Got my car back from Crappy tire. I dropped it off Sunday. The very bright mechanic said "oh I paged you in the store today when it was finished.

I just looked at him and said "I dropped it off Sunday and while I like roving around in the store its now thursday; I don't like your store that much. After a second he got it. If he worked on my car I'm a bit scared.

Cost just under $700. But I got a freebie - A pair of travel mugs and 1.50 in Crappy Tire money.

Wow

The same store where I won a gift basket around 5:30 called me up at 7 to tell me that I'd won another gift basket.

This one had 4 Biotherm products in it.

Moisturizer (value about $15 - a tiny sample size - I've used this product before and loved it)

Body Wash $32

Hand and Nail Treatment (aka handlotion) $27

Body Milk $30

Wow .. retail value of $104.00.

Today's lesson.. enter contests at local drug store

I went to the local drug store for a free make over by a Canadian cosmetics company. When I was there I entered a draw for some Vichy products. I won a small basket of three full size facial cleaning products.

I looked for pricing online for Vichy but I can't find it anywhere other than the UK - LOL... I'm guessing the value of this is around $70 plus or minus.. Nice!

Yeah me!!!

I used some $2 off any lysol product coupons today on some lysol wipes and spray that were on sale for $1.99.

Its sweet shopping when they give it to you to take home!

Okay so I did have to pay that tax. I'm set for wet cleaning wipes and spray for a while now!

Went to the no frills grocery store (Price Chopper). A step up from Aldi but not much up.. has a small deli.

Had some rolls a friend gave me for free so I thought I'd get some luncheon meat to make sandwiches. The roast beef was a good price so I asked her for some. They only had a few hundred grams left so I got that and got about 300 grams of corned beef too.

Got home. Realised that the difference between a good grocery store and a no frills one is that you get a package of roast beef and package of corned beef when you order those at the deli. What she said was roast beef was actually corned beef.. *sigh*. I wanted roast beef.

At least it was the same price! Thank goodness I like corned beef! Made about 7 (not 87 omg I can't type) sandwiches. A couple are in the fridge for tomorrow and the rest are in the freezer.

I guess in the know frills stores knowing the difference between the different types of beef is just asking too much...

I was really excited a while back to sign up for a Kashi welcome kit. I figured a couple of good coupons etc..

Well they outdid themselves. I just got my welcome kit. Talk about a classy company!

4 fullsize boxes of Kashi plus 10 coupons for a free box of Kashi and a t-shirt. Maybe if i eat a better diet along with the Kashi I'll be able to fit into the medium size they sent me...

They are one classy company!

Today's mail was a veritable treasure trove of excellent mail.

I got free product coupons for the following stuff:

* Garnier Fructus Style Product
* Free Pledge Duster Plus
* Save $10 Scrubbing Bubbles Shower Cleaner
* Scrubbing Bubbles Soap Scum Remover
* So Good Soy Milk So Trim or Chocolate

And .. a $5 cheque from Pinecone.

Can I have lots more mail days like this one please?

I need to start this entry with the information that I am a Bzz agent, and they sent me coupons and free product coupon for Silk soy milk.

A coworker has had digestive difficulties for a while (I'm sure you need no more elaboration to get the picture) and finally had an appointment with a gastroenteritis's who has told her to not eat dairy for the next 6 weeks.

One of the things she wants to do it to try soy milk. It was great having a coupon for $1 off from the Bzz campaign - I wished I had a free product coupon for her so she could try it but the $1 off was nice and so is the fact that Silk has a low calorie one (she like I is trying to lose weight). I have the low calorie one in my fridge now and it tastes great! Like - it has a flavour -unlike regular skim cows milk.

I love when campaigns like this allow me to introduce people to a new product. If you are in Canada and would like to try this product please send me a private email and I'll send you a coupon for $1 off as I have a couple left.

Ages ago I wrote to this company and complemented one of their foods. It was a few months ago. Today from their US office they sent me a real letter (snail mail) with coupons good in Canada and thanking me for being a customer.

Not huge coupon but 3 50c off any product they make coupons.. a short email saves me $1.50.

Nice! Other than their being a bit slow to respond they've made me feel like a loved customer.

This good mail was accompanied by
Travis Tritt tickets (twang twang, twiddle twang) that I had ordered and my visa bill.

