How I Got a Free $130 Ceramic Crockpot

Freecycled crockpot, ceramic plates & garlic roaster!

Not until I got back to the USA, did I realize how bad the economy has been hit. Whoa! Things aren’t nearly as bad in Australia. So I’ve had to be a wee bit creative in saving and spending and came across some pretty cool resources that I would like to share.

1) FREECYCLE – This is a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It’s all local and there are chapters everywhere in the USA. What a wonderful way to recycle and reuse, instead of throwing more stuff into the landfills!

So far, I’ve given away a VCR that I just don’t use anymore and a back massager still in the box. I’ve picked some cool things too, like a bunch of brand new mason jars (I’m replacing my plastic storage containers) and this awesome ceramic crockpot above for making sauerkraut. Ceramic crockpots like this one cost over $130 – so this was an awesome find and looks brand new. Check out Freecycle and pass along the link. Recycle and reuse!!

2) DEALZON - There are a lot of coupon shopping websites out there, but DEALZON is my favorite. I have it in my Google reader, so I get updates on the best deals and coupon offers. Sometimes there are a lot of offers that I’m just not interested in, but I’ve been able to scout out a few good nuggets among them.

One of them was a free three-month membership to Amazon Prime. This means I get free 2nd-day shipping on most products I order from Amazon. And when you sign up, you can immediately set your account to cancel this service at the end of 3 months, so you don’t get stuck paying the annual fee if you don’t want to. What a luxury it’s been getting my stuff in 2 days! Usually I chose the long 7-10 day delivery option to save money, so Amazon Prime has been a really nice perk.

Also through Dealzon, I got a free $4.99 credit in Amazon movies-on-demand, an Ivan Mog gourmet caramel apple for my niece (at least I can sneak a little bit of fruit in her, right?) and a free 3-part video tutorial on guitar-playing. I haven’t played in awhile, so hopefully this will inspire me to start again. Fun stuff!

Free Gourmet Caramel Apple!

3) SWAGBUCKS – This is a web search site where you receive results from Google & Ask.com, earn “Swag Bucks” periodically as you search the web and then redeem your Swag Bucks in the Swag Store. Personally, there’s not much merchandise that interests me in the Swag Store, but I can definitely use the gift cards! It only takes 14 swagbucks to get a $5 gift card at Red Envelope, 20 swagbucks for a $5 gift card at Alice.com and 45 swagbucks for $5 gift card at Amazon. There are other ways to earn besides searches, like referrals (hint, hint.) So if you decide to join and are so inclined, please help a chica out and click on my Swagbuck link. It would be much appreciated. ;D