How did you get into Freebie Hunting?

Okay, I thought I would share a little bit of myself and hopefully in the process I will learn a little bit about you guys!

When I was about 13 or 14 there was a commercial on TV for SEABOND DENTURE ADHESIVE. my mother wore dentures and the tv said that if you called their 800 number they would send out a sample....
i think that was the first "sample" i asked for in that fashion. After that I realized that companies were willing to send out samples to let you try their products so that you would possibly keep buying their product.

But it wasn't for a few more years, i think I was 22 or 23, I was a young mother and I wrote a company, hmmm, I can't even remember which one right now...it may come to me later. Anyway i wrote this company and told them I LIKED their product. i didn't expect anything, I was just really writing a "fan" letter, so to speak. And lo and behold, about two weeks later I got a letter in the mail with a coupon for a free box of whatever it was.

So that got me thinking...hmmm...I went through my cupboards and looked up the addresses of all the products in my cupboards that i liked. Of course back then stamps were only a quarter apiece! And pretty soon i am getting letter after letter after letter with coupons for free products.

Well, I sort of lost interest, I ran out of companies to write and I went on to different hobbies.

Then about three years ago I was sitting at my computer bored stiff. i had played all the games I wanted to, looked up all the facts I could hold in my head, printed out all the pictures of my rock and roll heroes....I was at a standstill of what to do on my nice fancy new computer when I got to thinking about that SEABOND DENTURE ADHESIVE sample. So I Googled "free samples"....yep....people, I am here to tell you, that was all it took. I have been like a helpless freebie addict every since!!!

Anyway, how did you guys get into freebie hunting? Was there a magical moment when you figured out that this was so much fun...you really didn't care what the family thought anymore??? Was it something that happened in a store...what drew you to your first "sampling experience"??? Share with us....i am curious, so i know others are, too!

i also was around 12-13 ish... and got an envelope in the mail that said FREE GIFT INSIDE! and it had my name on it and it was bulky!!!! i was sooo excited and i opened it and it was tampons.....i was like BUT it got me thinking hmmmm i wonder what else i can get for free. i signed up for a ton of and a few legit ones. i remember i got some shamp/cond packet, jelly belly packet and that was it. i lost my momentum and gave up.

much like deedee about 3-4 years ago i was bored out of my mind and remembered my free jelly belly's and thought there has got to be other stuff! soooo i typed in "100% free samples" and wah-lah i never knew forums existed that were dedicated to freebies! now i know and can't stop!

i started in 2005 when i met a lady online.she told me there was sites online that gave away free stuff and she sent me a list a mile long.

yeah, i was amazed to find that there is an entire community of people out there that were totally INTO this....I mean, it's like our own little subculture....and the people we run into in RL don't even have a clue. But like a ton of the people on here I also see elsewhere on the net on other sites...and especially people who have the same names on other sites, it is easy to spot....but then once you get to know people, you know their 'other" names as well. like most people who know me, know that I used to go by the name Trebenaid. But now, even at home i am now "Gramma Deedee", to the g-kids.
It's kind of neat running into people on other sites that you know on here. I ran into a post by Tiggerchik on one of the Nestle panels I belong to....and Laura and I are members of a lot of the same panels and forums and sites. It's sort of like running into a friend at the mall or something.

I started about 3 years ago. We were REALLY poor and needed help. We lived in Cali at the time, and if you live there, you know how hard it is to get any help there. If you work more than 20hrs at like Mcdonalds, the state pretty much says F YOU!!! So I started looking for other ways. I knew that companies like PG gave out samples, so I started looking for others that do the same. Also, I found out from my Aunt, that if you hand-write letter to companies, they will more likely send you stuff rather than emailing them. So I started doing that too. After that, I just became obsessed. After we moved to New Mexico, things got way better. But that didnt matter, I was hooked.

I got started one day in March when i was getting depressed sitting at my computer for 8 hrs a day looking for a job and waiting for my phone to ring with interview offers. i googled Free S*** - no joke! and up pops thousands of sites. i wasn't expecting that - after all i was bored and just amusing myself. i signed up for all kinds of stuff. of course it only took a month or so to realize the majority were sites, but being optimistic, i carried on. when i won the custom pool cue (only 50 were given out) i knew i had a chance at anything. i found this site from a recommendation from another site. there is so much info here and it helps you make a better decision on what to sign up for or not. i believe in sharing the expertise and being honest about the products. i am one of those that actually learns from other mistakes, so i will always try to pass on any info that might help you get a good freebie or info that will save you the grief on bogus ones.

Well, for me it was back in 2007. I had lost my job, and was really depressed and I was killing some time on my computer (it was an old hand me down) and I still do have a hand me down laptop.
But anyhow, I was sitting there and a friend of mines.....long ago used to stay home with her kids and her husband was in the air force and she had a computer and she would stay up really late at night signing up for stuff. And I asked her why she was always so sleepy all the time and she would say "Well, I was on the computer signing up for freebies". Freebies??? I asked her what the heck are you talking about? And she proceeded to tell me about all the stuff you can get. Well, it went in one ear and out the other thinking to myself, she's crazy to stay up so late at night doing all this stuff. But anyhow, she was more into surveys and stuff for money. Which I didn't believe. Okay time went by and she moved to Orlando and I have kept in touch with her all those years. And back then it was 1998 or something around there. All I know is her kid was 5 when he left here and now he's 15. So it's been a long time since I've seen my best friend. But anyhow, as I sat there on this computer.....I remembered her doing all this stuff. And then I started to look up free stuff on google and stuff. And all these sites kept pouring in. Some were legit and some weren't. But there was one site that I was studying closely as they talked about what they got in the mail and all the stuff there were on the freebies seciton to sign up for....I was like !!! I don't even have to go all over the interenet they (the fellow freebie hunters) put it there for us to just sign up for. What an awesome thing. So I proceeded to sign up for everything in site. I went totally crazy girl. Next thing I know I was getting brouchers , freebies of all kinds, some I knew nothing about, some I knew what there were. Well, I said to myself. I'm gonna start to sign up more carefully for what I want and need. Because since it was my first time doing this I had to learn I didn't have to sign up for everything.
Just stuff that caught my interest. So I did just that. Then when someone got something inthe mail call section, I would Pm them and asked them how they got that and they would direct me to the link. I was totally amazed how many people were into this sorta thing. And to think I thought I was the only one out there looking for free stuff to help me since I wasn't working and I felt the need to bring something into this household to feel like I made a difference.
And I did. With the toothpastes, deodorants, shampoos and razors, I felt if I could do a little something to participate in my household that I would feel good about myself and not be so depressed. And low and behold the feeling took off like a whirlwind. I was so deep into this freebie hunting .....I got serious then. Highlighters, pens, notebooks....all the tools to help me take inventory of what I had signed up for and what was still to come and hadn't. I learned to do avatars, signatures, colored letters.....
This world was a brand new thing for me. And guess what???
I WAS LOVING IT!!!
I felt a sense of control. Something that I can do for myself. Some knowledge that might not be worth to others as much but for me it was like a struck gold. Well, you know what I mean, that was a figure of speach, but it was like a brand new world to explore.
Neeless to say, this started in 2007 and I'm still here holding strong. And to think.............my very favorite freebie I ever got at first was a mood ring.
I do have to say back then the freebies were alot better than now.
It seems as the stuff isn't as anymore. But I do like that almond tin they sent me not too long ago. It's the little things that I get like that that keep me longing for more and hope.