Facebook Lists for Freebies

First, let’s talk about Facebook Lists. They’re a new feature and they’re awesome. You can create lists and add certain people and pages to them. Family and Close Friends are no-brainer types of lists, but why not make a freebies list?

To start, go to the Facebook homepage and you’ll notice that your lefthand sidebar should look something like this. Click the “more” link next to Lists.

You’ll now see all your lists. There are a lot of crap, default ones (as you can see from mine). You’ll want to hit the “Create a List” button in the top right corner.

You can call your new list whatever the heck you want, but seeing as how this is a how-to guide for freebies, I named mine Freebies. On a related note, this post is riveting, huh?

You’ll now be presented with your new list, which is empty. We need to add some freebie sources to it. Hey, why don’t we add this cool page called Hey, It’s Free?! They’ve got freebies and jokes and everything (well…just freebies and jokes. And even the jokes aspect is debatable).

After clicking “Add friends,” you should see all your friends. But we want freebie pages in this list, not your old high school pals. Look for a drop-down box in the top left corner and switch over from friends to pages. Then find HIF and click on the icon so that it has a blue line around it with a checkmark.

If you can’t find HIF, then you most likely haven’t become a fan of (Liked) us on Facebook. If that’s the case, for shame! Na, it’s cool, I forgive you. But you’re going to have to like HIF in order to add us (or any other page) to your newly created Freebie list.

You should now see the new Freebies list on your sidebar. Yours will be down in the Lists section, but as you can see, mine is up in the Favorites for easier access. If you want to move yours up as well, just start over with step 1 (click the More link next to Lists), click the pencil next to your Freebies list, and say it’s a Favorite.

You can obviously add more than just HIF to your new Freebies list. Don’t worry, HIF and I know you read other freebie sites, we’re not offended. Well, I should say, I’m cool with it. HIF can sometimes be rather temperamental.

Getting HIF back into your Newsfeed

So what if you just want to get HIF back into your Newsfeed but not create a list? Again, this is assuming you’ve already liked HIF.

Find any entry we’ve made and either (A) click on the blue triangle in the top left corner or (B) click on the dropdown list and select “Mark as top story.” They both do the same thing, but something that triangle can be hard to see.

After doing this, you should get a confirmation message that Facebook will try to put more stories like this in your Top News. You’re going to want to do this a few times and Facebook should magically learn that you really like our posts. I have no idea how or why it does, but then again, that’s how I operate in most areas of life.

At the same time, if you never want to see HIF’s updates in your Newsfeed again, you can select the “Hide all be Hey, It’s Free!” option from that dropdown list in the step above.

Any questions? Fire away in the comments below!

© Hey, It's Free!™ LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published for Hey, It's Free! as Get HIF Back On Your Facebook Homepage.

Before we get started, if you’re so inclined, you can follow HIF and/or myself on Twitter. The HIF feed is for freebies while my feed is where I swear about stupid things in my life. It’s fun.

So, the one thing we have going for us is revoking access on Twitter is a whole heck of a lot easier than on Facebook. Step one, obviously, is logging into your account. Once there, you want to click the arrow next to your name in the top right.

Next, click “Settings” to get to your settings. Did I even need to type that sentence?

I’m beginning to seriously question if this post is even needed, but we’re too far in at this point. Now that you’ve arrived at your settings, click the “Connections” tab.

Finally, hunt down those pesky applications you’ve granted access to and click “Revoke Access.” They should immediately turn grey.

So there ya have it. Hopefully this helps a few Hiffers out there in cleaning up their Twitter accounts and protecting their privacy while also still being able to get a few Twitter freebies.

© Hey, It's Free!™ LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published for Hey, It's Free! as How to Delete Twitter Apps.

Hi, I’m Goob. You may remember me from such internal memos as “this loser keeps making fun of our dog perfume” and “does anyone know if we still have that hitman on retainer?” I’m here to ask that you, for the sake of my sanity, please stop announcing future freebie giveaways. Why? Because you screw them up.

Here’s an idea: release a freebie then tip off a few bloggers. Seriously, it’s that easy. Hit me up. I’ll gladly put you in touch with two dozen of the biggest freebie bloggers who would love to share your offer with our combined billions of readers.¹ We’re all nice guys and gals who, myself excluded,² would be happy to write about your freebies with nary a negative comment. Plus think how nice it would be if your site wasn’t constantly down thanks to a deluge of people sent all at once!

I’m sure my withered olive branch won’t be enough for some companies though. You want your giveaways to be “events!” You want to reward your Facebook fans for proclaiming to the world “I LOVE DEODORANT!” I get it. So how about this – give your IT guy a heads up. Take it from a fellow hunk poindexter, he won’t wet his pants and cry when you tell him there are going to be an extra 25,000 people on your site at noon tomorrow. He’ll beef up the system and, surprise surprise, your damn site won’t crash!

I had a company once ask if I’d like to help consult for their upcoming series of giveaways. I don’t think I best expressed my flattery when I laughed and said “just make sure you have enough #$@*ing servers to handle the surge of traffic.” Guess what they didn’t do. o_O

So, in conclusion, stop wasting my readers time and start listening to me.

Forever Yours,

Goob

© Hey, It's Free!™ LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published for Hey, It's Free! as An Open Letter To Freebie Giverawayers.

1. margin of error: +/- a few billion.
2. I’m still going to mock you as long as you insist on botching these giveaways and branding your products with stupid names.

But let’s be honest, it’s not the prettiest thing in the world. I’ve been wanting to give it a nice overhaul for a while. In addition, I’ve been wondering just how accurate some of the information is. So a few weeks ago I started from scratch and began signing up for each and every birthday club listed (plus a few dozen new ones!) My birthday is in two weeks and the offers have started to trickle in, so the new page will be completed shortly.

To make matters awesomer, almost every restaurant on the list offers some sort of freebie just for signing up! So starting now I’ll be posting one or two restaurants each day and highlighting what their eClub and birthday freebies are. First up: Atlanta Bread Company!

Signup Freebie: Free bowl of soup with the purchase of a full sandwich or salad.
Birthday Freebie: Free cookie.
Bonus Freebie: If you like them on Facebook, you get another free cookie.

© Hey, It's Free!™ LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published for Hey, It's Free! as Free Birthday and eClub Goodies.

LAST UPDATED: 10-17-2011

First off, people complain about having to like a company. I understand that, as I don’t really like Emergen-C or Ritz or Burt’s Bees enough to “like” them on my personal Facebook account. So you know what I did? I used my freebie email address to make a second, fake Facebook account. Seriously, it’s free, it’s easy to do, and it’s the account I use for all of my Facebook freebies. I didn’t add any friends to it, I used a fake name, and I snagged a random picture off Google Images to use as my profile image.

But let’s say you’ve already liked and added a bunch of companies and apps. How do you get them off your profile? Go to your Profile -> Info -> then scroll down to “Activities and Interests. Here’s what mine looks like

All you have to do is click on any of the companies that you want to unlike and it’ll take you to their Facebook Page. Let’s go with the Ritz Crackers page. Once there, scroll down until you see the bottom of the lefthand sidebar. There you’ll find a link that says “Unlike.” Click it and that’s it! You now no longer like the Facebook page and it won’t show up in your news feed or on your profile.

Now what about those apps that want to access your Facebook info and friends? Well to delete them, go to the top right of any page and click the down arrow -> Privacy Settings.

