What’s wrong with trying to get free stuff without taking surveys? I’m borrowing Brad Pitt and friends today to investigate where you can get freebies without joining survey sites…but should we be trying to get more things for free?
Listen to “053: How To Get FREE Stuff Without Surveys…& Why You Shouldn’t” on Spreaker.054: How I Invest As An Autistic Person
Subscribe if the link isn’t live yet!
Catch up on all the past episodes & resources
If you sign up for a free trial or purchase via an affiliate link below, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you that goes towards the running costs of producing all the free content across the blog, podcast, YouTube etc.
Watch/Listen to Should We Get Free Stuff Without Surveys via YouTube
Transcript: How To Get Free Stuff Without Surveys…& Who Shouldn’t Bother
Achilles: [00:00:00] I’ll tell you a secret. Something they don’t teach you in your temple.
Bear: Can I tell you a secret? I did an installment recently on what was the best survey site and why you might actually find taking surveys for money a complete and utter waste of time. But if so, what should you be doing instead? And what if you are just in love with the word free? What if you haven’t reached that Elysium
where you know that looking for free stuff, isn’t the only option in life? And that actually sometimes spending money to make money is a concept too? Perhaps you’re not there yet. You still want the free things. How can you get as much free stuff as possible without taking surveys?
Can I tell you?
Achilles: Speak!
Bear: First it would be, if you’ve got to go to the shops for other things anyway, like food, or you have to go through a town center for study or for work,
don’t forget that many shops give out free samples very willingly. Good examples would be beauty stores, [00:01:00] especially high-end beauty stores, department stores; again, if they have beauty or fragrance concessions;
shops like lush and anywhere selling confectionery or chocolate;
tea shops;
if they sell ice cream, if they sell fudge,
I would almost guarantee you that you could get a free sample.
Will you be able to get a year’s supply of shampoo? I don’t know. How determined are you?
Achilles: We are lions. Do you know what’s there waiting beyond that beach?
Immortality.
Take it! It’s yours!
Bear: Free stuff. Take it. It’s yours.
The other place to look is voucher code websites. As often as you can find discount codes for things like buy one, get one free meals, you will sometimes also be able to get codes for free things entirely. As with every free thing on the planet, just always take a close look at what it is you’re giving away in exchange for the free thing.
Achilles: Someone has to lose.
Bear: So quite often it’s an email address where you can just unsubscribe at a later date. Other times they [00:02:00] might want more information from you because they’re looking to market to you obviously.
Achilles: There are no pacts between lions and men.
Bear: And then there’s always the freebies where you are actually signing up to a service and you need to remember to cancel before they charge you anything if you don’t want to keep the service.
Don’t like that suggestion?
All you Amazon boycotters, You’re not going to like a reminder that Amazon has lots and lots of free trials of almost anything that you can think of from groceries to music, to film and television, you could have books and audio books coming out of your ears.
And obviously that’s one instance where you’d want to cancel before you get charged if you don’t actually want to keep that thing all year round. I’m not going to wade into the war on whether anyone should shop on Amazon in the first place.
Jeff Bezos isn’t my favorite person.
Achilles: You sack of wine!
Bear: You could take the approach that you just want to sack Amazon for every free thing that you can get, and then not shop there at all.
And then tell them to get lost.
What would we get angry about if we didn’t have Amazon?[00:03:00]
Achilles: Are we supposed to fear him?
Bear: Like every villain in a good movie or TV show, Jeff Bezos thinks he’s the second coming. And that he’s actually doing us all a massive favour.
Achilles: I chose nothing. I was born, and this is what I am.
Bear: Fun fact,
Amazon do occasionally dabble in second and third chances. So if you do cancel at the end of your free trial, you might find that you get offered another free trial around Christmas time
so that you can take advantage of things like prime delivery for Christmas presents.
Odysseus: We play with the toys the gods give us.
Bear: Other religions are available.
Other massive shopping brands that people love to hate are also available. You do you, boo. You decide.
Achilles: Decide!
Bear: If it’s mainly free food you’re interested in, there are more apps these days than they once were.
OlIo is probably still the reigning king or queen of free food.
Let’s see what I’ve said about that in the past. Previously on Save Like A Bear I think probably your first stop would be an app like Olio, where the food is given away for free. And then you can look into things like too good to go where the food is just a lot less than you [00:04:00] normally pay for it because the outlets are selling off that food at the end of the day, instead of throwing it in the I hope they’re not going anywhere anytime soon.
But of course, anything that I mentioned, if it does disappear, it’s usually because of competition. So if you do find an app or a website that you like for free things and it vanishes overnight, just have a look for something similar that does the same thing.
Aside from discount code websites, there are also websites like Latest Deals, which as you can probably guess from the name, do advertise deals. Up to you to decide whether something is actually a deal or not. They have voucher codes, but they also have a free section just like websites like TopCashback have a way to earn free cash back.
Moneysavingexpert.com has a section where you can get all kinds of freebies.
You could spend all day long just signing up for free things from websites. Again, you really have to decide for yourself whether you actually want any of this stuff or whether it’s just attractive because it’s free and whether your time could be better spent elsewhere.
Previously on Save Like A Bear I’m very wary of the [00:05:00] word free. And I actually don’t like using the word free or that much on my blog or in my content. So for instance, I do offer a free guide
to email subscribers.~ It doesn’t cost anything extra. ~It’s a PDF ebook about budgeting, and mindset.
