Freebie Alert - Heartland Sweeteners Offers Free Samples of Ideal®

Starting March 1, Heartland Sweeteners is offering consumers free samples of its no calorie sweetener, Ideal®, which is routinely preferred over sugar. In fact, the company is so certain people will love Ideal once they taste it, it’s encouraging Americans to compare Ideal to sugar or any other no calorie sweetener. For a limited time, all who opt-in at www.FREEidealsweet.com will receive free packets of Ideal and a high-value money-saving coupon by mail. For great recipes from their expert Chef Ozzie and product information, people can log on to www.idealsweet.com.

Other Deals:
It's The Playtex Bra Sale: Get Bras As Low As $13.99 at JustMySize.com! This offer is valid no through April 7th.

Shop Leonisa’s New Bridal Lingerie - Bras, Panties, Garters and Shapewear

Eat Healthier

Event Stimulus: Save time and Wow your guests with Smilebox birthday invitations!

In these tough economic times we need to do whatever we can to save. If you are planning a birthday party this spring or summer, send your invite via Smilebox for free. Check out the below link and sign up for free ecards include your photos and videos, plus your own music.:

Make a Smilebox Birthday Greeting

Add amazing (free) slideshows to your Facebook profile that include your photos and videos, plus your own music.

Show you care by sending a Smilebox photo ecard, scrapbook or slideshow for Mother's Day!

Attention Mac Users! Smilebox for Mac integrates nicely with iPhotos, Photo Booth and iTunes.

Create personalized Easter ecards and scrapbooks in minutes with your photos, videos and music!

Free Coke Zero Nascar Related Promotion

Retail Secrets Freebie News: In celebration of the inaugural Coke Zero 400 at iconic Daytona International Speedway, fans would still be able to receive free Coke Zero.

Any U.S. resident 13 years of age or older can simply visit www.CokeZero.com through July 13 and follow the instructions to receive a coupon for a free 20-ounce bottle of Coke Zero (1). In addition to quenching their thirst, fans can help support a charity close to the hearts of Coca-Cola Racing Family drivers. Coke Zero will donate $1 to the Victory Junction Gang Camp on behalf of the first 10,000 people who visit CokeZero.com to request a free coupon.

Nascar fan or not- get your free coupon.

Get 20% off Any Single Item until 7.31.08 at Store.Nascar.com!

Free Mother's Day E-Cards -Save a few bucks with e-cards

Retail Secrets for Savvy Consumers loves anything free. This tip is for free e-cards and an eco-friendly way to say you care. If you have a lot of mothers in your life (friends, family, etc.) send them a free e-card this Mother's Day. Create personalized Mother's Day eCards and printable greetings from (click here-->) BlueMountain.com. Start your 30-day trial today! That's right, start a free trial to send out your free e-cards via email. FYI- the free trial gives you access to all of the e-card inventory!

One of my personal favorites for free quickie e-greetings is Smilebox.com. You can create (click here-->) free slideshows on Smilebox include your photos and videos, plus your own music. click here--> Visit Smilebox.com and create amazing greetings with your photos, videos, and music. Email them free.


Hot tip - for an unlimited selection of Smilebox templates, join the Smilebox Club for an unlimited selection of all holiday and general templates all year long.I joined and I use Smilebox for sharing vacation and holiday photos with friends and family.

Free Arctic Blender at Carvel and Free Coffee at Starbucks

Free dessert alert. Go to your local Carvel Ice Cream store on May 1 between 4-6pm and get a FREE (translation - no charge) Arctic Blender or Blended Coffee. Carvel's is giving away the 8 oz. size to anyone who comes in between 4-6pm on that day.

Don't miss out on this yummy freebie. Mark you calendars and set your alarm.


Starbucks is handing out cards good for a free cup of Pike Roast Coffee every Wednesday in May. Look for cards being handed out in front of transit stations and high traffic areas.

I bet if you called the Starbucks customer service line, perhaps they will send you one.

Give it a try.