Once this page loads, you’ll want to look halfway down the page for “Apps and Websites.” Click the “Edit Settings” link there.

Here’s my Applications page. There are a bunch of options here, but all you’ll want to click the very first “Edit Settings” button.

This will finally pull up every single application you’ve added to your profile. How do you delete these? Easy, just click the tiny gray X on the far right next to any application that you want to delete. Confirm that you want it gone and you’re all set. It can now no longer access any of your information.

Click to Enlarge

Here are the steps I usually take with a Facebook freebie. I like the company, I install the application, I fill out the form to get my freebie, then I immediately unlike the page and uninstall the application. Some people suggest waiting until you’ve received the freebie before unliking and uninstalling, but I don’t see the point. Then again, if you’re using a fake Freebie Facebook account as I suggested in the first place, it doesn’t matter if you never unlike or uninstall an application as there isn’t any information for them to access in the first place!

So there ya have it. Hopefully this helps a few Hiffers out there in cleaning up their Facebook accounts and protecting their privacy while also still being able to get a few Facebook freebies.

© Hey, It's Free!™ LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published for Hey, It's Free! as How to Delete Facebook Apps & Likes.

Most of these freebies are a “bonus card” instead of a “gift card,” which basically means that they’re one-time use only. As opposed to a gift card, a bonus card doesn’t carry a balance. So, for instance, if you had a $5 bonus card, you’d want to use it on a purchase that was over $5, so that you could use the entire card. If you tried to use it on a purchase of $3, then your purchase would be free, but you’d also be losing out on $2.

And as always, please make sure you read the fine print. Most of these have expiration dates as soon as February and March. Also, many of the rewards cards have the stipulation that they cannot be used to purchase alcohol.

Oh yeah, this list is pretty repetitive and boring. I realized halfway through that most of the stores were offering only slight variations of the same freebies, so they all read more or less the same. You may want to simply scan the list and look for any stores you might be interested in buying a card from.

Abercrombie – Make a $100 purchase in-store and get a $25 gift card! They’re also running a $200/$50 offer.

Applebee’s – Buy $50 in gift cards and get a $10 bonus card.

Benihana – Buy $50 in gift cards and get a $10 bonus card.

Bonefish Grill – Buy $100 worth of gift cards and you’ll (A) get a $20 rewards card and (B) be entered into a contest to win $5,000.

Bruster’s – They have a few different deals going: a free $5 gift card with the purchase of a $25 gift card, as well as $10/$50 and $20/$100.

Buca Di Beppo – Get a $25 reward card for every $100 in gift card purchases.

Buffalo Wild Wings – Buy a $25 gift card and get $5 back (though I can’t tell if this is in cash or reward card form).

California Pizza Kitchen – Purchase $100 in gift cards and get a $20 rewards card.

Carrabba’s – Buy $100 in gift cards and get a $20 bonus card.

Chick-fil-A – Buy a $20 giftcard and get a free 2010 calendar, which contains over $20 in of coupon. [via Freebies 4 Mom - thanks!]

Claim Jumper – Buy $50 in gift cards and get a $10 bonus card. This is getting a little repetitive, huh?

Corner Bakery Cafe – Buy a $25 gift card and get a $5 bonus carzzzzzzzzzzz. Whoops. I fell asleep there after putting myself into a trance by writing the same thing over and over.

Cosi – Buy $50 in gift cards and get a $10 bonus card.

CVS – Get a $5 eGift Card for every $25 you spend.

Denny’s – Buy a $25 gift card and get a $5 Denny’s card.

DSW – Buy a $50 gift card, get a $10 bonus card between now and 12/24. [via Melody - thanks!]

Fandango – If you purchase a gift card, you’ll receive a special thank you rewards valued to to $100. I have no idea what the reward is, however I’d guess it’s free movie tickets or something.

Fazoli’s – Buy a $20 gift card and get a $5 off coupon.

Flanigan’s – Buy $100 in gift cards and get a $20 gift card.

Friendly’s – Buy a $25 gift card and get a $5 Bonus Card.

Half Price Books – Buy a $25 gift card and get a $5 coupon.

Hollister – Make a $75 in-store purchase and get a $25 gift card. They also have a $150/$50 offer.

IHOP – Buy a $25 gift card and get a $5 coupon for your next visit.

Kohl’s – They have quite the ladder system set up, where the more you spend, the more Kohl’s Cash you get. It starts at $50/$10 and goes to $250/$50 with coupon increments increasing with each $50 purchase thereafter.

Margaritas – Buy $25 in gift cards and get a $5 rewards card.

McCormick & Schmick’s – Buy a $50 gift card and get a $10 dining certificate. Hey, look! It’s not called a reward card here! They also have a $100/$25 option available.

Moe’s Southwest Grill – Buy a $25 gift card and get a $5 Moe Buck for yourself.

Ninety Nine – Buy a $25 gift card and receive $5 off your next meal.

O’Charley’s – Buy a gift card for as little as $20 and get a $5 reward card.

Outback – Purchase $100 in gift cards and receive a free $20 bonus card.

P.F. Chang’s – Buy a $50 gift card and get a $10 Be Our Guest Card.

Pappas – Buy a $50 gift card and get a $10 gift card.

Pedro’s Mexican Resautante – Buy a $50 gift card and get a $10 gift card or $100/$25.

Potbelly Sandwich Works – Buy $25 in gift cards and get a ticket good for an originals or skinnys sandwich.

Qdoba – Buy a $25 Q-Cash Card and get a $5 voucher for yourself.

Red Robin – Get $5 in Bonus Bucks for every $25 in gift cards purchased.

Ruth’s Chris Steak House – Buy $250 or more in gift cards (holy crap!) and get 10% back.

Spring Creek Barbeque – Buy a $25 gift card and get a $5 holiday bonus card to use on your next visit.

Souplantation & Sweet Tomatoes – Buy $100 in gift cards and get a free meal pass.

Steak n Shake – For every $20 eGift cards purchased, you’ll get a $5 eGift card.

T.G.I. Friday’s – Buy a $25 gift card and get a $5 Bonus Bites card.

Taco Bueno – Buy a $25 gift card and get a bar of gold. Haha, just kidding, you’ll get a $5 gift card.

Ted’s Montana Grill – Buy $100 worth of gift cards and get a free $20 Bonus Card.

The Container Store – Purchase $100 in eGift Cards and get a free $25 eGift card for yourself.

Unos Chicago Grill – Buy a $25 gift card and get a $5 Holiday Bonus Voucher.

So, do you know any I missed? Let us know in the comments!

© Hey, It's Free!™ LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published for Hey, It's Free! as Buy a Giftcard, Get a Freebie.

However, I thought I could use it to show how I vet freebies when I’m unable to contact the freebie company directly. So if you’re interested in learning more about the process as well as following along while I hunt down who exactly is behind this spreebie (I just made that word up), then please read along. Warning, it’s fairly lengthy.

First, what’s up with their domain? Suzzly.com? Why isn’t this on GetSnuggie.com, which is the Snuggie’s official site? Furthermore, Suzzly’s WhoIs info is hidden, which is the #1 sign of a freebie spam site. WhoIs is publicly available info on who owns a domain, kind of like a phone book for websites. For a fee, the info can be privatized, but I can’t think of any company that does so. Instead, they put their office mailing address and a public 800 number so that their customers can reach them. A spammer, however, is most likely operating out of his/her/its home and doesn’t want their info available, for obvious reasons.

