I've found that because I'm a single mom people tend to give me freebies alot.  Even when I don't have my son, like when he's at his dads, people still give me free stuff to "help me out" even though I never give off the imression that I'm in need of help (maybe its cause I'm cheap people automatically think I'm poor...???).  Does anybody else get this?  My neighbor across the street is always giving me fish and milk.  She called me earlier to tell me that she's going to bring me octopus later today, which is me and my son's favorite.  We always get dinner invites, which is free food, but I always bring some vino for the hostess.  The cabel guy "forgot" to disconnect the cable...things like that happen all the time.  And I'm not even cute...lol! 

 So, I thought I'd start a thread where we can talk about our freebies. 

YEAH OCTOPUS!  I love that stuff with soy sauce and wasabi. 

Hello Frugal Alaskan,

Everyone likes free stuff. So let me provide some. I'm with Cedarlane Natural Foods. Just email me Feedback at CedarlaneFoods dot com and I'll be happy to send you coupons, even 2 VIP coupons so you and your son can try one of our entrees at no cost. Now that's a Freebie!

Best regards,

The Big Cedarlaneoholic

uuuuhhhh, did you just spam my post? 

 nothing is sacred...I swear.

More freebies the other night, halibut for the freezer.  If all else fails, we will have tons of fish to eat this winter.

Hi, Alaska....

I think you must be a nice person, or people wouldn't give you things no matter how frugal you look.

40 years ago, back in miniskirt days, I had guys offering me little perks like touching up the dings in my car's paint job, that sort of thing, when I wore my  knee-high leather boots.  I wasn't cute, but had really nice legs.

Now that I'm old and pathetic I get offered advice (as a first-time homeowner I'm demonstrably ignorant) and handyman services,  yardwork, etc, that they think I can't handle.  I'm living with a lot of retired people with time on their hands, and right after I moved in I had a knee replacement, so everybody got the idea I was helpless.  And I sorta was, but it took me a while to learn to accept help. I have always tried to be independent, but I seem to be playing the Southern belle here - "I just don't know what to do about this shaky railing..."   I have three neighbors wanting to trim my rosebushes for me, and when I have the other knee replacement I won't be able to fend them off anymore;  they'll just have to divide the work up.

I'm blessed with a kind and generous friend named Antonia - she started as an employee in our business, and when my husband had his long illness and could do less and less at work, she just took over more and more, til she was pretty much running the production, and driving us around, helping with shopping, and so forth.  After both he and the business were gone,  she helped me find this mobile home and pack up and move everything.  One reason we picked this place was that her new job is just up the highway. 

 Her new employer had been one of our customers so I get invited to their Christmas parties, and whenever they have an employee birthday party, they give her a plate to bring home to me!  Also, they clear out the fridge every Friday and load her up with anything still good.  Since I've always liked being creative with leftovers... 

The owners there like to eat well, and they seem to be trying to educate the workers' palates;  most of the people like to eat familiar things, they like what they like, darnit, so I get all this food they are not adventurous enough to eat, like Thai take-out, porterhouse steaks cooked rare, salads with weird-looking gourmet greens in them, and similar good stuff.  It's fun!  I get altogether too much birthday cake, though.

Tonia also has some friends who own a resale shop which they stock  with goods auctioned off by public-storage places;  since most of their clientele don't read English handily, they were just discarding all the books!  So now they save them all for me - free reads and then I trade, donate, or Freecycle them. 

You're lucky to have the fish and milk lady!  I'm sure you deserve these offerings fully as much as I do - (smile).  She thinks you're a good neighbor, not just that you're poor.  You probably do things for her, too, and it all comes around again.  It's a small-town thing, too (I'm assuming you're not in a large city);  where I grew up people were always passing their garden veggies around the neighborhood, and the men would go hunting and divvy up the deer or occasional moose. 

Darn, no-one gives me octopus, though; have to buy my own. 

juditur

Even though I'm not single, I do get the "you're so poor" vibe from others because I'm fairly newly-wed. We do get free food sometimes from neighbors and church members, but the biggest single thing people want to give us is furniture! That makes me so happy. I usually end up baking lots of cookies as thank-yous.

Oddly, the biggest single reason why people think we're poor is because we don't have a TV hooked up to any signal. (This is a delibrate choice. We don't really watch TV.)  This usually freaks people out - what kind of SHAMBLES do we live in? - and we end up thwarting lots of well-meaning gifts of TVs. I had an aunt who had a TV surprise-shipped to us from across the country because she felt so sorry for us. We think it's hysterical.

I hear you!  We had a tv when we were first married.  I was watching an old movie with W C Fields and the scene was a steamboat race.  They were all saying, "Pour on the steam!  We have to win!" and, "No, no!  The boiler will burst!"  "Come on!  More coal, more coal!"  "NO!  This boiler can't take much more!"  - and suddenly a tube or something in the back of the set blew out - there was smoke and everything.  This was around 1966 and we never did get another set.

You're right - nobody quite believes it.  I mostly just don't mention it, because people will ask why, and not believe that you'd rather sit and read.  They start telling you about all the quality programs that you're missing.  Or 5 minutes later they're asking, "Did you see .... whatever.... last night?"  Seems they can't quite wrap their minds around anybody not having this totally basic thing. 

Just to clarify, we don't have anything against tv, and probably if we had had children we would have had it, and when I'm in the hospital or wherever, I do watch.  In fact, when I'd go home to visit my parents, I'd watch from Sesame Street in the a.m. to reruns of Magnum PI or Quantum Leap at 2 a.m.  Which is sorta why I didn't want to have it available all the time!

juditur

I am not a single mom, but I've found that friends tend to give me their cast off items because they know I am cheap. For instance, one friend got a new iPod and passed their old one on to me. And it's not like I asked for it, either. In fact, I was content just using my discman because I didn't want to spend $100+ on an iPod, and the discman worked fine. Said friend is quite a high roller and also plans on buying a new computer, so I will be getting their old one because I do not have a desktop and my cheap laptop doesn't run very well (although it's sufficient for the purpose). Since I don't ask for these cast-offs and they like to spend money anyway, I figure that their spendthriftiness is my good fortune.

Single parenting people always get a bad rap. I have been there my daughter will be 18 this year. But my hand me down person is my mother who LOL my dad for years as always purchased for her a new kitchen something every Xmas. She would get a waffle maker even when she didn't ask or want one. By Feb it was mine. The same goes with everything else she comes in contact with. She is not big on Stuff just laying around even if she uses it she will get rid of it.( Clean house nut)