For one thing, there’s just not enough time to take advantage of all of the free offers out there in the regular routine of your life.

Sure, there may be a free roll of toilet paper available at the grocery store on the other side of town, but when you’re at the neighborhood store and you’ve got to get home to wipe your butt, suddenly a buck for a roll ain’t so bad.

Free food during happy hour at bars, grocery samples, cash bonuses, and everything else in life worth having is available for free, but who’s got the time to take everything.

You’d have to dedicate your life to being free, and then how much would that cost you.

At the last baby shower I went to, for a family member, I made up a nice basket of small items…all FREE from online Free offers, mostly Walmart…diapers, baby formula, rattles, toys, bibs, bowls, lotion, baby wipes, etc. With handmade fleece booties, it was a very inexpensive gift and well received.

The trick is to have a place to store the excess until you need it

Mark: Of course we all rather take free money if we had a choice. But then if it is clearly something we can sell on ebay, isn’t that just as good as cash?

I rather take free money over free products any day. Considering some of these free products were made in countries where the average yearly income for the factory workers is less than what I make in a week. Perhaps it is a form of talking with our wallet?

I agree that sometimes free offers are worthwhile. I arbitraged zero-interest credit card balance transfers for years when I was a student… I was able to finance a lot of my education for free that way. I imagine for a few hours of work every couple of months I saved a couple of thousand dollars in interest over 5 years of graduate school. Nowadays those offers are shorter term and require a fee… but wow was 1999 – 2004 or so great for that! One thing is interesting is how hard it is to make a credit card company cancel a card. I have a mild personality, but sometimes I would have to get quite stern with the representatives because their high-pressure sales tactics became painful.

Free cookies are great! Where is this Harris Teeter?

Presh Talwalkar: That’s an interesting observation. However, there are many times when companies just want to get rid of inventory and give stuff away (for publicity sometimes) so why not take those offers? If you don’t take advantage of these deals, someone else will anyway so companies will raise prices no matter what anyway.

First, I agree with Carl, as I have learned through economic classes that “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” Companies do “free” things either for publicity or because there are hidden costs. Companies can afford rebates because they hold your money for several months (cheap loan). Plus, some rebate redemption rates are as low as 50%.

Second, your advice to grab free stuff is valid only because not too many people do it. When lots of people go after a deal, a company responds by raising prices. I remember a store used to offer free chili on their nachos, but when too many people grabbed the deal, they began charging for the chili.

So, if you want to enjoy free stuff, you should tell others not too…Strange how that works, isn’t it?

Also, the “free” blanks CD-Rs at Best Buy or whatever cost me money to drive to the store, waste time to stand in the huge line and then go home. Unless I wanted to go to Best Buy anyway and spend money, I don’t think it helps much. Also, many people are weak and will buy a new PS3 game or something in the store, so the free offer isn’t so free anymore.

On the other hand, I love the free cookie at my local grocery store (Harris Teeter).