As seen on TV? No, I've never seen Suzzly.com on TV.

Second, the signup page is an iframe, which is pulling from a second domain, SuzzlyPromo.com. An iframe is an old-school technique that in a sense is like a window on a website. It allows a webmaster to load part of a page from Site A and another part from Site B – usually this indicates they only own one of the sites. HIF’s Coupons.com page is an example. The banner should look familiar – it’s part of HIF! However, the coupons load in an iframe below. I don’t manually own or update that section, Coupons Inc. does. It’s a handy technique for many websites, however a legit company has little use for it. If they were offering a freebie of their own product, they could simply host the signup form on their own site.

Now let’s get back to Whois info again. SuzzlyPromo not only has private info, but it was registered on Oct. 19, 2009. If hidden info is the #1 sign of freebie spam, a site registered hours before the freebie offer became available is #2. Spammers work in bulk and domains cost $10 a year ($20 if they privatize their info). Typically, a freebie spammer will set up a very basic site with a signup form and collect as many submissions as possible. However, before the year is up, folks like myself ID the site as spam and thus people stop signing up. The spammer will then simply delete the domain after a year and start the process all over again with a new domain and spreebie. If I see a site that was registered in late 2009 (or whatever the current date is), it’s cause for further examination.

By now, I would have moved on to the next freebie since it’s clear to me that this isn’t legit, but let’s keep digging. We submit our info, reach the confirmation page, and…Google Ads? Quick, name a large company that both (A) Gives away freebies and (B) Has Google Ads on their site. BZZZZZ, time’s up. I notice that collectively we came up with zero examples. Now, Google Ads aren’t evil or spamish at all, but they’re used by smaller sites like HIF, not companies giving away freebies. Furthermore, check out the footer links on the confirmation page. They all go to a third domain, Spooluff.com. That domain doesn’t even have a main site and two of the four links (Shipping & Contact) go to dead pages! The owner of Spooluff isn’t a company, but some some random guy named Joshua Comeau, who lists his address as 96 St. Patrick, Toronto Canada, his e-mail as joshuav@gawab.com, and his phone number as 647-833-9673. Oh, and the domain was registered on October 9, 2009. How lovely.

Gaweb.com is a spamish directory (surprise!), the phone number plays a recorded “this number is not assigned to anybody” message when you call, and Google says the address is home to the Toronto Standard Condo Corporation, which certainly (although not definitively) looks like a residential complex. Furthermore, a Google search of “Joshua Comeau Toronto” pulls up this discussion from almost four years ago where a person by the same name in Canada was running freebie spam sites. I know, I’m shocked!*

Finally, if you call the phone number (206-337-7752) that’s on Suzzly’s site (and in the confirmation e-mail), you’ll get a recorded message and then be given a prompt to hit # for more options. This is followed by “to enter your K7 security code, press 4″ which means they’re using K7.net, a free voicemail and fax system. Now come on. This supposedly legitimate company has the financial resources to give away tens of thousands of Snuggies (which retail for what, $10-$15 each?) but they can’t afford anything more than a free telephone service for their clients? (edit: The number now plays a recorded message saying Suzzly.com is a spam site and that their snuggie offer is not legit! It looks like K7 received a few complains )

Now if you signed up for this, don’t fret. No creeper will show up at your doorstep. You’ll most likely start receiving more spam e-mail soon (which is why we suggest using a separate e-mail account for freebies instead of your personal or work e-mail!) and at the very worst, a few extra telemarketers will start calling. It doesn’t ask for credit card or banking info, so you won’t be out any money.

But this is what I get paid to do (apologies to my college History degree!) and perhaps this post has not only helped show how I judge freebies, but will maybe nudge this damned snuggie offer closer to the grave. The fewer sites harvesting our info, the better!

—

*I decided to keep following the Joshua Comeau trial, for my own personal enjoyment, and will continue to do so in this thread on the forums. Feel free to join us and help track down this potential spammer!

The same Google search above brought up a message board profile for a JoshuaV, which lists his job as “affiliate marketer” and his location as Toronto. It also lists twoequalsone@hotmail.com as his e-mail, which when searched on social media sites, brings up Josh Volsh (Facebook), Josh (Myspace), and Joshua C (MSN Live). If I search for his new Josh Volsh name, more results pop up of him linking and advertising even more spam sites that I recognize from the past.

I contacted him via e-mail, asking if he would like to comment on this post, but so far I’ve yet to receive a response. I can’t prove anything definitively that he’s behind some of these spam offers, but there’s enough circumstantial evidence here for me to never post anything he’s associated with. If you happen to have any contact info for Josh, please join us on the forums and chime in. I really would love to talk to him…

© Hey, It's Free!™ LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published for Hey, It's Free! as Why The “Free Snuggie” Offer Is A Scam.

Applebee’s – Applebee’s is offering free meals all day long! Well, the offer is all day long, I doubt they’ll let you actually eat meal after meal throughout the entire day. But heck, why not try?!

Golden Gorral – A ginormous video staring Gary Sinise pops up on this page, which makes perfect sense. When I think of Veterans Day and Golden Corral, I obviously complete the trifecta with thoughts of Gary Sinise. Anyway, GC is giving away a free military appreciation thank you dinner on Monday, Nov. 16 from 5-9pm.

Krispy Kreme – All veterans and active military personnel can get a free doughnut of any variety, including glazed, kreme filled, and chocolate cake. Whoa, whoa, whoa – chocolate cake doughnuts? Wouldn’t that simply be a slice of chocolate cake? Somebody at Krispy Kreme Laboratories needs to stop slacking off and come up with better ideas.

McCormick and Schmicks – They’re hosting a special dinner on Sunday, Nov. 8 and space is limited. There’s a reservation form at the bottom of their page, so RSVP today if you want to attend! Parties cannot be larger than 6 though.

*NEW* Outback Steakhouse – All veterans and active duty military get a free Bloomin’ Onion and beverage.

Sam’s Club – Over 25,000 Hugo canes will be given away free of charge to United States military veterans in need of mobility assistance. Sam’s Club membership is not required, but supplies are limited so you may want to call your local store before heading there.

Uno Chicago Grill – They’re offering a free entree or individual pizza with an entree or pizza purchase of equal or greater value. A BOGO isn’t the best offer on this list, but at least you can feed the entire family for half the price.

U.S. Department of Interior – All of the areas managed by the DOI is offering free admission to any and everyone on Veterans Day. This includes all national parks, forests, and monuments.

Those are all of the national freebies I could find for Veterans Day, however there are a ton of local offers available in a few dozen states. Military Avenue seems to have the best collection of them, so be sure to check them out! And by all means, if you know of a nationwide freebie I missed, please let us know about it in the comments!

© Hey, It's Free!™ LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published for Hey, It's Free! as 2009 Veterans Day Freebies.

We’re only a few days away from Halloween and so I thought I’d whip up a post of freebies that are available this coming Saturday. Apparently I’m now too old to steal my siblings candy, so I’ll have to take advantage of a few of the freebies below.

Free Black Jack Taco – Taco Bell is giving away tacos from 6pm until midnight.

