How & Where to Find Totally Free Stuff

If the dwindling economy has put a reign on your finances and ability to spend freely, don't worry, you are not alone. Luckily, there are tons of resources both online & offline that allow you to get totally free stuff! That's right, no strings attached, no questions asked, 100% completely totally free stuff. And people seem to love free stuff - according to the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, the average search volume for free stuff in month is 368,000 searches, locally. The average search volume for free stuff in one month globally is 673,000 searches, which is almost twice as much!

I'm a bargain shopper by nature - it's not exactly my fault either. I was drug around to yard sales, flea markets, thrift stores, and the likes for as long as I can remember, so I had no choice but to learn how to be frugal with the almighty dollar. And why not bargain shop? You can get great quality items without always paying top dollar.

Now, don't worry, by totally free I mean no monetary exchange needed. Once I had children, besides finding cheap diapers, one of my biggest challenges was trying to find cheap baby clothes. Of course I tried thrift stores, yard sales, hand-me-downs, and similar options, but I also checked into some online resources. I've checked out freebie sites in the past and while you can really get some great free baby items (and other free items) from them, many times you have to sign up for some type of trial or pay a small amount (i.e. shipping & handling) to receive the freebie, and it's usually just a sample. I am bad at remembering to cancel subscriptions, so those kinds of services always ended up causing me more trouble than they were worth, in my opinion. Some love and swear by them, but not me.

When I say totally free, those types of things are not what I'm talking about at all. I've found ways to really seriously get totally free stuff. However, sometimes a swap of equal, greater, or lesser value may sometimes be warranted.

Last night, my mother ran into a friend and past co-worker who just had a baby boy (well, he's 5 months old). While swapping stories and catching up with each other, somehow the topic of discussion lead to how the baby didn't have anything new because she had gotten lots of free baby stuff, like newborn baby clothes, from this place she found online. Large ticket items she needed for the baby, like a bouncer, stroller, car seat, etc. she had all gotten from this online community. All she had to do was pick the items up and absorb the cost of gas! She even participated in the community by giving away a sectional sleeper sofa they didn't have a need for. Apparently, my mom's friend was really impressed with the community - she felt as though she preferred to give away items to families in need as opposed to GoodWill or similar foundations because they sometimes resell items or try to obtain some type of profit. She said "this way you're hopefully helping others."

Naturally, my mom was intrigued, so she inquired more.

1. Apparently, unbeknown to me, there's an online community, called Freecycle, where you can both get or give away totally free stuff. It seems as though a lot of people have already discovered this totally free stuff phenomenom - but I'm assuming since I didn't know about it, there are tons more who also don't.

The basic concept of Freecycle is two part: recycle things that others may want or need (I'm sure you've heard the saying one man's junk is another man's treasure) and reduce landfill waste - all for free. It's even free to browse or use the website, there are no fees involved at all.

All kinds of items can be found or given away on Freecycle. I've seen "wanted" and "offer" ads for items ranging from quality baby onesies, cell phones, DSL modems, computer monitors, and homeschool materials, to items like outdoor playsets, pianos, living room sets, and boats - no item is too big or too small for Freecycle. And it's all totally free! How cool is that?!

So, how does Freecycle work?

It's really easy to get started with Freecycle. I'm still getting familiar with it, and it can be a bit confusing, but here's the jist of it (follow along for visual effect with the screenshot thumbnails below):

• Get started at freecycle.org (not freecycle.com)
  
• Once you go through the sign-up process, you will be able to view groups in your area
• You will be joining Yahoo Groups to post and look at items. If you are not a member of yahoo, you will need to join
• That's pretty much it! You're now ready to start giving and receiving totally free stuff!
  

2. There's one more online community that has partnered with the offline market where you can get and give totally free stuff. It's called Bonanzle. Bonanzle is an auction site, much like eBay, so while you can also sell items on Bonanzle, I'm only going to cover the freebie option to give and get free stuff. (There's also ways to get free stuff on craigslist - read some of the Hubs I highlighted below for more on how to do that.)

So, just like with Freecycle, you have to register with Bonanzle, of course. The process is really quite simple with Bonanzle. Once you're all set-up, you simply go to your booth, (under the my Bonanzle tab) and choose to add items for sale (if you have something free to give away). Then you just select the freebie option when listing your item. You can include pics, and one feature I really love, schedule the times your items are avaialble for pickup.

Unfortunately, I haven't figured out a way to filter the freebie items when searching on Bonanzle, so if you are looking an easy way to find totally free stuff, you may want to shuffle over to Freecycle first.

What I love about being able to give totally free stuff away using both of these services is that it becomes very personal and I can also choose which families/caregiver my item is going to. Sometimes I have items that I want to give away, but I want to make sure the items are really going to needy families. Rather than dropping some clothes in a bin or dropping a barely used toddler bed off at Goodwill, I can now post ads and screen which family my item goes to, based on who I think needs it the most.

So, have you gotten or given away something for free with either of these services? Do share!