Mom’s been a little jealous of all the freebies I keep getting, so I arranged to take her on a freebie hunt for her birthday yesterday. I signed her up online at several places over the past few weeks and waited for the birthday coupons to roll in. I called ahead to all the desired locations to verify their participation and then printed out the coupons of her choice.
First she got a free Rooty Tooty Fresh N’ Fruity from IHOP (2 eggs, 2 bacon, 2 sausage, 2 pancakes topped with blueberries and whipped cream $8.50 value), then we hit the mall for a free birthday gift from Sephora (which I saw mentioned here awhile back), and of course tried all the tester makeup and perfumes lol. The current gift was an eye kit with travel/purse sized eyeshadow, liner, and mascara. Mom was impressed… and the girl even threw in 2 samples of Time Arrest face fluid and a sample of DDF wrinkle cream. Considering their prices, I’d say it was a $20 gift. 🙂
Godiva was conveniently located directly across from Sephora, and thanks to Free Stuff Times I’d already signed mom up for the monthly chocolate thing, so we went there and she got to pick out any chocolate she wanted. She chose a clam shell truffle… it was quite large actually. The woman even gave us all a free square of dark chocolate she had just cut up. 🙂 From there it was onto Cold Stone Creamery, where I signed her up to receive a free creation for her birthday (regular sized small, any flavor + 1 topping $3.50 value). We’d never been there before, and it was fun watching them work the ice cream and sprinkles together. A friend who was with us also had a coupon, 2/$5 for the same thing mom got ($2 savings).
She had any number of free bday dinners at her disposal, but by then we were all too full and tired to go on, lol. But I did toss the bodycology lotion sample I had just received in the mail into mom’s goodie bag as well. 🙂
So over $56 worth of food/merchandise between 3 people was had for a grand total of $20 (not including tip + tax @ IHOP)… just for registering everywhere online. And mom had a blast claiming her free stuff and getting all kinds of well wishes from everyone! I’m looking forward to claiming my freebies in January! Thanks for the ideas, FST!