Definitely a mail day of mixed blessings

Went to see we will rock you tonight that the Canon theatre. This was part of full evening that included a buffet style dinner and cocktail hour at the Savoy Restaurant, We had row B ticket centre stage in the orchestra (about 10 rows back). The show was AMAZING. I liked the chemistry and the interactions. Tons of laughing and tons of good music!

After we went back over to the Savoy for an after show drink and more mingling. This was a work related event so had to behave but was great meeting some old coworkers and connecting with some people I'd talked to but never met!

If you can get to see this show it is so worth it

Oh as this is a frugal blog I should mention the entire night was free! Free everything including a CD as a souvenir!

I went to a website yesterday that had wee window pop up to say that they would send you a free product coupon in exchange for completing a short survey.

I filled it out. Then for some reason clicked back and realised that the offer ended in February.

I then tried to complete a form to send a comment to the company to tell them about their outdated web page. I tried to send it twice but have no idea if it went or not.

Had this been some small mom and pop company I wouldn't be so annoyed. But this was Alberto Culver (hair stuff). I really think that multinationals with mega staff and budgets should be able to keep their websites up to date and have response forms that work.

Quite often when there are contests that involve food products there is a option for an entry that doesn't involve purchasing the product. Taking advantage of this method of entry can sometimes result in getting a Free Product Coupon - allowing you to purchase the item for the cost of the postage and sometimes a self addressed stamped envelope. This particular offer didn't require the SASE.

So this past weekend I got organized and wrote out 20 entries (the rules allow one request per day via mail) and got them into envelopes, addressed and stamps, that way I can drop one in the mail every couple of days.

I'm planning to pick up a couple of the sauces for myself and likely will give away some of the FPC's as RAOKs.

My friend called Loblaws where we went for the cooking demo last Wednesday. I was allowed to stay for it even though I wasn't on the paid sheet. The chef leading the class was very nice about it!

The girl at Loblaws remembers my friend phoning to register me (and pay for me). But she said she got busy so that she didn't process the order or put me down for it. She said it was her error and that they aren't going to ask me to pay! Excellent customer service on their part to make up for their error and the awkwardness of my not being on the sheet.

After I call ING to get my account unlocked (yeah never did call to get that cleared up), I'll put that $30 into my ING account! Money that you thought you spent that you didn't spend is really found money right?

I got a free mug today at work.

Says something like "think green top up your retirement savings account". The sheet with it encourages us not to use the Styrofoam cups that our employer provides at the coffee machine - hence the cups.

You'd think if they don't want us to use Styrofoam they'd not buy them? Or buy another kind for us to use?

Too simple?

Oh and any others who follow flylady will understand my despair at this gift. Another coffee mug to add to my already barely tamed collection of coffee cup clutter.

I got a link to a freebie directly from the company today. It is a large company who routinely sends out freebies. They MUST have stats on the size of their mailing list, how many people take advantage of an offer etc. This wasn't a mom and pop operation nor was it a freebie I found on the web. THEY SENT ME an email offering me this.

And 10 minutes after getting the email (if that) I go to say yes, thank you I'd like it and it is already finished. But I can print off a coupon for $2 off. Pft. The nasty suspicious part of me wonders if they had any freebies to send out? Was it just a scam to get us to read about their product and then say "sorry" and here is a coupon cause we all will buy anything with a good coupon right? (Yeah right...)

I'm not naming the product or company here as I want to give them a chance to respond to the email I sent them:

Thank you for sending me the link for the free sample

I got the email at approximately 4.06pm today and tried to apply for the freebie within 10 minutes of getting it only to be told that it was no longer available because of overwhelming demand.

I would never want to accuse you of sending that out in bad faith rather I can only think my email provider (gmail) was very slow in delivering it to me. However I was quite sad and dismayed to not find that you were already out of stock on this - and I only delayed by about 10 minutes from when I got the email telling me about the freebee.

I wish you much success in marketing your new product

Yup, I've already had one freebee this year.

Sheetz, a local gas station had free coffee on New Years eve and New Years Day! As I love their house blend I went and got a free coffee when were out around lunch time!

Thanks to the free coffee (we'd have stopped there and I'd have bought one) - I started the year by saving $0.99

It all adds up!