class.
8. LED UFO light – Let me paint a picture for you: I’m alone in the mountains in the middle of a monsoon when my car breaks down. I had an idea what the problem was, but both the bulb in my hood and my cell phone were dead. Enter the UFO light, which I had inexplicably thrown into my glove box. Long story short I slept in my bed instead of my truck that night.
9. Extra Dessert Delights gum – I selected the mint ice cream gum and it tasted so genuine that I bought both of the other flavors. I am now addicted to the Key Lime Pie and am begging my friends and family for an intervention.
10. Playboy and Macworld magazine subscriptions – Both of these tie for the final spot as they’re wonderful reads. Seriously. I read them for the articles!

Another realization I had while going through the archives was the number of full sized freebies that I received, be it through the mail, coupon, or rebate. For the list below, I didn’t include anything that could (or should I say, should) be used or consumed in one sitting. Doing so would have more than tripled the list as there were plenty of drinks and travel sized toiletries handed out.

Full Size Freebies

1. Bar of Dove soap
2. Package of Double Stuf Oreos
3. 7 bottles of Excedrin medicine – Did anyone else remember that in addition to the free coupons Excedrin has recently bombarded us with, they also gave away a few in January / February of 2010? I sure didn’t.
4. Bottle of Louisiana hot sauce
5. Package of Heluva Good Dip
6. Package of Borden cheese
7. Bag of Reese’s Pieces
8. Pantene Nature Fusion shampoo
9. 2 bags of Planters Trail Mix
10. Pack of 5 React gum
11. Pack of Stride gum
12. Jar of Enfamil baby formula
13. Bottle of Renu Multi-Purpose contact solution
14. Package of Oscar Mayer turkey bacon
15. Box of Kraft macaroni
16. Package of Oscar Mayer deli meat
17. Package of Uncle Ben’s rice
18. Package of Kraft Cheesy macaroni
19. Jug of Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice
20. Box of Kool-Aid
21. Box of Mac & Cheese
22. One DiGiorno’s pizza
23. Box of 100 calorie cheese bites
24. Package of Oscar Mayer deli meat
25. Box of Ritz Crackerfuls
26. Package of Pilot pens
27. Bottle of Suave Professionals shampoo
28. DiGiorno deep dish pizza
29. Bottle of Pure Scent~sation hair remover
30. Bottle of V8 V-fusion green tea
31. Glade candle
32. EasyGlide Bic pen
33. Mrs. Fields cookie tin
34. 2-liter of refreshe soda
35. Package of Cottonelle flushable moist wipes
36. Two Proforce cleaning kits
37. Bag of Natura Advantage dog food
38. Pack of Extra Dessert Delights gum
39. Can of Pringles Xtreme chips
40. Box of Barilla pasta
41. Bag of Food Should Taste Good chips
42. Bottle of free Dream Water

Forty-two full sized freebies! How can anybody hate on that?!

So what was your favorite freebie of 2010? Share it with us in the comments below and you’ll be entered to win one of the $50 prepaid American Express gift cards given to me by P&G last month!

If you’re reading this via Facebook, email, or an RSS feed, then please click here to comment and enter. I’ll use Random.org to pick a comment on Wednesday, January 5, at 8:00pm est and email the winner!

Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Rocking Boxer Day, Cheerful Festivus, or whatever other holiday you might celebrate. I’m heading off to bed with eager anticipations for Santa’s gifts (come on, Easy Bake Oven!), but I wanted to first say a giant Thank You to all the Hiffers out there. 2010 was an amazing year and even though I’ve said it many times before, it’s worth repeating: this place wouldn’t be anything without each and every one of y’all. I hope everyone reading this has/had a fantastic holiday and I’ll be back with more freebies on Monday.

Also, Stacey was the winner of the recent $50 gift card. Almost 1,500 people entered!

I love Panettone – a sweet bread with dried fruit. I always eat it at Christmas.

To everyone else, good luck during the next few contests!

Remember the 100,000 days of free drinking water campaign that P&G Give Health was running? Well I’m proud to announce that they reached their goal weeks before their deadline and that Hiffers alone contributed 7325 days! That’s over 20 years of free drinking water. As a bonus, P&G will add an additional day to their 100,000 count for each new fan they receive on Facebook through January 31, 2011.

I can’t tell you how proud I am of our little community. For years we’ve been getting freebies for ourselves and yet when it came time to help out those in need, so many of y’all stepped up and took just a few minutes out of your day to make a difference. Rock the eff on!

Now for the even better part. P&G gave me a $50 prepaid American Express gift card for every 1,000 people I got to participate. For the math dunces out there, that means I now have seven $50 gift cards! While some webmasters might pocket a few, I’ll be giving them all away to Hiffers because y’all deserve them way more than I do.

So for today’s gift card, leave a comment on this post and let me know what your favorite holiday treat is. For instance, mine is anything that’s 90% sugar. I’ll use Random.org to pick a comment on Friday, December 24, at 8:00pm est and email the winner! And seriously, thanks again to everyone who helped make a free donation.

The fine folks over at Photo Card Creations have offered to give away 50 free photo cards to a lucky winner here on HIF. The winner will be able to choose from any of their custom cards, from a batch of classic thank you cards to some cute birth announcements. And if you’re not ready for a life changing event, they have tons of party invitations as well.

So how do you enter?

1. Add Hey It’s Free to your RSS reader. If you already have or after you’ve done so, leave a comment saying what reader you added the feed to.
2. Join Hey, It’s Free’s Facebook page. Again, if you already have or after you’ve done so, leave another comment.
3. Follow Hey, It’s Free on Twitter. Like the others, leave a comment after you’ve followed HIF.

So, if you decided only to add HIF to your RSS reader and join HIF’s Facebook group, you’d leave two separate comments and get two entries. Make sense? Good luck!

Contest ends at noon on Monday, March 22 and the winning comment will be randomly selected. Winner will be notified by e-mail and added to HIF’s Winners page.

Seeing as how over 600 people participated in last years March Madness contest, I figured tonight would be as good a time as any to set up this year’s rodeo. After the fiasco with Yahoo last year, I spurned their fancy-pants scoring system and turned to ESPN. Here’s the official HIF group (password is hiffers) and in order to be considered for prizes, join up and make your picks before the first game at noon on Thursday, March 18.

As for the prizes:¹

• First Place: $100 GC
• Second Place: $50 GC
• Third Place: $25 GC

Trust me, you don’t have to have any idea what you’re doing in order to have fun or play. I blindly pick teams and still managed to come in like 9th place last year. I don’t even watch pro basketball, let alone college, but having a bracket gives you the perfect excuse to slack off from working and cheer for a random team you’ve never heard of.

Just don’t pull a Goob, as my friends call it, and routinely cheer for a team that you actually picked to lose. There’s no word for the emotional gut wrench that comes moments after realizing such an idiotic mistake.

1. As usual, you can pick what store you want the gift cards for [↩]