I noticed here recently that almost every Mcdonalds restaurant is offering free coffee to anyone and everyone everyday. My assumption is that they just launched a new brand of coffee and this way they can try to attract customers while potentially stealing them away from other big companies like Starbucks.

For myself I am not a coffee drinker and so this doesn’t affect me at all. What this made me think of is how this could easily get someone hooked on a product that you normally would have spent nothing on it. Eventually you will and it will add up as an extra expense. I actually avoid taking free stuff a lot in these types of scenarios if it’s a situation where a person wants you to try something you are unfamiliar with.

Example, I would be inclined to pass on an offer of say getting a free one month subscription for a magazine of some sort unless I was specifically looking to potentially subscribe to it ahead of time. Otherwise I find that you usually set yourself up to try and justify in introducing this new habit/product into your lifestyle.

Of course it must be working for businesses for them to continually provide offers like these. But if the goal is to save money then simply not being greedy is one way to continually train your habits from over indulging or having too much clutter.

Today I saw something funny as I was reading an article about people who were spending so much time a site trying to do earn enough digital points to play various games like poker in hopes to play a game to win more money. The funny thing was that it wasn’t much at all when you look at it from the big picture. For example, it appeared as if it would take someone about thirty minutes to do all these questionnaires of sort to simply earn like $2.

I was just thinking how it was so much more logical to just say work at a regular job and earn a minimum wage then to do that. I then asked someone on why they wouldn’t do so and the only answer I got was that they would never pay for it since they can get it for free. I suppose I see the mindset for this but value wise it just seems strange.

To me it’s only in situations where I don’t have to go out of my way for these types of items that I would be persistent in getting. Example, I think the reward points you spend on credit cards are kind of a bad value when you compare how much you need to buy to get something for free. So I would never intentionally try to get more points just to get an item for free. Instead I am earning it because I know that I am going to use the card or making a purchase anyways. You could be spending all that time and energy finding more ways to save or making money too.

It seems like I have so much free collectible merchandise from the Olympics where I am not sure what to do with it. In many cases it is items like pins or toques that I know many people would want. I had some other friends that were in a similar situation and some of them were simply thinking of selling it.

Even while listening to the radio I was hearing how some people were willing to pay like $50 for these red Olympic gloves that normally retailed for about $15 only. The first advice was to simply Ebay them and to make yourself some money. Another idea is that some people simply sellit to then donate the profits to someone needy or simply giving it away.

I think most of the items I have would sell for about $30. Maybe I’ll decide to get rid of some for a low price for the sake of less clutter.

Today I got an e-mail from a friend as he simply mass e-mailed everyone about this Burger King promotion where it appears for quite a few days you can simply walk in the restaurant during breakfast time and get a free sandwich. You can see the deal here: http://www.burgerking.ca/en/View.aspx?uid=TopMenu_BREAKFASTONTHEKING

In the body of his e-mail he commented how he doesn’t normally promote fast food places but recognizes that there are people with say kids to take care of. Hence, having to spend all that money on food to keep them happy.

That got me thinking. Now for a lot of people finance usually is a major factor when it comes to food. So, knowing that you can essentially get a free breakfast for awhile in a place like this to save money would you actually change your routine to do so? (Assuming it meets with your health requirements and all)

From my personal observations, the interesting thing is that even with offers like these people tend to spend the same amount of money as these free offers are mostly treated as a supplement as oppose to seeing if it can realistically be used to cut a portion of their spending. So like in this example, they will continue to buy/prepare the breakfast that they would normally eat and simply get the free sandwich too.

While changing your food routine can be unrealistic in many ways, I’m surprised people do this for items like gadgets and stationeries. Example, a person winning a free DVD player yet they still buy a new one. Since the one they won was free they treat it is a spare backup instead. I guess in many ways using something that was acquired free feels too lower classed. Suppose it depends on mentality and how much money you want to save.

Here in BC, for our public transit system it is broken down into three zones of travel and a person has an option of buying a bus pass that enables them to travel through various zones. As you may have guessed, buying the pass that allows you to travel through all zones is more expensive.

Not too long ago there was this program called “Scrap It” that was introduced as a way to get rid of older car models off the road that are not as environmentally friendly. As an incentive, people can get an incentive worth up to a little over $2000.

Apparently there are a lot of people that don’t opt for the credit towards purchasing a new car but instead opt to get bus passes that are mailed to them every month. Interestingly enough, many of these people don’t even use transit and so instead they look to sell off their passes to others and there is no rules about it.

For example, a three zone pass is about $136 a month normally and there seems to be a never ending amount of people willing to part off with them for about $100 or less. Not a bad way to save money if you are a regular user of public transit.

Haven’t tried this myself personally, but the main thing to look out for from what I read are people that ask for a lump some and then mentioning that they will simply put your name as the address to deliver the passes to every month as from what I read the person can easily just take your name off the list afterwards.

If you find an honest seller though, it looks like it can be a good and perfectly legitimate way to benefit both parties.