America, Land of the (Literally) Free

After living in Japan for 23 years, I found that there were many changes to the way things worked in America. For one thing, there is "self-check-out" in markets. It seems to betray a high level of trust, but technology (a weight-sensitive baggage area) and a watchful clerk overseeing the operation make it unlikely that anyone can pilfer stuff. Along similar lines, every gas station that I've seen has become self-service. As far as I can tell, the "service" in "service station" is a thing of the past.

There were also logical changes that I knew had happened, but had not experienced. One of them was the use of debit or credit cards instead of personal checks. It took me awhile to figure out how that worked, and then it took a bit longer to realize that it works a little differently depending on the shop you're patronizing. Japan is a cash-based society so this whole system was new to me. Even when credit cards are used, they cashier takes it from you and manages it rather than have you do the swiping.

These all fairly "expected" things that I felt uncomfortable with, but knew were coming when I left that little island country for the shores of what no longer feels much like "home". One thing which I did not expect was how relatively easy it is to get things for free. Perhaps I should qualify that by saying, "free".

Since coming back, I've been subscribed to about a dozen and a half magazines including Smithsonian, Vogue, Martha Stewart Living, Popular Science, Redbook, The New Yorker, and Eating Well. I have not paid for any of them. I also have a Starbucks card loaded with $50 of credit that did not come out of my pocket and I've gotten a few hundred dollars in credit at Amazon.com. I've also been e-mailed offers for free stuff if I just send my name and address. My internet bill is largely covered by Google even though I don't work for them in any capacity.

My very first experience with free stuff came with my Safeway card. For those who don't live on the West coast, that's a chain of supermarkets that has a loyalty card which occasionally will give you a shot at a free full-sized product. They started off with a dozen eggs just for signing up. Since then, the selection has been spottier, and they do have a tendency to offer free items and then not stock them at all, but they do come up with some goodies here and there and, since I use the loyalty card for discounts anyway, any free stuff is gravy.

One of the things that modern technology has done is make personal data a commodity which you can choose to "sell" in various ways provided that you want to look around and take the limited risks involved. I say "limited" because the main issue is whether or not spammers and marketers get their claws stuck in you. No one ever asks for your social security number. It's only your name, address, e-mail address, and telephone number, though sometimes it is not even that unless they need to physically send you something.

In terms of how you do this, you can start the way I did which is by searching for "freebie" sites. There are no small number of them out there doing the work of tracking deals and posting them for you to take advantage of or pass on. You can follow them on an RSS feed or Facebook for the most up-to-date information. I follow a pretty good one called "Freebie Shark". They're the ones who put me on to the fact that the Coke I was buying had a number on the inside of the box that I could use to collect points and get free stuff. Since I'm buying the Coke anyway, it's gravy. I'm currently saving points for a wireless mouse, but I already got a water bottle from them that my husband uses when going to the local pool.

That was how I started to get onto all of this potential for free stuff, but another part of it was a lead my sister gave me years ago. She told me about a site that she had used called "MySurvey" that allows you to get rewards for completing surveys. Yes, the surveys take time. Yes, you sometimes do not qualify to complete them and some of your time is wasted. No, they are not fake or a rip-off. The aforementioned Amazon credit came to me from accumulated credits from taking surveys. I probably make about $25 in credit every two months pottering around with the surveys while watching videos on YouTube. I imagine that, if you are someone who messes about on the internet at work because you have down time, this would be a way to earn a few bucks while you're bored.

In terms of the Starbucks credit, there are two freebies attached to that. First, Starbucks will give you a free drink or food item on your birthday just for having a card. Second, there is another survey site which I take part on which offers credit of a different sort including Starbucks and iTunes credit. That site is e-Rewards. A lot of their rewards include hotel and air fare discounts, but I'm not exactly the flying and traveling sort these days because, if I had the spare cash for those activities, I wouldn't be trying to get stuff by taking surveys.

The free magazine subscriptions sometimes are just completely free and sometimes require a short survey and writing a few brief reviews. In addition to magazines, I got a subscription to the Wall Street Journal from them (the print edition). It was supposed to last 42 weeks or something like that, but they never cancel it. In fact, the subscription ended in mid-August and I got a letter in October saying they extended it a few months as a courtesy, but it would end on October 14. I'm still getting it. Frankly, it's one freebie which I wish would go away, but apparently not badly enough to call someone and arrange to cancel it. Those come to me through intermittent e-mail messages from some place called "Rewards Gold".