Recession Proof Your Vacation With Built in Freebies

If you are short on cash for a vacation this year, build in some free stuff. Bottom-line - stay at hotels that offer free food and drinks!

Hotels like Embassy Suites offer free hot breakfast buffets. And it is all you can eat folks. Embassy's are part of the Hilton family, so you can use your AAA club number to get a discount on the stay. The hot breakfast buffet is very good featuring eggs to order with assorted toppings, pancakes, waffles, breakfast meat, hot/cold cereal as well as juices, coffee and tea. A family of four or more can save lots of money staying at a hotel with free hot breakfast. Also, the Embassy Suites has free manager's reception with free cocktails and soft drinks.

Some smaller economy hotels also offer free breakfast. Hampton Inn has free hot breakfast. No cook to order eggs, but you can toast or make waffles, make hot/cold cereal, assort pastry, toast and bagels. You can get free juices, coffee and tea as well. Days Inn now offers free breakfast too. It is mostly continental but you can get enough pastry, cereal and toast/bagels to make a good breakfast.

Comfort Suites also offers free continental or hot breaakfast depending on the location. Some of Comfort Suites have waffle irons to make your own Belgian Waffles. But at certain times of the morning, the line of the waffle service is long.

As with anything free, try to get to the breakfast area early. People pile down in the area in large numbers to get their freebies. Also, if there are individual cereal containers or yogurts, think about taking a few with you as a snack. But don't let the hotel staff see you.

Quick Tip: Before staying at any hotel ,check tripadisor.com for recent comments about the hotel property.

Go to Seaworld FREE with Citi Thank You Points!

If you are planning a trip to Orlando and have a Citibank credit card with a special loyalty program called "Thank You Points" you are in luck. Citi credit card holders with accounts that accumulate points can redeem points for free passes to Seaworld!

For just 8,000 points, you can receive a free adult pass to Seaworld Orlando. The regular cost of a ticket for an adult is $67.95 ($10 less for kids). If you have accumulated 24,000 points you can free tickets for a family of four because you can get as many passes as you need as long as you have the points. To save money while eating on vacation, redeem Thank You Points for chain restaurants like Chili's Fridays or Bennigans. Thank you points for $25 gift cards to restaurant chains usually run about $3000 points.

Check out the offers you can receive with your Citi credit card at Thankyou.com.

Gift Idea: Free Valentine's Scrapbook and eCards

There is a great online photo scrapbooking tool called Smilebox.com. You can share your photos, videos, and music inside amazing ecards & slideshows. Smilebox is a free service. That's right its free!

Smilebox.com has great Valentine's Day templates (might I mention templates for all holidays and occassions) that are perfect sentimental gifts for dad, grandparents, aunts and uncles - virtually anyone! Checkout this adorable sample:

Make a free ecard - it's easy!

The best part about Smilebox is that is so easy to work with. You just insert your photos where you like them to go, choose your music and you are done. All this can be done for free. It is the perfect gift for everyone in your life. You can use Smilebox all year long to commemorate events in pictures, video and music. Also, you can add amazing (free) slideshows to your MySpace that include your photos and videos, plus your own music.


Retail Secrets for the Savvy Consumer loves free stuff! Think how special this free gift would be for your family, plus there are no wasteful envelopes or paper. This is an eco-friendly way to share your love for holidays! Visit Smilebox.com and create amazing greetings with your photos, videos, and music. Email them free.

Get Movies Free and Cheap Online

You can watch episodes of your favorite tv shows free and legally online. One of the newer services HULU.com is offered by NBC Universal and Fox. It offers programing from NBC Universal like HOUSE, 30 Rock and Chuck. You can also watch episodes of Prison Break, Kitchen Nightmares, Bones, Nip/Tuck, Dirt and Family Guy, among others. I like this service because they also have movies that you can watch online for free from the NBC Universal and FOX archives. And it is all free. What's the catch? You see :15 second ads twice throughout the programs - they are quite harmless and better than paying to watch the same thing you get for free on tv! Sign up to receive access to the beta trial.


