Freebies

[KGSodie 0]

So Natasha has developed a new 'hobby': obtaining as many freebies as she can. She's on russian-fiancee a lot and the girls there link to all sorts of trial size products you can sign up for. She was thrilled to receive her first sample the other day (calcium-rich vitamins). A nice side effect of this is that she has finally learned our address.

I'm curious - anyone else experience this? What interesting 'hobbies' does YOUR SO have?

[Chuckles 0]

I went through this... We got all kinds of free stuff in the mail. It is something new (or was) for my wife so she kinda went crazy with it. We still get stuff now, even though she has almost stopped this 'hobby'.

It's harmless, just make sure you use an alternate email when you fill out all that stuff so you don't get over-spammed.

On the other hand I still don't think my wife remembers our address... or phone number... She only has a good memory when it comes to any dumb stuff I have done over the past few years.

[slim 1,525]

My wife started getting the free stuff too..... and then I started getting the bills.

One of the first things she ordered was a National Geographic DVD set. I called them to cancel and, much to my surprise, they were very cooperative and cancelled the bill adding, "donate the DVDs to your local school or library." Wow!

I explained to her about how companies lure you in with the "free trial offer" or something like that and then you get stuck with a bill later. Thankfully, she got the picture after this one and now doesn't sample anything without checking it out first.

And I'm SOOO thankful she understands pre-approved credit cards aren't "free money." When she first got here she couldn't believe all these people were willing to send us free money. We had a long talk about credit, annual fees, APRs, etc. We went as far as getting a store credit card for her and after seeing how long it took to pay off and how annoying it was to have all of our "extra" money going to paying back money we already spent, she didn't want anymore credit cards ever again. She's considered getting a few other store cards (usually at the suggestion of the friendly and helpful girl working the cosmetics counter, "here, just fill this out and you get 10% off your order today plus no payments for six months. I know! It is a great deal! Just sign here and you're all set.") but after considering how much "extra" money she'll have to pay, she just pays cash. (Well, I just pay cash.)

She got on an "As seen on TV" kick for a while. We scoured the internet for the best deal on a flat-fold collander, found one, bought it, and then the next week it was on sale at our local CVS drug store for the same price. Since then, she's just said, "wow, that's cool. Maybe we could find something like that at CVS."

She's in school and working right now so that doesn't really leave much time for hobbies. When she does get some free time she's into fashion design/sewing and just found a cool new program that will convert metric sizes into clothing patterns that can be printed out in actual size. I haven't been the "male model" yet, but I know my days are numbered.....

[Satellite 1]

So Natasha has developed a new 'hobby': obtaining as many freebies as she can.

Here is what I thought was annoying:

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/zip/

[LvivLovers 39]

My wife found EBAY. She is one hard nosed bidder though...she looks for crazy bargains, puts in the minimum bid, and if she gets outbid she won't raise her bid at all (even if it's like 50 cents more haha)...she says she'd rather find some other bargain instead.

And Slim, my wife loves CVS. They always have something interesting she needs...and I have to admit I've found some cool things there too I never knew they had. haha Good prices on a lot of things also.

My wife almost signed up for a free membership on the Internet the other day and was asking me what information her credit card was ok to put in there. Once I asked her why they needed credit card information if it was free she got the idea. =)

Edited July 17, 2008 by LvivLovers

[KGSodie 0]

Good stuff guys, thanks for sharing.

Slim: 'male model'. At my house we have begun the "Kevin 2.0" project (as I call it). Clothes are unimportant to me, so I've always worn what was 1) cheap and 2) I already had. Needless to say, I have an extensive collection of old shorts and T-shirts. For Natasha, being Russian, clothes are very important! So we've started shopping in order to upgrade my wardrobe for work (my job is so flexible I have always worn clothes from my old shorts and T-shirt collection). Around the house I can, of course, wear whatever I like. I actually enjoy this new thing, since it reminds me of being in Russia with all the clothes changing every time you headed out someplace and returned home.

[groovlstk 0]

You guys might want to bookmark this page or d/l the widget

http://www.totallyfreecrap.com/

[slim 1,525]

Here is what I thought was annoying:

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/zip/

I'm not a big fan of Craigslist (you can find a married transvestite to have NSA sex with... but selling guns is just wrong) but the free junk offered on there is sometimes nice to see. My neighbor and I have enjoyed many a nice bonfire from wood he picked up off the free Craigslist postings.