~But when I share that with people, it’s not very often that I bang on about the fact that it’s free because that’s not where the value lies. Like it’s nice that I don’t charge people for it.~
But the reason to want it isn’t that it’s free. The reason to want it is that the information inside could actually change someone’s life.
And so I think there is a difference between being frugal and being cheap. So someone who’s frugal is economical with their resources in the sense of they only spend on the things that are a real priority. ~Maybe they like to get a deal if possible, but ~at the end of the day, if something serves a purpose, it solves a valuable problem for them, they’re happy to reward a brand, a person, the service, the product that is delivering that essential thing for them.
Whereas someone who’s cheap will say, I want to know how to do this thing. And then when someone lets them know how to do it, they say, oh no, I don’t want to pay anything.
And the thing that they’re trying to do might be they’re trying to sell something to other people, but at the same time, they’re [00:06:00] saying, yeah, well, no, I make a little bit of money with my blog, but I don’t want to spend money on anything else.
You can absolutely start a lot of things in life for free if you’re just having a go at something. But I think there always comes a point where if you’re looking to get more from something and you want other people to invest in you, you also need to invest in yourself.
And that’s not a sad truth. It’s actually kind of a celebration that you got to the point where the size of your problem that you have, and the value of the outcome represents so much to you that you’re willing to pay something to solve it and in paying to solve it, you might then make more money anyway.
So, whatever it is that you’re trying to do, just ask yourself, are you expecting something of other people that you wouldn’t give or expect of yourself? Are you asking others to invest in you when you won’t invest in yourself?
~ Lastly, ~I’ve done an installment before about shopping cashback apps, including apps like Shopmium, Greenjinn, Checkout Smart.
I would watch or listen to that installment next, or find the transcript on my [00:07:00] website at savelikeabear.co.uk, or the transcript on YouTube, if you prefer to read.
And of course, let me know if you have any better suggestions for how to get free stuff without surveys.
If you’re afraid of what you’re signing up for, or if something is too good to be true, then just look at the small print or just YOLO.
Odysseus: You don’t fear anyone, that’s your problem.
Bear: Don’t you have an elsewhere to be?
Invest In A DIY Cash Envelope Design Bundle
Want to start using a cash envelope system to manage your spending and make saving fun?
I’ve turned some of the designs in this YouTube video and more into a printable digital bundle for you to download at home. I’ve done the time-consuming part so that to make your DIY envelopes, you just want to cut and stick (and put some money inside!)
If you’re a chameleon like me, then there’s a range of designs to choose from to suit your personality (and your printer ink levels – let’s be practical now). Choose your own spending categories to write in the blank label space and match whichever design you prefer to your priorities.
About The Show: How You Can Make More Money
How To Save Like A Bear helps first-time buyers and savers with big goals make the changes they need to succeed by learning what makes someone exceptional. Use these strategies to spend better on essentials, make more money, and think outside the box so that you can improve your future rocket fast.
Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review about why you find How To Save Like A Bear useful. You can help others discover the podcast and its tips by leaving a review on iTunes.
Select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and share your favourite thing about apprenticeships vs entrepreneurship, or any other episode you’ve enjoyed.
Not on iTunes? Go to your preferred player instead, and feel free to share the podcast with anyone you think would benefit from joining us in learning how to make saving fun.
Email subscribers can submit money and side hustle questions to the podcast… Subscribe in the form at the bottom of this page to get a bonus ebook too.
Share & Follow Save Like A Bear
If you enjoy the episode, why not take a screenshot and share it out on Instagram or wherever you hang out online? Tag me @savelikeabear so I can see your comments, and perhaps give you a shoutout.
Recommended Tools
If you need a microphone whatever your profession or hobby, I use the Samson Q2U.
If you’re interested in podcasting, I use Spreaker for my hosting. You can get your first month free via this affiliate link. I chose Spreaker because as far as I know they are the only host that lets you monetise from day one the effort you put into your content at no extra cost to the listener. They are very price competitive considering and have an easy peasy interface for uploading, incorporating ads, and integrating your podcast with other platforms so that you can automatically spread the word when a new episode goes live. Give them a go!
For quicker audio and video editing I use Descript (affiliate link).
The mailing list functions thanks to email service provider ConvertKit (affiliate link).
I invested in the annual plan (which nets a discount on paying monthly). This is because when I start a project, I like to commit to seeing my goal through, so paying upfront ensured I wouldn’t quit emailing blog readers after a week!
You can start with a free plan though if you’re really not sure where you’re headed, or you’re technology shy (affiliate link). I find ConvertKit very easy to use though despite setting up automations and sequences and all that fancy jazz.
Many of the images on the blog are thanks to photographer and content extraordinaire Kayla Marie Butler.
Kayla offers a package of stock photos and marketing resources so that busy entrepreneurs have the power to quickly create content that boosts their traffic, leads and profits:
Kayla does offer free stock photos for anyone shy of investing in the future just yet. Or it’s possible to buy individual bundles of her photos from the Ivory Mix Stock Photo Shop. Kayla breaks these into categories, so that it’s easy to just buy stock photography for business and finance brands for example.
Let me know if you want to know what else I use to run the blog besides what’s mentioned on the Bear Resources page, or if you have questions. What do you need help with in your side hustle or business?
If you’re serious about investing in podcasting equipment to sound as professional as possible, this page has recommendations for every budget:
Best Podcasting Tools For Professionals And Beginners
Go forth!
Leave a Reply