Free is something that sometimes motivates me. Who doesn’t want to get something without paying for it, as long as it’s not stolen?
But few things are really free.
I subscribed to the snack service Graze for free. The snacks were OK, but were priced far more than the tastier (and less healthy) snacks I buy at the grocery store. Also, more than one-fourth were not tasty. So I unsubscribed before the trial period ended.
An ad for Nature Box on This American Life*motivated me to visit their site. I concluded that it was too similar to Graze to make me want to hassle with unsubscribing later.
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If you are a frequent reader of Shiny Bits of Life, you know that I love cars. And since car manufacturers have deep pockets, they throw the occasional free promotion at people like me. One of my favorite free things was a test drive of the latest 3-series, when BMW was doing a national promotional tour. No sales person sat next to me while I pushed the car to its limits. A free cap was waiting at the end of the ride.
Aaah.
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* This American Life is a podcast and radio show on National Public Radio, for people outside of the USA.
Three comments:
1) I had graze in the UK for a while. It gave me the chance to try foods that I wouldn’t normally try and made sure the afternoon snack was more fruit than chocolate based. I did stop after a while because, once I tried the new stuff, I worked out I could buy it for less at the local supermarket.
2) This American Life is brilliant. Podcast comes highly recommended.
3) The limits you pushed the 3-series to. Were those the limits of the car or the law? Second thoughts, don’t answer that!
I usually regret trial periods because I have forgotten to cancel more than once. But they can come in handy for things like creating a will.
Thanks for the comments, Phil & Tim.
Phil, I did break the speed limit, just a wee bit. And my fear of the law would not allow me to push the limits of the car as much as I wanted to.