Free Samples Online: A Study

Lately I've been experiencing my share of the financial downturn. As part of my efforts to deal with the situation, I decided to do a study of free samples online. In the past, I've been somewhat leery of such things especially since you have to give some basic information like name, address, and email. In addition, I don't usually have the time to fill out forms and such. Currently, though, I have more time on my hands, so...here we go.

At www.mySavings.com I applied for dozens of samples: pet food, hair and skin care, food, cleaning and laundry, etc. I also went to p&g.com (proctor and gamble) where I applied for their package of current samples (whatever that turns out to be at the time), something one can apparently do once a quarter. Then I went to Walmart.com to be sure I had applied for everything available there (most of which was already covered on mySavings.com). These are just the sites I've exploited so far. I'm sure there are many other resources out there. One thing I particularly like about the mySavings site is that they have a "New Samples" tab which allows me to check periodically for new items added since I did my big site-wide application for all samples of interest.

Before I started this study, I set up a new email account at hotmail. I used this email address for all of my applications. Not only will this protect my main email address from any spam that might be generated by the process, but, as I am only using this new email address for this purpose, it should make it relatively easy to see if the process of applying for samples results in email spam. I am also concerned about whether this process will result in an increase in junk mail (snail variety) and/or get me added to phone lists or otherwise annoyed in some way.

On 4/11/10 I applied for my 1st batch of some 30 - 40 samples. Over the next few days, I made additional applications. I will report here the results of this study: what I receive, sample sizes, when I receive them (how long it takes), my thoughts on whether it is worth the trouble, and any negative effects I notice along the way (such as spam).

I'd love to hear of any good sites of this kind that you have used, your thoughts on the process, and any warnings, tips, etc you may be able to provide.

Edited to add:
Sometimes I forget that we are a multinational site. I do wish to be inclusive of all DG members around the globe. Just wanted to let you know that the site www.mySavings.com mentioned above and in several places in this thread is good for a number of countries including the US and: Canada, the UK, and a few others whose flags I don't recognize off hand. They use flag icons, shown at the top of the Samples screen to denote the countries for which sample offers are available on the site. (If I didn't list your country, check the site to see if your flag is on the list.) Then each individual sample offer will be marked by the flag icons for the countries in which that sample is valid.

This message was edited May 1, 2010 9:49 PM