Free Chipotle Burrito – After leaving Taco Bell, drive over to Chipotle between 6pm and close to get a free burrito. You have to dress up as a burrito in order to get a freebie, but last year my brother just wrapped a loop or two of tin foil on his head and he was good to go. Unfortunately he’s still wearing it as I convinced him I have telepathic powers.

Free Lamination at Mardel – I’ve never heard of Mardel, but apparently they’re a Christian and education store in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. And the best part is that they’re offering free lamination of anything up to 50 feet. If I lived near a store, I’d take them up on this offer in a heartbeat and laminate the most mundane items. via Freebies 4 Mom – thanks!

Free Event & Prizes at Michaels – From 10am-noon, stop in at your local Michaels to get a free trick-or-treat pail. Plus, they’ll have a free coloring activity with free Crayola Model Magic Fusion and build a Make-It Take-It Halloween frame. Children will also receive a balloon and candy because that’s exactly what they need on Halloween – an early start on the sugar intake followed by a helium chaser!

Free Menchies Frozen Yogurt – Available on Friday and Saturday, you can get a free frozen yogurt at participating stores if you print out a silly hat and wear it in. There’s a slideshow of people wearing the hat on their site and I must say, those people look way too happy and shameless. via Rain – thanks!

Free Toys R Us Treats and Giveaways – I have no idea what “treats and giveaways” mean, but that’s what will be given away from noon-3pm on Halloween. The press release I linked to is long, but here’s the good stuff:

Toys”R”Us stores nationwide will host Trick “R” Treat events on Halloween, complete with costume parades, complimentary treats and giveaways.

As always, you might want to call ahead and make sure your local store is participating.

Bass Pro Shop Freebies – On Friday from 4-7pm there will be a trick-or-treat event throughout the store with a kids’ costume parade at 6pm. Then on Halloween from noon-4pm, there will be mask decorating, marshmallow roasting, and sample dutch over apple cobbler. I one time dropped a mini-dutch oven in a river as a kid. Well, it wasn’t so much “dropped” as “used it as a submarine for my army men.” I got away with it too – sorry, Dad!

Free Mattel Toy at Sears – Bring your child in to any Toy Shop at Sears and get a free Mattel toy. In addition, they have a $5 off $20 toy purchase coupon available. It’s valid between now and 11/1, so you could use it for a Christmas present or something. Be sure to click the red “click for store locations” on their site to see if your store is participating. It looks like mainly stores in California and Illinois are in on the offer, though I suspect any store will take the coupon.

Free YoCrunch Yogurt Coupon – For up to two weeks after Halloween, you can send in any candy wrappers in exchange for a coupon good for any YoCrunch yogurt. Yea! Eat candy and then get free candy yogurt! You’ll probably want to include a note with your address on it as well. Wrappers can be sent to the following address:

Shaina Zalma
YoCrunch
9507 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 300
Beverly Hills, CA 90210

Discount Sonic Food – I couldn’t find anything official My local Sonic said they were participating in an offer to sell $0.50 corndogs from 5pm-midnight on Halloween. Nicole from Savvy Shopper was kind enough to forward me some official info that shows this is a nationwide event!

Free Brunswick Bowling Coupons – And finally, don’t forget about the free Brunswick Bowling coupons that we posted a few weeks ago. They don’t expire until Nov. 24 and while they’re intended to be given out as Halloween treats, there’s nothing stopping you from saving a few for yourself

*NEW* Macy’s Events – Looks like Macy’s has a ton of offers on Saturday. To start, the first 100 people in the store will receive a free $10 gift card. At 11am, there will be a coolest costume contest at 11am and free face painting at the makeup counters all day long. (hopefully with scary paintings, not makeup) And finally, everybody gets a free trick-or-treat bag while supplies last.

So there you have it – all of the confirmed freebies I could find. Know of any I missed?

© Hey, It's Free!™ LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published for Hey, It's Free! as 2009 Halloween Freebies.

Updated: 02/08/2012

Over the past months, a trickle has turned into a torrent of e-mails from people telling me that X store doesn’t take printed coupons and Y store does but only if you use less than five and Z store has no limit and… you get the point. The thing is, in this example, Walmart was X, Y, and Z store!

So, I set out to see if there was a universal corporate coupon policy for any of the big name stores. I compiled the list below and began emailing corporate offices asking if they accept Internet coupons. Long story short: yes, most have an official policy and in the majority of stores, printed Internet coupons are okay.

But as I’ve hinted to, everybody seems to have a horror story of a cashier who refuses to accept the coupons and suddenly the total bill balloons. Nine times out of ten, that cashier is in the wrong and this is where a little education, planning, and hopefully this post will come in handy. If you shop regularly at any of the stores below, you might want to print out the policy and carry it around in your purse when you go shopping next!

There’s no reason for anybody to be denied savings when they’re rightfully entitled to them, especially in this economy!

A&P – Holy Mother of…A&P simply did not want to respond to my e-mails at all. But after a mere trillion messages by me, I received an e-mail with the following statement:

The internet is a powerful vehicle for getting information out to people and at the same time it is also a vehicle for false information. Unfortunately, internet coupons are not accepted in our A&P stores due to an abundance of fraudulent coupons circulating over the internet.

I know this is not the answer you and your readers want to hear at this time, but we are listening to you and other customers who are seeking alternate means of stretching their food dollars. Currently, we are working on a solution that would allow our customer’s to download coupons from the internet directly to our loyalty cards electronically. We are exploring this idea and hope to put it into fruition in the near future. I apologize for the delay in my response, as I wanted to wait until we had more information of the new clipless electronic coupon service we will be offering. We are working with an external vendor and hope to have this service available starting August 7, 2009. [ed: so...it's released now?]

So that’s kind of promising as it sounds like they’ll be rolling out their own Cellfire version within a month in the past.

Acme – See SuperValu

Albertsons – See SuperValu

Aldi’s – No official response was received, but the general consensus on the Internet is that Aldi does not accept any coupons – printed or otherwise.

BiLo – Repeated emails went unanswered, however I sent a message to their official Twitter account and they replied with “@heyitsfree Currently, we accept internet coupons.”

Costco – I kind of expected this response, but it’s always good to double check.

Costco Wholesale does not accept general manufacturer coupons. We have our own coupons and promotional offers, which are distributed to members in the mail and at our locations at various times throughout the year.

We are able to offer consistently low prices because our buyers negotiate the best deals with our vendors. Manufacturers often will simply ‘load’ the cost of a coupon program into the original pricing of their product. We will not permit our vendors or buyers to do this since there is no advantage to the member.

CVS – They sent me an epic response, but a few months later posted their policy online:

CVS/pharmacy accepts internet/print at home coupons that include a barcode.

Dominick’s – See Safeway

Food Lion – Upon emailing their customer service center, I received a short reply that included the following: “We will accept internet printed coupons in our stores, however, we reserve the right to decline acceptance if the coupons are deemed to be fraudulent.”

Fry’s – See Kroger

Giant – Their website has this to say:

Customers with a GIANT BONUSCARD may redeem coupons that have been printed from the Internet. We do not accept internet coupons for free products, or those with a value greater than $5.00. We reserve the right to refuse any internet coupon that appears to be fraudulent.

Harris Teeter – “We gladly accept internet manufacturer’s coupons for product; however no “free” product internet coupons are accepted.”

