I love reading magazines, from money to fashion/design to family/parenting, to the point that I could easily subscribe to a dozen. However, in the interest of saving money and reducing temptations, I limit myself to 3 or less at a time.
Despite my love of magazines, I haven’t paid for a subscription in years, not since getting my first free subscription via expiring airlines miles. After that, I realized that there are a few ways to get my fix for free. This works for me because no magazine is a must-have for me. I enjoy Real Simple and Self, but as long as I get any glossy lifestyle magazine, I’m pretty happy.
In addition to airline miles, which I can never seem to redeem for travel, I have also gotten free magazines via online surveys. I don’t waste too much time on these but I’m part of a consumer panel and I actually enjoy giving feedback so it doesn’t feel like a waste of time. Over the years, I’ve gotten 15 – 20 free subscriptions from Lucky to Smartmoney to Martha Stewart Living.
Another way I’ve gotten free magazines is via purchases. It’s not so common but Harry & David had a promotion — offering a free subscription with X amount purchase. I had to email customer service but it was really easy and I think I got Sunset or Martha Stewart Living magazine. I also got a free issue of Dwell from an online furniture/decor store.
Right now I have 3 magazines coming in — 1 via surveys and 2 via Recyclebank participation. I’m still not sure how Recyclebank works (or makes money) but I get points for reporting my recycling so I figure why not participate.
Anyway, this post wasn’t supposed to only be about ways to get free magazines. I was just wondering if other people had similar experiences. One friend finds it hard to pay for designer jeans because she used to get it for nearly free via a work connection. Another friend hates to pay for parking. Do you have something (or things) that you just can’t bring yourself to pay for?
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