It’s quite obvious there no free stuff will come from for-profit companies.. but there are the two sides of it: and from a consumer or customer’s point of view, he/she should simply analize the total cost . Take the free dog food for instance. If the company giving it for free has competitive prices and quality, and you would consider making that purchase anyways, then its worth it if either they give a sample, a membership card with bonuses or whatever. Same rule applies with all purchases. Then, one of the major reasons companies are giving freebies away is competition (getting a bigger share of the market) so the freebies might not include hidden costs for you.

If that’s true, then maybe we take this frugality thing a bit too far. We should support people and activities that we benefit from. Sometimes you really do need to spend some money to make money.

Gotta go now and do some click throughs on this site…

Even if you don’t click the ads, it’s almost impossible for you to ignore the brand and your brain subtly becomes more comfortable with the idea of that brand.

It is possible that I subconciously pick up the brand, but I focus exclusively on the left side of the page, the side with the content. Whenever, Trent or somebody mentions the ads it comes as a surprise to me as I completely forget that this site even has ads. And no, I don’t use an ad blocker on this site.

I’ve got Trent’s ebooks and his paperback for the express reason that the $15 – $20 I’ve spent is truly a small price to pay for the value I’ve gotten out of the articles the last few years. There are other bloggers I similarly support such as Leo at Zen Habits and Jonathan over at Illuminated Mind. Seemingly, a fair few people just want everything for free without showing their appreciation toward the hard work that Trent has put in. Sorry, this may be an unpopular opionion, but none the less, I’m stating it. Maybe my opinion is colored because I am a writer/artist/musician myself. I do totally agree that you should give as much of you as you can (as an artist) without expecting a return, but I am just tweaked a bit when folks perform actions so that the blogger/artist/songwriter doesn’t get compensated.

- Humbly,
Charley

“mostly use free pens from hotels” – I have a habit of picking these up and bringing them home. The other night we were cleaning and I threw away about 50 of them (and kept over 100).

Regarding free samples, we went to a wine tasting (free) and sampled the wine. Didn’t like anything we tasted. Talked to the owner and he recommended something different. He brought out a bottle, we tasted, we liked, we bought. Since we were staying at a hotel, he “comped” us two glasses. Lots of free. Next time we visit that city, we’ll go back.

I’m a big fan of free samples. I’ve been able to try all sorts of things I’d never pay for, and would certainly never pay for after having tried them. Although I did get a sample of a specific high-end dog food that I was so impressed with that I now occasionally buy.

When I was mid-way pregnant, and flipping out because it had become apparent that the spouse was not going to finish his PhD until several months after baby came, and I knew full well I was going to get laid off in the meantime, I “lunched” at Costco on free samples a couple of times. Invariably, the food was overly processed, high in salt, and I swelled up like a balloon. You get what you pay for.

When I was equally poor (as in skipping meals to pay the rent) as a newly divorced single mom, I survived with a gift BJs membership, and the samples of food.

My payment for these? A feeling of obligation to direct my business to these places when I actually got some money!