Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

If you have a child under the age of 5 and you live in Dorchester, Wicomico, Somerset or Worcester counties (Maryland), you can register them to receive a FREE book every month from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.  Go here for more details and to register.

Somerset/Worcester folks, you have to print out the registration form & mail to your local office (Salisbury).

Six Flags Read to Succeed program

Six Flags currently has a reading incentive program that your child's school (grades K-6 only) can sign up to participate in & earn the students & teachers a FREE admission ticket to Six Flags just for reading 6 hours! Click here for more information and/or to sign your school up.

How to find FREE stuff!

Thanks to the internet, it’s pretty simple to find a wide variety of products & services that are completely FREE, without much effort on your part. Obviously, scoring free things are great for your purse, but are also great for the environment, because it cuts down on waste that ends up in the landfills.

There are dozens of websites dedicated to helping you find a new home for your un-wanted items, such as FreeCycle & Craigslist. You can even tap into the Local Reuse application on your iPhone for another outlet. Before you throw it out, remember, “One man’s trash is another’s treasure!”

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Free samples/Trials/Giveaways/Promotional Items

The Free Site

Start Sampling

Free Stuff Channel

Trade children’s items you no longer want/need at:

Swap Baby Goods

Tots Swap Shop

Kizoodle

Travel

CouchSurfing connects travelers with hosts around the globe. The result: You both get a free place to stay & locals to hang out with for an inside glimpse of other cultures.

Use Digsville, Home Base Holidays, HomeExchange, and Home Link to find traditional home-exchange opportunites.

Want to score some free (or cheap) drinks while you’re traveling to New York, Los Angeles, San Fransisco, Chicago, Honolulu or Miami?! Try MyOpenBar for some ideas of where to go.

Books

PaperBackSwap

Swaptree

Jewelry/Clothes

You can get FREE new jewelry at Silver Jewelry Club. This jewelry manufacturing company is trying to get the word out about their designs, but you will be responsible for the shipping cots.

Visit Swapstyle for an outlet to trade clothes, accessories, shoes & even cosmetics.

Trading

Looking for a place to trade/barter? Check out U-Exchange, where you can trade anything from babysitting & calligraphy lessons to pianos & foosball tables to cars & boats.

Favorpals is all about helping you trade skills & favors. Clean someone’s house in exchange for dog walking or tutoring.

FREE books for kids!

Dolly Parton has a program that sends a FREE book a month to kids up until the age of 5. You can go here to see if it's available in your area. It wasn't in mine, but there are directions on there as to how you can get it started in your area.


Here are some quick facts about the program:

• At the close of the year, 732 communities in 43 states, the District of Columbia, 6 Canadian
  provinces, and 1 Canadian territory participated in the program.
• 420,000 children receive a book each month
• In 2007, just under 4.5 million books were mailed, a 37% increase from 2006.
  

I won!

A few weeks back, I entered a contest on one of my new favorite blogs, not thinking I'd ever be so lucky as to win....I never win anything....Well, lo and behold, I did win! In fact, I won a $10 Amazon giftcard, which I spent on myself (rather than the kids) for a change.

Last week while I was sick, I finished the book I'd been reading since Christmas (given to me by a dear friend, Maria). So, I could think of nothing better than to spend my winnings on the next book in the series:

Then, I decided to cash in some points over at MyPoints, and I chose a $25 Barnes & Noble giftcard, which I also spent all on myself, purchasing the next 3 books after the one pictured above (which is actually 2 books in 1)!

Now, to find time to get all this reading done! Thanks guys!!!!