How to Get Free Gifts to Give at Christmas

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By A. Suzanne Wells
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Get Free Gifts to Give at Christmas

Christmas does not have to drain your budget or leave you in debt for the next year. You can get free items all year long, and then give them as Christmas gifts in December. This strategy works, however, it takes some time and planning. Learn creative ways to get free Christmas gifts for your family, friends, and coworkers.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Step 1

Participate in drug store rebate and reward programs. You can get free items all year long doing this. Free items are usually in the categories of hair care, cosmetics, food items, first aid, oral and dental care, and bath products. Accumulate these types of items all year, and then make your own themed gift baskets with the free items. (See my articles about how to get free items from CVS, Rite-Aid, and Walgreens.) You can get baskets at thrift stores for $1.
Step 2

Enter contests and giveaways online. Hundreds of blogs offer giveaways each week to increase their traffic, readership, and subscription list. You can literally sit at your computer all day and enter these giveaways – all you have to do is leave a comment. You can win all kinds of gift items, gift cards, and coupons for free items. Go to sites like MoneySavingMom.com, ContestsForMoms.com, and SisterlySavings.net and look for a master list of giveaways each week. The only investment is your time.
Step 3

Get free stuff online. Many websites will offer a free gift card for participating in a survey or signing up for a trial membership (which you can cancel later). Look on Google for these types of offers.
Step 4

Sign up for free samples and either give these as small gifts, or add them to gift baskets. Visit forums like SlickDeals.com, MommyForums, and TheGroceryGame, and watch for other members to post free sample offers. Go the websites, sign up, and your sample comes in the mail. Sometimes, the sample is actually a full-sized item!
Step 5

Be a closet re-gifter. You can recycle gifts that someone else gave you, that have never been used. If you go the re-gifting route, be sure to give the gift in a different social circle than where you received it. For example, if an office co-worker gave you a gift that you are re-gifting, don’t give it to another co-worker the next year. Instead, give it to a family member or neighbor.
Step 6

Watch for free gift card offers from pharmacies. Walgreens, Rite-Aid, and CVS usually offer a gift card if you transfer a prescription. If this works out and you have a prescription to transfer, take advantage of the offer. You can either give the gift card away, or use it to buy your gifts.
Step 7

Watch for bank promotions for free gift cards. SunTrust Bank has a promotion to get a free gift $50 card when you open an account. Either give the gift card as the gift, or use it to buy your gifts. (I did this deal, got my gift card, and bought items to sell on eBay!)
Step 8

Ask your hairdresser for a freebie. Hairdressers are always trying to build their clientele, and they do it with referrals. If you have a good relationship with your hairdresser, ask if she will offer a free haircut to a friend or family member. She can just write it on the back of her business card and you can give it as a gift. (This can also work for your personal trainer, dog groomer, babysitter - anyone in a service job that you have a good relationship with.)
Step 9

Use points or rewards on your credit cards. For example, American Express has a loyalty program where customers build reward points all year long. These points are redeemable for gift cards at the end of the year. Find out if your credit card company has this program, and give those gift cards to people on your list.
Step 10

If you or your spouse attend trade shows or expos, pay attention to the freebies. You can often get free gift cards on the spot for filling out a survey or entering a drawing. Vendors also give away great gift items like calculators, cool key chains, full-sized health and beauty products, and coupons for free items. Visit trade shows and expos when they come to your town and load up on the freebies!
Step 11

Get free items on Craigslist. Visit Craigslist.org and click on the city nearest you. Look under the FOR SALE section and you will see FREE ITEMS. Many times, people are moving and they don’t have the desire or time to have a garage sale. You can score all kinds of free items.
Step 12

Visit and join FreeCycle.org. This is a trading site – the point is to keep items out of the landfill. Good stuff goes quickly so be sure to check the site daily for new items.
Step 13

See the resources section below for more ways to get free items - to keep for yourself or give as gifts!

Comments

chez1 said

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on 9/4/2009 Really great ideas. I use a couple of sites that pay you basically to just change your search engine. 1st one is swagbucks.com. You simply search and win prizes. You have to do quite a lot of searching to win a point a day, but you can then redeem your points for prizes. You need about 70 points to get your hands on $5. Another one I use is anywherehomepage.com. On this site you can very quickly get lots of points for searching and clicking on the results. I get between 40 and 100 points a day (just for doing my normal searches) and you can redeem your points for cash. On this site it costs 495 points for $5 (not bad if you are just using it for your normal searches - it's like free money). They also have a referal links system so you can add a link to your site or blog or invite friends and everytime your friends or referals win points, so do you. If you want to join and earn for ju...