I’m a freebie hound: there, I’ve admitted it.
 

If there are taster booths in the grocery story, I try out whatever they’re giving away.  (Who needs lunch before going to Costco?)  I fill out surveys for free samples, sign up for free magazines, and can’t resist a buy-one-get-one-free promotion (as long as it is something I’ll use.)  I send away for coupons (which I often forget to take with me and use), and enter draws at fairs, tho’ I never win.  Just type in ‘free stuff’ on any search engine and you will be inundated with links to free sites, offering freebies ranging from candles and cookies to magazines and diapers.  I will say, I rarely go to anything like that though, because there are a whole lot of scams out there, and some sites offer free stuff just to lure the unwary into signing up, giving out private info, or even divulging passwords, PIN numbers, etc.  One must be wary in this world; a little paranoia is a good thing!

The dark side of freebie-fancying, of course, is that I am on EVERYONE’S mailing list, and get far too much junk mail.

So lately the ecologically conscious side of me is nagging; am I being unkind to the environment by sending away for all this free stuff, thus firing a cannon into the snowy mountain of unwanted flyers and causing an avalanche into my mailbox?  I just don’t know.  I always recycle them, sending them off in the blue box to become yet more flyers to stuff in my mailbox, but is that enough?

It’s just that though most of this stuff (Kraft Foods’ ‘What’s Cooking’ magazine, P&G’s ‘Rouge’ magazine) is available online, I hate sitting at my computer to read the articles.  There is nothing like a print magazine to curl up with on the couch.

So, which is it?  Do you send away for stuff, or do you find junk mail shocking in its abundance?   The jury is still out, but I suspect that the side of me that likes free stuff will hold sway for a time.