The most significant ways to lower your food budget are, of course, to meal plan, to shop sales with coupons, and to stockpile when favorite items are deeply discounted. But there are also a lot of smaller strategies that I enjoy using as well, and one of those is ordering free product samples.
Just this week, I got in the mail two samples I recently ordered: a small sample size of Oil of Olay body wash and a toy car for my 5 year old! In the past, we have enjoyed samples of
- toilet paper
- lotion
- sunscreen
- allergy medication
- vitamin D
- herbal teas
- toothpaste
- mouth wash
- lip balm
- magazines
- Crystal Light drink mix
- Kashi cereal
- feminine hygiene products
- diapers
- wipes
- … and the list goes on and on.
I use the toiletry samples to stock my travel bags, and the food samples often make it into my son’s lunch box for school snacks.
So, how does all this save us money? Well, in a pinch, I guess I could prolong buying body wash for a week or two by using up my free samples. But obviously that’s not a huge money-saver.
The real way free samples saves me money is with the high value coupons that most of them come with. For example, my Oil of Olay had $1/1 coupons and Kashi always has $1/1 and sometimes $2/1 coupons! And most of these coupons have late expiration dates — sometimes up to a year! — so I can patiently bide my time until a great sale comes along and then buy full-sized products for free, or very nearly free!
One of the best sources for free samples is Vocal Point, which is a whole marketing venue for a number of different companies and products. Vocal Point has the best high value coupons; in fact, I often get FREE product coupons — which are obviously my favorite!
Vocal Point will send you weekly (or so) emails, and it’s a good idea to take a minute or two to click over to their website and post a comment or answer a survey. Somehow this activity gets recorded and it seems to qualify you for higher value samples.
Use this link to sign up for Vocal Point, and then, once your membership is approved, you can request a free sample of Crest Pro Health toothpaste right now. Samples usually take 4-6 weeks to arrive.
If you like this small money saving idea, I’ll try to post when fun and kosher samples are available.
I got that car too, so cool, Z put it together all by himself. I spent forever the day that deal was up trying to get the page to load and I guess they must have gotten my request after all! yay!
Hey. I just found your blog and it is so nice to find a kosher savings blog that I can relate to. I also love Vocalpoint and can’t wait to get my free pasta sample. Please keep blogging so I can keep reading. I also want to say that your getting out of debt story is very inspirational and I hope to be doing the same thing soon. My husband and I don’t have $30,000 but with my school loans, we aren’t far from it.
Thanks for your kind comments, Frayda! I appreciate you being here and joining the discussion. Good luck with your debt repayment. You will feel so FREE when you’re done.
I just joined Vocalpoint and can’t wait for the Kosher samples to start rolling in! I made out on the TCP sale for clothes for my little guy! Oh, and they have ADULT footie pajamas that match the kiddies. Since they were 30% off, I had to get a pair–they came out to $15, cheaper than the PJs DH found a coupon for at BJs! AND DS will LOVE it that he and Eema (and Abba, they have his size, too!) have the same PJs! Thanks!
Yes I most certainly would like to get free sample, who wouldn’t. Yeah!!!
I look forward to signing up to website.
Thank you so much. Robyn Fabian
Mara do you ever plan on returning to chicago?
I work at The Ark, where you came for two evenings.
I share form time to time with my coworkers & family some of your great tips & ideas.
I cannot get samples on Vocal point. The “Goodies” just ask for my review, never offering a sample. Boo.