Gift Giving 2011: Freebies

Obviously, the best way to save money, is to get gifts for FREE. Who doesn’t love free? Here are my tips for getting gifts for free.

Lesson 1: Use flash deal credits to buy gifts for free.
When you refer friends and they buy from flash deal sites, you usually get credits to use on the site. For a list of flash deal sites and more details about these great shopping resources, click here.


Lesson 2: Find free photo gifts
If you are like me, giving photo gifts is always a home run.

And if you pay attention throughout the year, you can easily get free photo books, mugs, oversized prints (like I posted on Sunday) and more.

Every major photo website will give you free prints when you sign up. You could easily use these prints to make a scrapbook, or put them in a photo album or picture frame.

Here are the sites and the corresponding free prints, which are only good for new members (you can always have your husband sign-up):

• Snapfish: 50 free prints
• RitzPix Get 2 free 8×10 Prints with code TRY63B78
• Clark Color: Get 40 free 4×6 prints
• Shutterfly: Get 50 free prints

 

Also, through today Walgreens is running a special where you can get a free 8.5×11 photobook with a linen cover (regularly $19.99). The code is FAVORITEBOOK2. So, if you can whip something up quickly, this would be a great gift. (You do have to pay shipping, which is around $7).

Lesson 3: Enter giveaways on blogs
Many bloggers (including me) host giveaways of wonderful products. By entering lots of giveaways, you increase your chances of winning items that you can get for free and give as gifts. My friend Kelly at Faithful Provisions has an excellent list of all the blogs that host giveaway linky round-ups. Visit any of the sites she lists and click away for lots of great giveaway opportunities.

My Swagbucks Home Page

Lesson 4: Use Swagbucks
I have blogged about Swagbucks many times in the past, but it is worth repeating.  

Swagbucks is a search engine (powered by Google and Ask)that you win free digital dollars when you use it. You then redeem these bucks for gift cards and other cool prizes (My favorites are Target and Amazon gift cards). You can also earn bucks when you refer people and for entering in promotional swag codes that they often release on twitter, facebook and the SwagBucks blog.

I have found that by setting Swagbucks as my homepage, I am much more apt to use it as my primary search engine – and earn more bucks.

For the past two years, I have bought a lot of birthday and Christmas gifts because of gift cards that I have earned. It is such a simple way to earn a bit extra for your family.

Rewards points on Huggies & Pampers wipes and Pampers diapers

Lesson 5: Use Diaper Points
Both Pampers and Huggies offer rewards programs, which can qualify you to earn free products, which you can use as gifts! Pampers allows you to “buy” items using points – Melissa and Doug toys, Shutterfly products and more. I have gotten Elias several gifts this way.

Huggies points can be used for various sweepstakes entries. (I have yet to win, but I have read of many others who have had better luck!)

If your child isn’t in diapers, you can still monitor frugal blogs for free codes. 🙂

If you are not a member of Pampers Gifts to Grow, you can get 50 free points when you sign up for Pampers using this link.

You can then earn 10 points for Pampers referrals by going to your account, clicking on special promotions, then “share Pampers Village today.”

Here are some additional codes to help you get on your way to earn free stuff. (Thanks to Freebies4Mom, who always posts codes!)

• 4W34A9BD99YDFWY (10 points, expires 2/19)
• VMF776C7HMXXT4A (42 points, expiration unknown)
• CONGRATS2NEWMOM (10 points)
• GTGWELCOME10PTS (10 points)
• NEWWIPESPACKAGE (10 points)

It is easy to get lazy and not go online to enter your codes, but it is worth it! I had stopped entering points for awhile and just recently got back into the habit. I am kicking myself over the free stuff I could have earned with all those points I have tossed in the trash.

What are your tips for getting gifts for free?

Tomorrow we will talk about how I store gifts that I buy year-round!


Disclosure: compensated affiliate links used