My wife found EBAY.

My wife is hip to E-Bay and all those other sites, but for some reason, she's never been interested in buying anything from them. (Still shocks me.) She has had me order plenty from the J-Lo, Victoria's Secret, and bebe sites though. And let's not forget about that flat-fold collander.... I did get the Russian keyboard stickers from E-Bay a couple weeks back. It was not a good experience as she had to wait over three weeks for them. I think that's since turned her off the E-Bay thing.

Slim: 'male model'. At my house we have begun the "Kevin 2.0" project (as I call it). Clothes are unimportant to me,

Yes! My wife's "new" hobby (as soon as we can afford it) is to restock my entire wardrobe. She's going to burn my old T-shirts (see the aforementioned bonfires above) and replace them with new ones. I've probably bought more new clothes since she's been here than in the last 10 years combined. And she's just getting started.....

Changing clothes from "dirty street clothes" to "home clothes" is so funny to me. I actually feel dirty now when I go to someone's house and sit on their furniture with my "FOOOO!, dirty street clothes on sofa!" Well, really I don't feel dirty, I've just developed the trained response to know that I'm doing something wrong now. Same goes with shoes. And I must wash my hands every time I come home or even step outside to check the mail or something. FOOO! Dirty hands, blat.

[Ilya R. 0]

Are you guys familiar with a russian word "Halyava"?

if not you should ask your wives

[Brad and Vika 129]

Are you guys familiar with a russian word "Halyava"?

if not you should ask your wives

Free? It's slang right?

[Ilya R. 0]

Are you guys familiar with a russian word "Halyava"?

if not you should ask your wives

Free? It's slang right?

It is,

[KGSodie 0]

Natasha's latest discovery (via the girls on the Russian fiancee forums) is the room cleaning robot vacuum cleaner! She now wants one in the worst way. "Kevin, you just put it in a room and close the door and later, the room is clean!"

It's SO good that she is accepting Western technology!

[mox 298]

Natasha's latest discovery (via the girls on the Russian fiancee forums) is the room cleaning robot vacuum cleaner! She now wants one in the worst way. "Kevin, you just put it in a room and close the door and later, the room is clean!"

It's SO good that she is accepting Western technology!

Ahhh...a Roomba. Yeah I want one of those things too. They're not badly priced either, you can get them for just under $200. If you have a dog, be careful, they've been known to attack Roomba's. Roomba's even has a FAQ for this...apparantly you are supposed to scold the Roomba in front of the dog, and also praise the dog, so that the dog understands that the Roomba is lower on the "pack" scale. Too funny but I've got a friend that says it worked perfectly.

Kevin, do you have the link for the Russian fiancee forums? You posted it here once and I can't find it.

[slim 1,525]

Or you could just replace your dog with one of the robot dogs. They shouldn't have a problem with the Roomba, being from the same lineage and all. Don't know if they still do the butt-sniffing thing to determine that or not. Maybe they can just tell.

[KGSodie 0]

Or you could just replace your dog with one of the robot dogs. They shouldn't have a problem with the Roomba, being from the same lineage and all. Don't know if they still do the butt-sniffing thing to determine that or not. Maybe they can just tell.

You got me wondering now, Slim - who snuffs whose butt, in this scenario? Also, does the roomba actually have a butt?

Natasha's latest discovery (via the girls on the Russian fiancee forums) is the room cleaning robot vacuum cleaner! She now wants one in the worst way. "Kevin, you just put it in a room and close the door and later, the room is clean!"

It's SO good that she is accepting Western technology!

Ahhh...a Roomba. Yeah I want one of those things too. They're not badly priced either, you can get them for just under $200. If you have a dog, be careful, they've been known to attack Roomba's. Roomba's even has a FAQ for this...apparantly you are supposed to scold the Roomba in front of the dog, and also praise the dog, so that the dog understands that the Roomba is lower on the "pack" scale. Too funny but I've got a friend that says it worked perfectly.

Kevin, do you have the link for the Russian fiancee forums? You posted it here once and I can't find it.

www.russian-fiancee.com and you'll have to navigate from there. There's an English (almost dead) forum and the very lively Russian language forum.