Shopping and Free Stuff Blog at Coupon Commando

Pravda Vodka is offering a free sample with a mini vodka bottle. I just sent in my request and I haven’t gotten the coupon yet, but I think it works something like this: they’ll send you a coupon for a Pravda mini which you buy in the store and then mail in with a receipt. It’s a little inconvenient, but how often do free vodka offers come along?

Fandango has a new deal: buy one get one free movie tickets to the new movie “The Breakup” when you purchase with a Mastercard on Fandango. Fandango is an online movie reservation system; it is quite convenient.

Until 6/19 you can get a free $50 Shell gas card when you test drive a Suzuki Grand Vitara. To get the gas card, you need to follow the six steps mentioned on the link. You’ll also need to complete the test drive by 6/19.

Sirius is offering a free 10-day trial of their service.

Cons:

–Trial is only available as a streamed media download, so the sound quality is a little tinny
–They are only allowing you to sample about 30 of their stations (I’m not sure I understand why, as the diversity of their stations seems to be their main selling point)
–The trial is only for 10 days

Pros:

–It’s free!
–Gives you a good sample of how the service will work

Several people have asked for the best paid survey sites. There are a lot of survey sites out there, some good and some very bad. There are a lot that are just scams. So, it makes sense to know which are good and which are shady. I’ve included here a list of the paid survey sites I’ve been visiting for the past few years:

1. Survey Savvy — this one is very nice. They pay in cash and you can request a check be mailed to you after you’ve earned $25. Survey Savvy will send you a survey about every week and the survey values range between $2 and $100. Survey topics range from business and technology to consumer topics. But most of the surveys (and particularly the most lucrative ones are about business and enterprise computer spending).

2. eRewards — this site was founded by the same group that created American Airlines frequent flyer award program (the granddaddy of all frequent flyer programs). eRewards pays you $$ that can be redeemed for American Airlines miles, United miles, Continental miles, Northwest miles, or Delta miles. You can also redeem eRewards for 6 free coupons for Blockbuster rentals, Hilton points, or for a variety of $$ off discounts at online merchants like eBags. Definitely the best deals are the frequent flyer points, Blockbuster coupons, and Hilton points. The merchant discounts are good, but you can find similar coupons on the internet. eRewards survey topics are usually about business and computer spending (corporate) and consumer topics. I’ve also gotten a few invitations for testing baby diapers, frozen cakes, and mailing labels. For each of these surveys, they sent the item by FedEx and I filled out a survey after I received it.

3. Opinion Place — This site pays you directly in either American Airlines (AA) miles. You have to logon to their website about every two weeks and complete a short screener to see if you qualify for a current survey. Each survey “pays” about 75 - 150 miles. Not much, but they are OK to do while watching TV or some other distraction. They pay you your AA miles a few days after completion and are very reliable.

4. MyPoints — Not really a survey site, MyPoints is an online marketing company that gives you points for reading emails, making online purchases, and completing surveys. Points can be redeemed for gift cards and frequent flyer points. MyPoints has been around for a long time and is reliable but you will get a LOT of emails from them.

5. Socratic Forum — This is the online survey site of a larger survey technology company called Socratic Technologies. The focus of the site and the surveys they send are IT purchasing (for corporations) and large corporate purchases (like tax and consulting vendors). They send frequent surveys and pay well and on-time. Highly recommended if you fit their demographics.

I’ve been using this site for about two years now. They offer real surveys that pay you real money (not points or sweepstakes entries like so many other survey sites). The average survey pays between $10 - $40 and takes about 10-20 minutes. I’ve also been invited to participate in a few phone surveys that have paid quite well (one paid $175 for a 30 minute interview). They’re not going to send you an invitation every day, but when you get one it’s a good idea to complete it as soon as possible as they fill their quota pretty quickly. This is one of the best survey sites you’ll find.

Click her to visit Survey Savvy

Get a free pack of Dentyne Ice gum for just providing your address and birthdate. It takes about 4-6 weeks to arrive.

Zillow is a new website just in Beta test that lets you check your home value or that of your neighbors. Once you enter your address, it zooms into a map of your neighborhood and shows all the estimates of your neighbors. You can also view most recently paid tax data, recently sold homes, and more. It’s a pretty fun time waster, but the home estimates seem a little on the high side.