Vongo.com offers movies online via subscription service. What I like about this service is that you can watch hit movies for only $9.99 a month. If you checked your cable bill lately, this is cheaper than a premium channel. Vongo is from Starz Entertainment, so therefore you can watch an unlimited amount of movies appearing on Starz for a lot less they paying for the premium channel. Try Vongo for Free. Download unlimited internet movies w/ a Vongo subscription. Free Trial. http://my.vongo.com/cj

Unlimited Movie Downloads. Access 2,500+ Movies & Video Selections. Free 14 Day Free Trial.
http://my.vongo.com/cj

Is Your Cable Co. Giving You Free Stuff You are Not Using?

Retail Secrets loves free stuff! And it is our job to help our readers learn how to maximize spending. I was speaking with family members over the holidays who are Comcast subscibers and many of them had no idea of all the free amenities they are not using. So, if you are a subscriber of Comcast high speed internet there is a good chance you are not taking advantage of all of the free stuff they offer to subscribers. My area is serviced by Comcast Cable. Comcast offers many great features for its high speed internet subscribers. FYI - I am no way trying to sell Comcast - I am just sharing tips for existing subscribers.

I have been a high speed internet subscriber since 2000. My cable bill is not cheap, but I try to use as much stuff as it offers to maximize my spending. The Comcast offerings have gone through a few changes over the years but they offer a lot. Here are some of features that Comcast high-speed internet has for its subscribers:

Online File Storage: This is something that I have been using for the last five or six years. Comcast offers FTP protocal file storage to its users. You can use your regular comcast.net user name and password to ftp://upload.comcast.net. Once in, you can drag and drop files such as photos, word documents, excel sheets, anything. They are upgrading the file storage to 1GB of space. So you can use this if you have a document at work that is too big to email. Just drag and drop it into your comcast ftp folder. This is a very useful tool.

Free McAfee Security Suite: Everyone knows how important having security on your computer is. Well you can get FREE McAfee security with your comcast account for every computer in your home. The McAfee® Security Suite gives you a whole series of tools to help keep you, your family and your home computers safe, protected and virus-free. It's a $120 value, included FREE with your Comcast High-Speed Internet subscription. No strings attached. Go to http://security.comcast.net/ - you will need your comcast.net username and password.

Comcast is in the process of upgrading all of its personal web page features to bring more memory sharing and social networking capabilities. New features will include blogging, standalone web pages, widgets for your web page, photo galleries, an improved file manager, and 1GB of online storage. You can read all about the FREE features included in your bill here http://www.comcast.net/pwp/.

Here are links to other Cable company high-speed internet features:
Optimum Online

Patriot Media

Time Warner Cable

        Charter Communications

Get going on using all of the free services you are entitled to!

Get FREE Products - Direct from the Manufacturer

This is something that I often do when I love and purchase a particular product regularly. If you look on the back of the label of your favorite food or household product, there is a consumer feedback 1-800 number. Typically the number is exclusive to that product.

Most people call that number when they have a complaint. But very few think about calling the number to tell the customer service reps how much they LOVE the product.

Here is what I do:

I call the number and select the option to provide customer feedback

I select to speak to a representative (the automated system more than likely won't offer you anything free.

I speak to the representative about how much I LOVE their product and that I prefer their product over all others.

I close my comments by saying "I would like some MONEY SAVING Coupons for my patronage."

And that is it. Most food and consumer cleaning products are more than happy to provide coupons. Often, the coupons they send offer the product I like for free or they send really great coupons for steep discounts - ones you don't find in the sunday newspaper.

I have used this method for many products. I called the number on the back of Ragu and they sent me coupons for two FREE jars of sauce. Try it and see.

If you have success - please share it on this blog and tell me what you got?

Holiday Shopping Tip!
Shop Smart this holiday day season! Why stand on line at the stores when you can get great deals online at home!:


Spread joy this holiday season with GiftTree Gifts and Flowers