Free Products in 2012 in Spain – A Review
- By Maxine --
- 05 Jan 2013 --
- comments are disable
Looking back over 2012, with a bit of savvy shopping on the one hand and sheer luck on the other, I’ve managed to save quite a bit of money by getting freebies. Companies know that offering items for free can be very attractive, but by playing them at their own game you can be sure that you don’t end up buying things you would never have bought and probably don’t need.
Here’s a rundown of some of the items I got in 2012:
A free Nespresso coffee machine. A already have a Nespresso machine and one day I got a call from the company informing that if I bought a certain number of boxes of capsules I’d get a free machine. This seemed too good to be true, so I asked if I could pay cash-on-delivery for the capsules rather than give my credit card details over the phone. One week later I received the capsules and my free machine. As I didn’t need two machines, I sold it via the Segundamano website.
- Free stuff at the supermarket. At Simply supermarkets they have a promo for card holders to sample a selection of items for free as long as you fill in a questionnaire reviewing the product. So far I’ve had a free bottle of wine, cereals and a couple of other items. However, when they sent me an email to try some Durex items free I decided to pass on that one!
Perfumes and creams (sample sizes). Apart from buying ocassionally in Sephora, Bodybell or other stores, even if I’m just browsing I’ll always ask for samples. December is a great time to get lots of these freebies as brands are trying to get you to buy for Christmas, also January falls into this category for Valentine’s day presents. Over the year I reckon I must have accumulated over 30 his & her fragrance sample bottles which are great for travelling.
- Free lunch / dinner. By using the VIP’s Visa credit card for most purchases (and paying off in full at the end of the month to avoid interest), I get a monthly set of vouchers worth 3€ each at lunch time or double in the evenings – which come in handy for treating the family (free pizza is always a useful bribe!!).
Making complaints. After buying a box of “sobaos” (typical sponge cakes from northern Spain) which could have been classed as lethal weapons they were so hard, I sent an email to the company. They sent me a box of their products along with an apology!
These are just a few of the things I managed to get – how about you?
Related posts: No Annual Fee Credit Cards in Spain