Ingles – After a few e-mails, I finally got the following response:

We will NOT ACCEPT “FREE” internet coupons, only cents off. We will only accept 2 internet coupons per manufacturer product per visit per day. We reserve the right to reject any internet coupon that is altered or does not scan properly.

Jewel – See SuperValu

Kmart – I never initially heard back from Kmart and proceeded to do a ton of legwork collecting circumstantial evidence. Then literally 10 minutes ago I got the following response:

“Kmart does accept secure print-at-home coupons. Effective March 1, 2009, Kmart will accept industry-standard, secure print-at-home coupons. If the coupon dos (sic) not scan properly it cannot be accepted. Kmart will not accept coupons for more than about 75% of a product’s value. Kmart will not accept “FREE product” (no purchase required) print-at-home coupons.

Kroger – “Effective November 2007, all Kroger divisions accept industry-standard, secure print-at-home coupons.” And for the record, Kroger is the parent company for many other supermarkets, like Ralphs, Fry’s, and another dozen or so. Scroll down a bit on the previous page to see a collection of the logos of all their subsidiaries.

Martin’s – Their website states the following:

Customers with a MARTIN’S BONUSCARD may redeem coupons that have been printed from the Internet. We do not accept internet coupons for free products, or those with a value greater than $5.00. We reserve the right to refuse any internet coupon that appears to be fraudulent.

Meijer – They recently put their coupon policy online, which states:

“We accept all valid internet coupons.”

Piggly Wiggly – Repeated emails went unanswered, however I was able to get in touch with their Carolina division, which operates many of the PW stores in the Southeast.

Yes, Piggly Wiggly accepts printed coupons from reputable websites, such as Coupons.com, Upromise and SmartSource.com. No “FREE item” or “CASH back” internet coupons are accepted. Limit one coupon per item per visit.

Publix – “Publix accepts manufacturers’ coupons (limit one per item), Publix coupons (originals only—no copies), valid Internet coupons, and coupons from nearby competitors identified by each Publix store.”

Ralphs – See Kroger

Rite Aid – After years of speculation, they finally issued this statement

Rite Aid will accept internet / print at home coupons up to the equivalent value of $5.00 off. A Rite Aid coupon (with the Rite Aid logo) is NOT considered an internet coupon (even if printed off the internet) and is therefore not subject to the $5.00 maximum.

Safeway – “We can only accept Printable Coupons if they scan properly at the register.” It’s worth pointing out that while they accept BOGO coupons, they do not accept straight up “free” coupons.

Save-A-Lot – See SuperValu

Schnucks – They have this to say:

As with all manufacturer coupons, only one coupon per item can be applied. Internet/home-printed coupons for FREE products will not be accepted unless the coupon is issued specifically by Schnucks (as in a Facebook offer, for example). Internet/home-printed coupons with a value greater than $5.00 will not be accepted unless the coupon is issued specifically by Schnucks (as in a Facebook offer, for example). We reserve the right to decline acceptance of any coupon that does not appear to be an original and/or any coupon that does not scan properly.

ShopRite – Here’s the response I received, which includes a link to an amazingly helpful site in identifying counterfeit coupons:

Periodically, we receive notification from the Coupon Information Corporation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the integrity of the coupon redemption process, that fraudulent coupons are being circulated via the Internet. This process is currently under investigation as coupon fraud is a Federal offense. As a result, front-end personnel have been instructed to pay closer attention to information on the coupons. If there is a question, the store does have the right to reject the use of the coupon however, our stores should accept all valid coupons. For more information on fraudulent coupons, please visit www.cents-off.com and click on the coupon information link on the left side of the page.

Stop & Shop – “We happily accept Internet coupons except in situations where manufacturers have alerted us to specific fraudulent coupons.”

SuperValu – Repeated emails went unanswered, so I have them a call at 877-932-7948. Their customer care center managed to track down a copy of their policy, which I transcribed below.

General SuperValu policy is that coupons must be printed from authorized Internet retailer. It must say Internet Coupon or Manufacturer Coupon at the top. A qualifying purchase needs to be made, of course, and the coupon can not exceed $5.00 or be for a free product offer. A bar code must be printed on the coupon and the coupon must have an expiration date that has not passed.

Target – Their new coupon page says “We gladly accept valid internet coupons.”

Trader Joe’s – Looks like Trader Joe’s is a no-go. Or are they?

At this time we do not offer any sort of coupons or discounts for products purchased in our stores. Our reasoning for this is that we, unlike many other larger grocery stores, already work really, really hard to keep our prices as low as possible without artificially high profit margins.

Okay, sounds clear enough. However, about two weeks later, I received this message:

Thank you for your inquiry. Trader Joe’s can only accept coupons from manufacturer’s only. We are unable to accept any coupons from 3rd party distributors.

So…wait, what? Internet coupons ARE manufacturer coupons. But since the manufacturers aren’t the ones distributing them, Internet coupons don’t count? That’s kind of lame, but okay, good to know.

Walgreens – After years of leaving it up to “local manager’s discretion,” Walgreens finally published an official coupon policy that states “Walgreens accepts valid internet/print at home coupons.”

Walmart – Ah, the store that started this all!

Internet coupons should be legible and say “Manufacturer Coupon.” There should be a valid remit address for the manufacturer and a scannable bar code.

So there we have it! As I pointed out above, all Coupons.com coupons have these three requirements, so your local Walmart better darn well accept printed coupons!

Wegmans – I’ve officially run out of ways to segue into a blockquote:

We take internet coupons with only two restrictions. FREE coupons are out, and the fine print, to minimize checker uncertainty, is that the word FREE can’t appear on the coupon. This includes Buy One Get One Free offers. The other restriction is that the electronic coupon value (or the double value) may not exceed the value of the item being purchased; the same as for other coupons.

Whole Foods – I hope you like unhelpful corporate policies, because here we go!

We are a decentralized company divided into regions that function fairly autonomously. Coupon acceptance policies vary from region to region and in the case of internet coupons, from store to store. I would direct shoppers to contact their local Whole Foods Market store directly to inquire about the coupon policy of that location.

Winn-Dixie – All aboard the train to Confusedville!

Thank you for contacting us. Winn Dixie does accept online coupons except from the following marketing site: VYRL Marketing – Online Coupons.

Small problem though: Who the bloody bleep is VYRL Marketing? I vaguely remember them from back in 2008 when they botched a coupon campaign on Facebook and other social media sites and according to Google, that’s what pretty much everybody else remembers them for.

Repeated emails for a clarification went unanswered, however their official website directly links to SmartSouce, so it’s a safe assumption that they at least accept Internet coupons from them.

Letter to Retailers – And finally, SmartSource, one of the main sources of on-line coupons, has a Letter to Retailers that you might want to print out if you use their coupons. It explains where the coupon came from, why it’s legit, and how to ring it up. I think this is a phenomenal move in the right direction towards retailers and coupon sources finally recognizing the importance of each other in terms of mutual survival.

© Hey, It's Free!™ LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published for Hey, It's Free! as Corporate Internet Coupon Policies.

EDIT: The code below is no longer valid.

Please raise your hand if you’ve never heard of Swagbucks. Holy moly, why are so many of you holding your hands up?

For anybody who is new to HIF, SB is basically Google + prizes. You search with them just as you would with Google, but the key difference occurs when you win swag bucks, which can be redeemed for gift cards, books, sports memorabilia, video games, school supplies – you name it, they’ve got it. Unless you just named pet turtles. I don’t think they have those.

