Just a blog about my adventures and mishaps in life.
Expect things like recipes, art, ways to save money,
fashion, creativity, beauty, babbling and randomness.
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Saturday, September 22, 2012

Miss Aprril's Secret List of Freebies!

I don't know about you, but I LOVE free stuff! When I open my mailbox and a pile of little packages come tumbling out, my heart skips a beat! I've been compiling a list of my very favorite "free stuff" sites and here are just a few:

(Click the blue text for the link)

BzzAgent
I've been an active member of BzzAgent since 2008! This site allows you to join "campaigns" where they will send you free, full-sized products to try in exchange for your opinion and feedback. They also want you to spread your opinion about the product,(whether good or bad), and report back. You earn a score based on how active you are. This is by far my favorite site for free stuff. Bzzagent goes above and beyond when sending out "bzzkits". If you check out my "product reviews" link. You can see just a couple of the bzzkits that I've received.
Bzzagent is also connected to MyPoints which is a site that gives you points for online purchases and things. Bzzagent gives you points whenever you complete certain tasks. It may take some time, but these points eventually add up to gift cards and things like that.




Target Samples
Target doesn't have a ton of samples but one reason that this site made my list is their Summer Beauty Bag.
Right around Summertime Target offers a version of this little goodie bag:

Don't get me wrong, they offer samples all year long, just keep checking back.


Walmart Samples
Same deal as Target, check often for new samples.

All You Samples
They post a sample a day, every day. You can click the calendar to go back through the ones you missed. Sign up for their email list to get it sent directly to your inbox.

House Party
I just found this site recently. You sign up to host a party pertaining to a certain product line and they'll send you a big ol' party pack with a bunch of free stuff to host your party. Definitely not for everyone, but if you like to have get-togethers check it out.

Centsless Deals
Awesome site that tells you about the latest freebies as well as smokin' deals on the web and in the grocery stores. You can sign up for their email list too.

Free Kindle Books
Offers free kindle books from up and coming authors. Some good stuff here, and super-easy to use.

e-rewards
Yes, this is a survey website. No, this is not a referral link. Haha. Seriously though, I normally can't stand survey sites but this one has been pretty great! They've sent me products to sample and take surveys on and I've already earned almost $90 (in e-rewards, which can be used for gift cards). The surveys are simple and pay well.

Cravebox
Last but not least, Cravebox. Ok, in all fairness, this is not a freebies site. It's a subscription site that gives you 5-6 products a month for a flat $10. There are two reasons I'm adding this to my list:
1. Their Limited Edition Boxes are an amazing deal for $10. When you sign up you can choose which limited-edition boxes you are interested in and they will notify you when the box is available. You can then choose if you want to be in the drawing. The boxes that I have received so far are, to me, valued much higher than what you spend. In fact, sometimes I wonder how they can be making money at all since the 10 bucks includes shipping. The boxes are themes like Spring Cleaning, Summer Beauty, Dog Lover's, Coffee Lover's, New Mom's, etc.
2. The 2nd reason I love this site is their AMAZING customer service! When their Back to School box shipped late, they sent out an apology email and gave everyone a refund. We still got the box! When they sent me chocolate (to AZ, in the summer) I sent an email telling them they were melted and they responded the same day and gave me free stuff! I can't say enough about the CS at this company.

So there you have it. This list is by no means all-inclusive but it should give you a good start if you want to get free things in the mail nearly everyday.
What are your favorite freebie sites?

Monday, September 10, 2012

Unreal Candy Review

*bzzagent is a word-of-mouth media channel that helps connect consumers with brands, companies and marketers to harness the power of honest opinions. In most cases, I have received a free product to try and give my honest opinion about.


I can honestly say that I'd never even heard about "Unreal Candy" until Bzzagent offered to let me try it. I did some research about the products and it's actually a pretty cool concept.
The basic idea is that "the worst parts of candy (like hydrogenated oils, corn syrup, artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives) aren’t there to make it taste good. They’re there to make it cheaper to produce."
The company decided to take all of that extra stuff out of candy to make it healthier for us and possibly make it taste better. They use things like cacao, real caramel (not corn syrup dyed to look like caramel), more peanuts, protein, and fiber.
There are, by no means, meant to be a "diet" food. They're just a healthier version of well-known candy products.

Now on to the review:



My local Walgreen's had 5 different varieties of this candy, but I actually had to ask an employee where they were because they had their own display rack and weren't with the other candy. They were 89 cents each which isn't too bad even though they're a little smaller than the brand they copy.
Anyway, the five different flavors were a version of; peanut m&m's, regular m&m's, peanut butter cups, Snickers, and Milky Way.
I set out a mini candy buffet after dinner and we dug in. The first thing that I noticed, (probably the 1st thing you noticed), is that the m&m's are funky colors. They're very muted and dull which didn't bother me too much because I knew that the company used natural things to color their candy.

You shouldn't be under the impression that these taste just like the popular brand. They don't. They resemble them closely but there are definitely distinct differences.
One main difference is the taste of the chocolate. It's not as sweet and has a bit of an aftertaste, although, not a bad aftertaste.


The peanut flavored filling was pretty flaky, or crumbly. Again, not necessarily a bad thing, just different.


I'm not big on candy bars so I probably wouldn't buy these for myself, (unless they come out with a Twix version), but the kids and hubster really liked all of them and I would feel a lot better buying the Unreal version than the regular candy bars.
I think that people are so accustomed to the way that candy tastes now, their initial reaction might be to dislike Unreal. You would need to try it a few times to decided if you like it or not. Think of all the benefits of switching.

"Unjunk Your Candy"