Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

Freebies, freebies & more freebies
Sometimes there is such a thing as a free lunch box of PG Tips, £40 cash, £180 of wine, make-up, crisps and more...

Everyone loves something for nowt. So this week, all the different MSE teams - deals, features, money, utilities and more - have (virtually) put their heads together to find the best possible freebies, and if there are any catches, made sure you know in advance. So with no further ado...

• Use supermarket coupons to get free £2.50 PG Tips, £2 Lindt choc and £2ish oat milk. We update our list of 30+ supermarket coupons weekly, and sometimes, used the right way, they can net you total freebies. Currently these include...
  
  - Free PG Tips Plus via a £2.50 off digital Co-op coupon, where the 20-teabag box is normally £2.50.
  - Free £2 Lindt choc via our blagged code for an app that gives you the cashback after you've purchased a product at any store.
  - Free £1.80 Jord oat milk at Asda, Co-op or Sainsbury's via an app.
  
  
• Trick gets a FREE £40 via a new top credit card. Newbies signing up to M&S Bank's 18mth 0% card (best to quickly check acceptance odds first rather than just apply*) can get a free £40. Just...
  
  - Spend £100 on it within 90 days and you get £25 cashback (so just use it for spending you'd do anyway).
  - Sign up for paperless statements by 5 March and you get 1,000 bonus M&S points, worth £10 in M&S vouchers (as long as you were accepted for the card by 11 Feb).
  - Spend a penny at M&S (not the loo, literally pay 1p+, eg, buy a banana) and, via a coupon you're sent, you get another 500pts worth £5 (this could be part of the initial £100 spending for ease).
  - Then pay the card off IN FULL at the end of each month, and you're quids in at no cost whatsoever.
  
  The card also offers a near market-leading 18mths 0% on new spending too, so it's a good choice if you NEED to borrow for a planned, affordable buy (eg, a new fridge) - as done right it is interest-free.
  
  If you're using it for the 0%, always pay at least the min monthly payment, and clear the debt before the 0% ends or it's 19.9% rep APR. Full help, eligibility info and more options in Credit Card Rewards (APR Examples).
  
  PS: If you're due to make an important credit application in the next few months, don't get this just for the £40 freebie, as it can have a minor, short-term impact on your creditworthiness.
  
  

• Freebies for NHS workers - coffees, £15 car check, films, data & more. Many people, including us, want to say thank you to our NHS heroes. We've a full compendium of NHS and care worker freebies & discounts.

• Urgent. Free £180 case of 15 bottles of wine if you switch bank - but go quick. New switchers to the Virgin Money* bank account get 15 bottles of wine (it says they're worth £180, though this is hard to verify as they're Virgin Wines exclusives) and 2.02% AER variable interest on up to £1,000 in the account.
  
  This is by far the best switching offer available right now, but we're worried it won't be around for too much longer.
  
  To get the wine, within 31 days of opening you need to switch incl 2+ direct debits, register for its app, and put £1,000 in its linked 0.5% savings account (a best-buy easy-access account in its own right). Full info and more options in Best Bank Accounts, and please be Drinkaware.

• Whata saving (works better said out loud)... 345,000 freebies to reduce water use and stop pipes freezing, incl £20 showerheads, water pipe & tap protectors. 18 water companies across Eng, Wales & NI are offering free water-saving gadgets that can help save £100s. See our water-saving freebies.

• Galleons expelliarmus - 20 ways to get free books and audiobooks, incl all seven Harry Potters. Tricks for 1,000s of titles, from the simple, such as borrowing free e-books from the library, to tricks with real volume(s). See 20 Free Book Tricks.

• Free iron, make-up, crisps and more via 'freebies for feedback' sites. These sites can give free goodies when you product test or give reviews. Forumites have grabbed everything from body butter to cat litter. Our updated Top Product Testing Freebie Sites guide shows how. It's not a dead cert, but fun to try.

• Watch 100s of free big films & box sets with 22 TV streaming tricks. Eg, Little Women, Parasite, 1917 and Succession. Plus did you know there's a free version of Netflix? This and much more in our 23 TV MoneySaving Tricks.

• Free £30 Amazon voucher for doing quick online surveys etc. If you're spending a lot of time on t'interweb at the moment, you might as well get paid for it. Ever popular with MSE Forumites, Swagbucks is free to join and rewards you for online activities such as surveys, gaming etc. Newbies who go via our blagged link can get a free £20 Amazon voucher when you earn £10.
  
  
• Free ways to learn languages, gain university qualifications, or draw Disney characters. Many want to use this time for self-improvement and to acquire new skills, so check out 12 free ways to learn something new at home during lockdown.
  
  
• Free postcode lotto with a £200+ daily prize, which rolls over too... one MoneySaver even won £2,500. It sounds too good to be true, but it's legit and costs nothing as it's funded by ads. See free Pick My Postcode lotto.
  
  
• 32 big-name free games for your phone - incl Call of Duty, Mario, Sonic and The Sims. MSE Sarah's rounded up some top-rated games, incl arcade classics and TV/film characters everyone's heard of. See her pick of the free big-name games (some have in-app purchases, but all are playable without).
  
  

• Get paid to spend (1). Up to £100 free in 3mths with a 5% cashback credit card. All spending up to the first £2,000 in the first 3mths with Amex Platinum Everyday (best to check acceptance odds first rather than just apply*) gets you 5% cashback, so that's a possible £100. Though to get it, you'll need to spend at least £3,000/yr, and you can't have had a personal Amex card in the last 2yrs.
  
  After the intro period, the cashback's tiered up to 1% depending on spending. Remember, this isn't an excuse to overspend, and only do this if you can repay IN FULL each month, or the 22.2% rep APR dwarfs the cashback. Check out Reward Credit Cards for more options (APR Examples).

• Get paid to spend (2). When you spend online. Buy online or sign up to a product, and cashback websites may pay you for clicking through them. Don't let this dictate what you do though, see it as a nice bonus rather than a certainty. See our Top Cashback Sites guide for need-to-knows and the top-paying sites.
  
  
• Freebies for babies - toys, books, veggie pouches etc. There's lots of free stuff out there - retailers are super-keen to bag new parents' custom with promos, while in Scot, the Govt gives parents of newborns a free heavy-duty cardboard crib filled with freebies. Full info and lots more in our baby freebies rundown.
  
  
• And bear in mind... post-pandemic, use Freecycle for video games to sailing boats. Not for now, but MoneySavers have bagged everything from plants to video games to sailing boats via giveaway giant Freecycle. See our Freecycle & Similar guide. Though right now, most groups are temporarily closed due to lockdown.

Over to Martin: "This week's show, news depending, is likely to be on energy bills. We get so many questions, so I want to blow away the cobwebs and confusions to minimise your bills. Plus in my News-You-Can-Use, there are all the other hot need-to-knows to protect your pockets.

"And of course, as it's live you can tweet suggested questions to me via @MartinSLewis, and if possible, please use the show's hashtag #MartinLewis. Do tune in or set the Betamax. It pays to watch."