Well the bigwigs at Swagbucks are releasing some new features and as a result, have offered new users from HIF a free swag code that gives them 2 free points. Couple that with the automatic 3 free points you’ll get for signing up and that’s…uh…hold on, let me find my calculator.

The code is freeswagcode (in all lower caps) and expires on 9/10/09.

Like I said, SB has some new features, for new and old users alike. One is a toolbar that is compatible with Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. The cool thing about the bar is that, for the entire month of September, SB will release an exclusive free swagcode each day on it! That’s 30 free swag bucks by the end of the month! An Amazon giftcard costs only 45 points, so toss in whatever points you’ve already earned and you’ll most likely have enough to get it!

They’ve also got a version of Bingo coming out called SWAGO where you can play and win points. It hasn’t been released yet, but you can check out their blog this week and get all the details there. And as always, their Twitter and Facebook accounts are pretty good sources for unique codes as well.

So there ya go! Put all those hands down now and enjoy winning prizes on Swagbucks.

© Hey, It's Free!™ LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published for Hey, It's Free! as New Swagbucks & Features For All.

If you happen to know of an offer that I missed though, please feel free to comment on that post and fill me in! It’s been a few months since I’ve gone through those comments, so I’ll be doing that later this afternoon.

© Hey, It's Free!™ LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published for Hey, It's Free! as Free Birthday Food List Updated.

The exclusive Swagbucks code for Hiffers that I wrote about last week expires tonight at 11:59 PT. If you haven’t signed up yet, what the heck are you waiting for? Go sign up for a free account, then use the code FREECODE (case sensitive), before basking in the glow of your free six Swag Bucks you now have.

If you’re new to the site, here’s the initial review I wrote about Swagbucks back in January.

© Hey, It's Free!™ LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published for Hey, It's Free! as Final Day For HIF Swagbucks Code.

How many times have we written about Swagbucks here? A gazillion? It probably has something to do with how awesome the site is – in fact, I just cashed out my fourth $5 Amazon giftcard this weekend thanks to them.

For anybody who is new to HIF, SB is basically Google + prizes. You search with them just as you would with Google, but the key difference occurs randomly when you win swag bucks, which can ultimately be redeemed for gift cards, books, posters, and starting today – video games!

In fact, to promote some of the new changes they’ll be rolling out this week, they’ve given HIF an exclusive code. Signing up for a free account will net you 3 points automatically. Then you can use the code FREECODE to gain an additional 3 points, giving you 6. For reference, a free $5 Amazon giftcard costs 45 points, so you’ll already be 13% of the way towards your first prize. Like I said in my previous post, I average about 2-3 swag bucks a day though my normal search habits, which takes me about 15-20 days to earn my prize of choice. (the code above will expire on June 16 at 11:59pm PST)

Some of their new features this week include a widget that you can place on your blog / website, a newly designed frontpage, and a favorites section in their store. If you were ever wondering why Swagbucks destroyed Blingo and Winzy, I think you now have your answer!

I know it kinda stinks that the Swagbucks code doesn’t work for members who have already registered, but they are holding point giveaways for all users on their Twitter, Facebook, and blog this week. Plus, I’ll be starting another survey tomorrow afternoon with some prizes. So there’s that to look forward to

© Hey, It's Free!™ LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published for Hey, It's Free! as Free Swagbucks Code For New Users.

And of course, if you know of any that I missed, please leave a comment!

Bob Evans – Print out this coupon and get a free slice of pie after 4pm.

Champps – Moms get a free entree with the purchase of an equally valued entree.

El Pollo Loco – In a fabulous PR move, they are offering to honor the KFC coupon that many of us printed but were unable to use thanks to KFC not being prepared to meet the demand. Here’s to El Pollo Loco stepping in to fill the free chicken void in our lives.

Ikea – Moms can get a free small breakfast and coffee. No word on whether or not you can eat it while lounging on some of the furniture.

Kodak – First off, shipping is not included in this offer, but if you use the code FREECARD, you can get a free custom photo card worth up to $2.49.

Michael’s Kids’ Workshop On Saturday, there’s a Make it for Mom Bead Event (pretty self-explanatory) while on Sunday, they have a Decorate a Cookie with Mom event. Both are from 1-4pm. (thanks Scoring Deals!)

Outback Steakhouse – Bring “mum” in and she can get a free $10 gift certificate good for her next visit.

Smokey Bones – Moms get a free meal (up to $20) with the purchase of an equally valued meal.

TCBY – They’re offering a free cup or cone of yogurt to all moms!

T.G.I. Friday’s – With the purchase of an entree, mom’s get a free mom-sized (what the heck is that?) Brownie Obsession or Spiced Up Cupcake.

Texas de Brazil (warning: their website auto-plays some amazing eurodance techno music. Do not go there if you are prone to outbursts of dancing and/or raving) – Here’s a coupon good for up to two free entrees with the purchase of two regular sized dinners.

Texas Land & Cattle – Mom’s can get a coupon good for one free entree (up to $15), which can be redeemed during their next visit.

© Hey, It's Free!™ LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published for Hey, It's Free! as Mother’s Day Freebies.

In the mean time, enjoy this list of free Income Tax Day freebies and deals! As always with these day-long freebies, you might want to call ahead and make sure your local branch is participating.

Tax Day Freebies

Free Taco Del Mar Taco – This freebie actually arrives as a coupon via e-mail, so be sure to sign up for it now just in case it takes them a day to send it to you.

Free Cinnabun Bites – This one’s only going on from 5-8pm, so be sure to plan your trip accordingly. I almost made a horrendous pun about planning my trip, as in falling down, and how I felt weird about it. You’re welcome that I abandoned aforementioned pun.

Free MaggieMoo’s Ice Cream – As part of their “e-cone-omic” ice cream stimulus package ( ), they’re giving away a free scoop of ice cream to anybody who stops by throughout the day. As a thank you for the freebie, I officially forgive them for using the term “e-cone-omic.”

Free HydroMassage – If you have a location near you, call them up today and make an appointment for Wednesday! My back has been killing me lately, so I would die for a free massage right about now.

Tax Day Deals

P.F. Chang’s China Bistro Discount – Stop in for a meal and get 15% off your bill.

McCormick and Schmick’s Gift Certificate – Basically, if you eat here on tax day, they’ll give you a $10.40 gift certificate for any future visit. That’s kind of a key point, because I can see a lot of people mistakenly thinking they’ll be able to use the GC as soon as they eat on Wednesday.

Chick-fil-a Rebate – I can’t find an official press release from them, but a few different news outlets are reporting on this so I feel it’s fairly legit. Go to your local Chick-fil-a on Wednesday, make a purchase, and save the receipt. Then take the receipt back any day between April 16-30 and get a free meal of whatever you purchased!

T.G.I. Friday’s Gift Card – Spend $15-$25 on April 15th and receive a $5 gift card. Spend over $25 and receive a $10 gift card. In addition, remember the latest Budget Busters post where I mentioned TGIF had a reward program? Well, it turns out that for the entire month of April, you earn double points. So if you spend $50 between now and April 30th, you’ll receive an $8 gift card to boot.

Know of any that I missed? Then please feel free to comment and let us know. Heck, leave a comment even if you don’t know of any more!