Once you tap into these sites, you start getting other offers as well. Through "MySurvey", I've been sent real products to sample and fill out surveys about including a full-sized bottle of Mr. Clean multi-purpose cleaner, full-sized shampoo and conditioner, and one single roll of toilet paper. The last was hardly worth the effort, but the others were worthwhile.

If you're a reader, there is also a service called "Bookbub" which will take your profile in regards to your reading material interests and send you a list of ebooks to consider. Nearly every day, there is a free book on the list (provided that your reading material scope isn't too narrow). My sister has a voracious appetite for books and was incredibly happy to add to her collection from their offerings.

Local libraries are well-known for their potential to mooch from them temporarily, but some of the bigger ones will do you one better. Our local library offers three free DRM-free songs from an enormous library (including everything released by Sony) per week. My husband is like a kid in a candy store about this. He can get free, legal downloaded music (six songs per week with both of our library cards). This is through something called "Freegal" (free and legal). I don't know if just anyone can use it, but it's worth looking into in connection with your local library if you want to build a collection.

In terms of Google's paying my internet bill, I have to say that I just got lucky on that one. I was solicited to take part in a program called Screenwise which monitors my internet usage stats on multiple devices and pays me for it (I get $55 per month for it). This was actually more of a hassle to set up initially as I had to install hardware and go through a pre-screening process, but they did pay me about $250 upfront for the trouble. I don't know how long this will last, but I'd be happy if it went on forever. Unfortunately, I think they'll stop after a year and that little gravy train will end its journey.

Getting free "stuff" is also something that I didn't expect, and it does require a bit more effort. If you are inclined to do the things which will bring freebies your way anyway, then it's not such a big deal. For one thing, if you write lots of Amazon reviews because you enjoy that sort of thing, make sure that you fill out your profile on Amazon and include your e-mail address. There is a chance that someone will contact you through the profile and offer you things to review. This is what has been happening to me.

I've been offered a kid's heart rate monitor, baby vitamin supplements (both of which I didn't take as I have no children), an armband for iPad, a choice of various cables and adapters for tech items including computers and iPhones, and a flashlight that charges USB-powered items. I was also offered something by a Chinese company which I'm still not sure of what it is as they linked to the wrong reference page when they offered it to me.

If you're not an Amazon reviewer, but you are a blogger, the gravy train can be similarly rolling through your town. I used to blog about Japanese snack food and people offered me free snacks. I also know for a fact that book review bloggers are offered free books (as are those who post lots of reviews on "Good Reads"). I haven't tried it, but I'd wager that if you have a site which has a focus and that site has a decent readership or has been around for several years, you could probably contact a company that sells things related to your blog and solicit items of interest for review.

Obviously, there is a risk when you allow your private data to be tracked as I do. However, I think the risk is often smaller than people think. My name, address, and telephone number are already out there whether I released them or not. My ISP has already sold these things off to various entities and yours likely did so as well. They wanted to charge me $5 more per month to prevent them from doing so. I was already screwed in this regard just by living in a place with one option for internet service. If your ISP hasn't sold your data, there's a pretty good bet that some other unavoidable entity (utilities, telephone, etc.) has sold you out.

If you do a white pages search online, you can get anybody's address, name, and phone data (and often e-mail). What I'm doing is giving nothing more than is already out there (except for Screenwise, which is getting a whole lot more). I never give credit card data or social security numbers. If an entity even asks for these, it's a red flag that it is a scam.

If I were rolling in extra cash, I wouldn't be pursuing these options. The truth is that I've got time, but not so much money. Very poor people who want to augment their lifestyle a bit may want to take advantage of such things as they are easy ways to get a little extra wiggle room in your leisure budget. I daresay the Amazon money I've gotten would buy a few really nice Christmas gifts or a lot of little so-so ones. I've had people balk at meeting me at a Starbucks for a drink and a chat because they don't want to waste $4 on a cup of coffee. Well, I don't either, and I don't have to. However, I'm not going to pretend that I don't spend time doing things to get these "freebies", but the time I spend is generally not quality time. Most people are sitting in front of the babbling television texting or playing little games anyway. I'm just taking surveys and earning credit while I do that instead of pecking at my device like a deranged chicken that is interested in the boring details of other people's lives.

I don't really find it amazing that there is so much that you can get for giving people opinions and personal data because America is a consumerist culture. Buzz is more important than the trivial cost of merchandise. Personal data and opinions are commodities that can be sold so someone is going to be out there and willing to "buy" these things from you in exchange for things like Amazon or Starbucks credit. It is a direct reflection of how our culture values consumerism that this sort of system exists for me to take advantage of, or for it to take advantage of me (depending on your perspective). I had no idea that it was like this, but I can say it has been one of the few pleasant surprises of being back in the U.S.