The Best Things in Life Are Free
I’m all about freebies, not those hidden-agenda freebies, but ones that really make your day. Of course it drums up more business, but hey, if you are one-track minded, it truly is a freebie. Over the past month or so, all of our birthdays hit, and the free-birthday-stuff bonanza began.
Red Robin sent us a free-gourmet-burger on each of our birthdays, and since they come with bottomless fries, you could get a drink, or cheap-it-up with water. Baskin-Robbins provides a free scoop coupon, Coldstone Creamery’s birthday club will get you a Like It! size (which is quite hefty)
As part of their Kids’ Clubs, the boys get: a Denny’s postcard for a free meal and dessert, Burger King gives them a Hamburger Meal, and Toys R Us will have Geoffrey call you and send a $3 gift card.
Some places will give you a free meal on your birthday, without being part of a club. I know Alfy’s Pizza does a mini-pizza, but with all of our other stuff, we’ve never really gone anywhere else, so I don’t know of anywhere else.
Don’t forget library reading programs that when your child fills up their reading log, they often get certificates to local pizza places. We’ve gotten free pizza from said Alfy’s, Pizza Hut, and Papa Murphy’s.
And we all know about our frequent customer cards, of course! Our local bread outlet has a punch card that once you fill it up with $20, you get a free bread or Entemann’s (yummm…) product. Staples‘ program sends you a check at the end of every quarter based on a percentage of your purchases. So does Fred Meyer, not only do you get 10 cents off every gallon of gas for every $100 of grocery purchases, you get rebate checks based on your total purchases during a time period. I love our Subway and Regal Cinema cards, because the points add up fast, and they can tell you what’s up right at the register. We are always getting free popcorn and drinks with our movie card, plus Tuesday night is Free Popcorn night anyways.
Speaking of which, if you don’t know already, Regal Cinemas host a Free Family Film Festival every summer, where on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings they show G and PG movies. It’s always insane, of course with all the day cares and camps, at least in our area, so go early, and warn the kids before you get there if it’s all filled, since seats are first come, first serve.
Upromise is an online community where a percentage of your online purchases through registered store and credit cards accrue in an account for college. I don’t online shop much, I think my Upromise account has like $20.00 in it from my grocery cards.
Jeez, with all these promotions, you’d think I’d be getting a check….