Cheapeats, Inc. Blog

Cheapeats thought we would send out an early Christmas present to all those starving students courtesy of Accredited Online Colleges.

Tips and Tricks On How To Eat Free.

Like many college students, you’re probably on a pretty tight budget. Sometimes that might mean that by the end of the month, you don’t have too much cash lying around to buy groceries with. Luckily, you can put your college education to work and use your smarts, and a little elbow grease to finagle a free meal. Here are 50 fun, sneaky and sometimes downright desperate ways to get free food while you’re a college student.

Quick and Easy

These methods for getting free eats are pretty simple and should have you noshing for nothing in no time.

1. Go to the grocery store for samples. One of the easiest ways to get free food is when they give it away at the grocery store. Your best bet is on a Saturday or Sunday.
2. Look for freebies at restaurants. Sometimes restaurants will offer up free sandwiches, coffee, ice cream, etc to commemorate a holiday or grand opening. Keep your eyes and ears open for these opportunities.
3. Put the word out. Let others know that you’re on the lookout for free food. You might just get hooked up with things you might not otherwise know about.
4. Tell people it’s your birthday. You can’t possibly pay for your meal if it’s your birthday, so pretend like it is for free eats. Of course, just beware of suspicious people asking for your ID.
5. Flirt like mad. Put your charms to good use and flirt your way to a free meal.
6. Ask for gift cards for holidays. Ask your friends and family members to gift you with cards to your favorite restaurants for birthdays and holidays so you can eat on their dime.
7. Complain. Complaining about the quality, freshness or timeliness of your meal might score you a free one.
8. Ask for day old. Some places will have goods that are a day old and might otherwise be thrown out– unless you ask for them, of course

Free and Clear

If they’re just going to give it away, there’s no shame in claiming part of the pie (literally) as your own, right?

1. Use coupons. You don’t have to subscribe to the paper to get coupons. Just look through the recycling to take coupons your neighbors don’t want or print them off of a site online.
2. Request freebies online. Many companies send out free samples of items to get you to try their products. If you’ve got a few hours to spare you can request hundreds of samples.
3. Combine coupons, store rebates and sales. By combining a sale and other discounts, you may be able to get a wide range of foods and other products for nothing.
4. Enter contests. There are always contests going on where the prize is free food. Enter as many as possible, you never know when you might get lucky.
5. Use the power of the internet. Join the scores of bloggers and tweeters who are using social networking to talk their ways into free food.
6. Write to companies. Whether you complain or laud them, contacting companies directly is a great way to get free food. Just keep in mind that it might not reap rewards immediately.
7. Sign up for emails from restaurants. You might occasionally get a coupon for free meals or steep discounts in your email, so it’s worth a shot.

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. Ho! Ho! Ho!

Merry Christmas

Happiness, $25 and under.

Tags: Accredited Online Colleges, cheapeats, Coupons, Eat For Free, Free Samples, Freebies, Students

This entry was posted by Rosemarie on Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010 at 8:02 pm and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.