Freebies-2009
Friday, March 13, 2009, 12:51 PM | Leave Comment
There are many sites of entertainment that are totally free or they charge minimal fee that, I am sure, you can afford. Free services are available in a variety of categories, you just have to look for them. A few of them are given below. Take advantage of them. In our family, we use many or all of these free entertainment sites.
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Entertainment
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Directory Assistance
Save a buck or two and dial 1-800-FREE-411 next time you need directory assistance. It offers free guidance for residential and business listings.
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College Savings
Turn your everyday spending into money for Junior’s college education through Upromise.com. Sign up online, and start earning cash rewards for eligible purchases including groceries, gas, dining out, travel and online shopping. The money is automatically transferred to your child’s 529 account.
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Books, Music and Movies
The public library is still one of our all-time favorite places for a free diversion. If you haven’t been lately, dust off your card. It’s your ticket to mounds of free books, magazines, CDs and movies.
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Credit Report
You are entitled to one by law once a year from each of the three main credit bureaus. Go to annual credit report to see what lenders can see about your credit history.
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ATM
If you are frequenting ATMs outside your bank’s network, the surcharges can add up quickly. Get money from an ATM that belongs to a surcharge-free network. Allpoint has about 200 participating institutions and 32,000 ATMs. Money Pass has 600 members and 8,000 ATMs.
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Language Lessons
Broaden your horizons and take the BBC‘s free online language courses.
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Wireless Internet
Surf for free when you are away from home at so-called free wireless hot spots. Search for restaurants, parks, hotels or other hangouts in your neighborhood at Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory.
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Office Software
You will spend more than $100 to get Microsoft’s office suite of software for your home computer. But you can get the capability for word processing, making spreadsheets, creating presentations and more with a free software package at Open Office.
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Checking with Interest
The 4% Interest, Without Fees: Too Good to Be Checking? pays you 4% interest on your money – your rate depends on your account balance. Read all about it before signing with the bank.
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eBooks and Music
At Gutenberg.org, you can download more than 25,000 e-books, including works by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and James Joyce. And at Mutopia.com, musicians can print sheet music by more than 250 composers, including Mozart, Bach, Tchaikovsky and Joplin.
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Public Transportation
With the price of gas sky high, it’s refreshing to find some U.S. cities offering up free bus, train and ferry rides, including Island County, Wash., Cache Valley, Utah, Clemson, S.C., and Chapel Hill, N.C.
Some larger metro areas provide free rides around their downtown areas, such as Denver, Colo., Portland, Ore., Miami, Fla., Seattle, Wash., and Pittsburgh, Pa. And across the entire state of Illinois, card-carrying riders age 65 and older get a free lift on public transit.
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Phone Calls
Save on your long-distance bill and chat via computer with free software from Skype. You won’t pay a dime for any call to another Skype user. You can call non-users’ landlines, too, for about $3 a month