© Hey, It's Free!™ LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published for Hey, It's Free! as Income Tax Day Freebies & Deals.

Wait, where was? Oh yeah, baseball. It’s here! And you know what? Some of the Major League teams offer free kids programs. I’ve included as many as I could find in the post below and will update this as/if more become available. Some of the offers are clearly better than others, so here’s to hope your kids favorite team is listed below with some cool freebies.

Arizona Diamondbacks No Chew Club

This one won’t be available until April and they don’t say what you’ll get, but it’s going to be free, so it’s worth bookmarking and coming back to next month. They also have a free Kid’s Club where you can earn points for going to games and such.

Baltimore Orioles Birdland Package

1. Register below and Orioles.com will e-mail you a voucher good for one (1) FREE Upper Reserve Ticket to see one (1) Orioles 2009 regular season non-prime home game during your birth month.
2. After you register for yourself, you can then register on behalf of your child by filling out the “Birthday Celebrant Information” below to help them celebrate their special day! It’s our way of helping you create your own Orioles Magic.

Cleveland Indians High Achievers Kids Club

• Exclusive members-only experiences at Progressive Field
• Membership and redemption card with lanyard
• Indians notebook and pencil
• 2009 Cleveland Indians Community Calendar
• Half hour of private playtime on the Gateway Plaza Kids Land during Sunday Kids Fun Days, starting two and a half hours before game time
• Exclusive access to “Signature Sunday” to the first 200 High Achievers Kids Club members to check in at the High Achievers Kids Club Tent on Gateway Plaza each Sunday starting at 10:30AM (must have day- of- game tickets to participate in Signature Sunday)
• FREE ticket for you and one friend when you purchase a Slider Birthday Party at Progressive Field
• A birthday card from Slider

Florida Marlins Billy’s Bunch

If you live in the state of Florida, this fan pack is free. Otherwise you have to pay $9.95.

• A Welcome Letter from Billy The Marlin
• 2 FREE Vouchers to attend a 2009 Marlins Home Game
• Billy’s Bunch Cap
• Billy’s Bunch Wristband
• Drawstring Backpack
• Josh Johnson Poster
• Official Membership Card
• A pack of Topps Baseball Cards

Los Angeles Jr. Dodgers Club

• Membership Card
• First access to the all new Jr. Dodgers Training Days
• Newsletters
• Special Offers from our Sponsors
• Exclusive access to Jr. Dodgers Experiences including
• VIP access to select Kids Run the Bases events
• The chance to take the field with your favorite Dodgers
• The chance to announce “It’s Time for Dodgers Baseball”
• The chance to be a guest reporter for the Jr. Dodgers Newsletter

St. Louis Cardinals Kids Crew

They charge money for their club, however they have a promotion where you can get select tickets to their August 29th home game for half the normal price. Use code KIDSCREW (somebody really needs to look over these codes before making them official).

Washington Nationals Junior Club

Yet another club that isn’t accepting 2009 applications, however I know their 2008 club was free, so I’d expect a similar offer later this year.

White Sox Kids Club

• Official Membership Certificate
• Official Welcome Post Card from Manager Ozzie Guillen
• A set of six baseball cards featuring current White Sox Players
• White Sox Temporary Tattoos
• White Sox Kids Club Poster
• Two ticket coupons redeemable for Upper Reserved seat tickets to Regular-priced games (this excludes Prime, Premier and Sox/Cubs games during the 2009 season)

Anybody know of one I missed? Let us know about it in the comments!

© Hey, It's Free!™ LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published for Hey, It's Free! as Free 2009 MLB Kids Clubs.

One small tip: if you’re having trouble installing any of the printing software for the couple of sites that require it, you might want to make sure you’re using Internet Explorer and that you have any ad-blocking software turned off. I use Firefox for my normal web-surfing, but sometimes it has trouble printing the coupons.

Coupons.com – Hands down the #1 leader in printable coupons. Their selection is gigantic and they update coupons at least once a month. I routinely print a dozen or two coupons from them every month and regularly save $20 or more.

Box Tops 4 Education – Their selection is sparse, but they make up for this slight drawback by having some that no other site has.

RedPlum – Professor Red Plum has all sorts of coupons, but I find that their best area is in toiletries and body products. They always seem to have coupons for contact solution, shampoo, etc. On top of that, they’ve got some unique grocery coupons that you won’t find elsewhere, so definitely add this site to your weekly coupon digest.

Eat Better America – While easily having the smallest selection of any of the sites on this list, they tend to be unique and worth just a little bit more than other coupons, so it’s worth taking a peek at Eat Better America every week. Plus, they have an offer for a free $10 Coupon Booklet!

Valpak – I actually discovered this site while doing research for this post. I’d always loved getting Valpak coupons in the mail, but I had no idea you could print them from your computer! Just like their mailed counterparts, most of these coupons are for local stores and services instead of for food and groceries. The great part about their site is that no printing software is needed. Just select the coupon, hit print, and it’ll send straight to your printer.

SmartSource – I love Smart Source because it’s so clean and easy to use (once you’ve installed their printing program, which you only have to do the very first time.) They were cool enough to partner with me a while back and help put together a clean page of coupons that refresh bi-monthly.

Shortcuts – And last but not least, a site that doesn’t let you print coupons! Haha, I’m not sure what’s up with Shortcuts, but about two weeks ago they stopped allowing their coupons to be printed. I haven’t the slightest if they’re going to bring the feature back or not, but it’s worth keeping an eye on just in case they do.

So do you have any success stories with using printable coupons? Let us know in the comments!

© Hey, It's Free!™ LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published for Hey, It's Free! as Free Printable Coupon Sites.

You know what’s going to be here before we even know it? Travel time! I was reminded by this fact when I saw a California state tourism commercial last night and that got me to wondering what each state offers in the way of free state maps and travel guides. Coupled with our free museum admissions list (which is actually fully completed now!), your summer trips might now be a bit more fun and free!

I linked to the official travel guide for each state below. As a fail-safe, I then provided a link to each state’s DOT page if their travel guide didn’t explicitly say it came with a highway map. Here’s to never getting lost again!

Free Alabama State Map – This is the first .travel website I’ve ever seen. Cool.

Free Alaska State Map – Here’s the first case of “so, does this come with a map?” (dot map)

Free Arizona State Map – What exactly is Old West activities? Like riding around on a horse and shooting pistols in the air? Arizona, here I come!

Free Arkansas State Map – They have a plethora of travel guides and kits, including golfing, hiking, and fishing guides, calendar of events, and even a Living in Arkansas guide for those considering moving there. Wait, where are you going?

Free California State Map – I would have been ticked had they not offered some free maps, considering the fact that I see their freaking tourism commercial every 10 minutes.

Free Colorado State Map – Colorado’s official state slogan: Let’s Talk. Aw crap, they’re breaking up with us!

Free Connecticut State Map – Or not. Their tourism site is a bit gilded. Not only do they not offer a travel guide, but I couldn’t find any official state maps. The best I could come up with was this printable highway map.

Free Delaware State Map – Looks like you might have to call in order for a copy to be sent to you. Their DOT version has three different bicycle maps as well as the official tourism map, so I might just go with that instead. (dot map)

Free Florida State Map – I like the random experts they have on the sidebar. My favorite is the Authentic Florida Expert, who pretty much looks like everyone’s grandma.

