Free Money Free Stuff

The first thing to keep in mind with this book is that it was published in early 2008 - meaning it was actually written in 2007 - and many of the pages they provide are from much older information. So if you are reading this book in 2011 or later, you are reading about things that are at least four years old. It's sort of like reading a four year old book about the latest medical research. In some areas timeliness really does matter.

The basics, of course, are sound. Buy used if possible. Reuse and repair what you have. Comparison shop. Cut coupons. These are all things that we know already and they don't involve "free stuff" news.

So what are the actual 'free money and free stuff' the book helps you learn about? Sign up for food stamps. Get free information from websites (wait, like instead of buying this book?) Use Skype for free conversations (although of course you have to pay for the internet connection so technically that's not quite free). For $28, get a flag that's been flown on the capitol. Wait, that's not free. Get discount eyeglass frames by going to a discount eyeglass frame website. Again, not free, and this is starting to sound like advertising for certain websites.

A *lot* of the advice is "go to website X and sign up for their coupons" and "go to website Y and sign up for their coupons." That's not really valuable advice, the websites can go out of date fairly quickly,

It seems at least half the book is "go to this website and read it for free" or "go to that website and play their online games for free". I really don't need a book to tell me this sort of thing. The remaining pages are filled with discount websites. There's very little actual free stuff listed.

And then they have tips like: If you live in Garrett County, Maryland, you could be eligible for a scholarship. That's lovely. I imagine high schoolers in Garrett County, Maryland are already told about that by their guidance counselors.

Yes there are some legitimately free items. Go to your doctor and ask him for some free samples. Get free floss from your dentist. But again, buying this large book and weeding through everything else to hear those tidbits is just a bit much.

I recommend you do some web searching instead of buying the book. You'll get far better ideas, and they'll apply directly to what you're interested in.

Frugal Living Tips