Free Georgia State Map – I think the travel guide has one, but I know their DOT will send up to two free state maps. If I know Georgia, they’ll also send you a peach. (dot map)

Free Hawaii State Map – Doesn’t exist. Hiffer Kenny sent in the link for their state tourism guide, which should have a map in it.

Free Idaho State Map – Judging by their governors name alone (C.L. “Butch” Otter), he could probably beat up any other governor out there. You just know he wears a cowboy hat…and checking their website…yep!

Free Illinois State Map – You can request up to 25 free state maps at the DOT site, which is 24 more than I need. I only include that link because the DOT maps come in large print. (dot map)

Free Indiana State Map – They have a ton of different maps and guides available, one being a state museum map that would go deliciously well with our free museum admission list!

Free Iowa State Map – Does anyone get excited about seeing a bunch of corn?

Free Kansas State Map – Quick, can you name three cities in Kansas?! Neither could I.

Free Kentucky State Map – Their state logo is by far the best I’ve seen yet.

Free Louisiana State Map – Their DOT page redirects to this page for a free map, so I assume the travel guide comes with one.

Free Maine State Map – Unfortunately they only have a bunch of printable maps. Come on Maine, get with the program here. They got with the program!

Free Maryland State Map – I can’t tell you the number of times the state of Maryland has screwed me over, so visit with caution.

Free Massachusetts State Map – I’ve still yet to ever correctly spell this state’s name. It’s the only item on my Bucket List I doubt I’ll ever accomplish.

Free Michigan State Map – Who needs the Big 3 when you can get a free state map?

Free Minnesota State Map – Minnesota is the only state that let’s you pre-order future travel guides and maps. Talk about pimp.

Free Mississippi State Map – Mississippi decided to make a page where you can only submit your e-mail. I assume an order form will be mailed to you, but I couldn’t be bothered.

Free Missouri State Map – The “M” states are really starting to tick me off. Missouri only allows you to download and print their free state maps. (dot map)

Free Montana State Map – They offer a free winter guide in addition to the state map, but I can give you said guide right here. Step 1: stay inside. Step 2: come outside once spring arrives. (dot map)

Free Nebraska State Map – We’ll see if their visitor’s guide has a free map in it or not. (dot map)

Free Nevada State Map – Fill out the form then print out this form and you’ll get two free state maps for the price of none!

Free New Hampshire State Map – I must admit, new Hampshire has a pimped out website travel website.

Free New Jersey State Map – My buddy lives in New York and is always ragging on Jersey, so I almost feel like I need to visit here to try and even things out.

Free New Mexico State Map – It’s barely mid-January and they’ve already got their 2009 travel guide up while other states are advertising their 2007 version. Good on ya, NM.

Free New York State Map – I always thought the “I Heart NY” campaign was for the city, not the state. Shows what I know.

Free North Carolina State Map – I like the cleanliness of North Carolina’s site. You can never have too much whitespace.

Free North Dakota State Map – This domain name…confuses me at best. Whatever, a free state map is a free state map.

Free Ohio State Map – I had a look through their travel guide and it was sans maps, so here’s a recent map being given away by their state DOT.

Free Oklahoma State Map – I’m kind of interested in their additional “Agritourism Map.” Is this a tourist industry that Oklahoma just made up?

Free Oregon State Map – I love that they also offer an official kid’s guide to Oregon. Like it’s that complicated.

Free Pennsylvania State Map – Wow. At the bottom of this page, you’ll find a link to PA’s official Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube accounts. I didn’t check them all, but their Twitter account is pretty darn active.

Free Rhode Island State Map – For a state with such a small map, they’re kind of stingy about giving them away for free. I wasn’t sure if the travel guide came with a map, but their DOT doesn’t give any maps away, so fingers crossed. You can also email their DOT and they’ll mail you a road map.

Free South Carolina State Map – Home state, represent! Don’t be fooled by the domain name, it’s legit. We’re a sneaky bunch, just ask Major Robert Anderson.

Free South Dakota State Map – Ok, wait a minute here. South Carolina’s slogan: Smiling Faces, Beautiful Places. South Dakota’s slogan: Great Faces, Great Places. It’s like South Dakota wasn’t even trying!

Free Tennessee State Map – I got some weird error every time I tried to load one of their pages, but the order form went through, so who knows.

Free Texas State Map – Their travel guide is 272 freaking pages long! That’s not a guide, it’s a book!

Free Utah State Map – Why does Utah have a separate checkbox for German visitors? Is Utah really a vacation mecca for Germans?

Free Vermont State Map – I’m not sure how all the seasonal maps differ from each other, but it’s nice knowing that I have so many options with them.

Free Virginia State Map – I have to admit, I’m getting pretty tired with trying to find something to say with each state. I live in Virginia and there’s honestly not that much going on here. (dot map)

Free Washington State Map – As a Mariners fan and frequent traveler to the Pacific Northwest, I must say I absolutely love this section of the world.

Free West Virginia State Map – Hopefully this tourism guide comes with a free map, because WV is one of the few states that lets their DOT charge for highway maps.

Free Wisconsin State Map – And we have a winner for most available maps! They have tons of outdoorsy maps with trails and whatnot in addition to the typical road maps.

Free Wyoming State Map – And wouldn’t you know it that on the very last state, I had trouble getting their contact form to load. 49 for 49 and then Wyoming had to go mess things up! Luckily I came back a few days later and it was working.

Wow, that took a lot longer than I thought it would. I need a vacation.

© Hey, It's Free!™ LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published for Hey, It's Free! as Free State Maps & Travel Guides.

Here’s what we’ve got so far on the free museum admission list. As you can see, we’ve only completed 42 states and D.C. (Holy crap, that’s way more than I’d originally thought.) I understand that glancing at it for the first time might lead to some sensory overdosing, but it’s really not all that confusing when broken down. If a museum’s name is blue, it’s been verified. If it’s red, somebody (perhaps you?!) needs to check it out.

Some of the lingo can be confusing to a newbie as well, but again, it’s designed to save space while conveying as much info as possible. Here are a few examples and how to interpret them:

Patterson Homestead – Dayton – This museum is located in Dayton and since there’s no additional markings, it’s free to everybody on every day.

Southeast Museum of Photography – Daytona Beach – FTA? – This museum is located in Daytona Beach and we’re not quite sure if it’s free or not because their site was unclear. Anything with FTA? is a perfect opportunity for somebody to pitch in and help us figure out what their admission policy is!

Sometimes we group museums together in cities that have a ton of them, thus allowing us to save space by not repeatedly putting the city after the museum name. Like these, which are under New York:

New York Botanical Garden Museum – FTA Wednesdays – This museum is free to everybody all day on Wednesdays.

American Folk Art Museum – 11AU & FTA Friday after 5:30pm – This museum is free every day to anybody 11 and under. It’s also free to all (FTA) on Friday’s after 5:30.

You have to login to edit the wiki, but since I’m cool, I’ve integrated the wiki with the forums! So if you already have an account on the forums, simply use that info to sign in. Otherwise, why not create a free account today and join in on the fun?

Here’s to hoping you find some free fun the next time you’re stuck visiting distant relatives in an unknown city! We have a thread on the forums where we talk, ask questions about, etc. the wiki as well. Come chime in!

© Hey, It's Free!™ LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published for Hey, It's Free! as Free Museum Admission List.