My free stuff hobby
by Denise Sawicki on August 6, 2026
My main hobby lately has been getting free and cheap stuff. But since it's not really free if I have to spend gas driving out of my way to get it, I've been biking a lot. So I got a flat tire and had to spend another hour replacing the inner tube the other day. And as it turns out, the outer tire I put on recently is not much less bald than the one I took off, so I'll have to fuss with it a third time soon enough. But anyhow, the bike is working for now.
The Kwik Star/ Kwik Trip gas station app has been giving away a lot of freebies, as well as super cheap stuff like 50 cents for a dozen eggs, but their closest branch is 5 miles from my house. Here was my free stuff haul from Saturday. The chicken finger was called a Rollerbite and was unfortunately really dry and burnt, and I only asked for one packet of mayo and got 9 (no complaints there, Darrell can always use more mayonnaise). I failed to realize it in time, but claiming a free drink entitles you to another play at the instant win game, so as soon as I got home I won a Mountain Dew and had to go back Sunday to get it. Darrell and I don't even drink what is known in ND as "pop" so the Pepsi and Mountain Dew went to Darrin.
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Yesterday apparently was National Underwear Day, and Victoria's Secret was giving away a free pair. (In the immortal words of Jessica Jones 's mom, "Grown goddamn women don't wear panties. We wear underwear!") To pick that up necessitated a 12 mile round trip ride, and while I was out I figured I'd pick up my latest freebie from Kwik Star, which was tea for Darrell. And, I don't even particularly like brats, but I hope it was worth it to stack 2 specials on these. 5 packs of brats were on sale for $2.99, and 8 packs of buns for 99 cents, plus there was $5 off an order of $10, so the plan was to get 15 brats and 16 hot dog buns for $5.95. Something went wrong as they were scrambling in the back room to find the brats, and it wound up being 8 hot dog buns and 10 dinner rolls in the bag they prepared, but that's OK. Undies not pictured, because who needs to see that. Usually when you inquire to an employee if they have more of whatever product in the "back room" it is a pipe dream, but in this case they actually did...
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Oh yes, I had also played enough games on the BK app to win a free cheeseburger so I got that on my way out to fuel my big bike ride. Alas, clumsy as ever, I wound up dropping half of it in the street as I was trying to bike and eat at the same time. "My cheeburg!" - Eren Jaeger, Attack on Titan Jr. High.
Two Replies to My free stuff hobby
Denise Sawicki | August 6, 2026
lol thanks, I was proud of my quotes. We are actually short on hot dog buns but might try cutting slices of the brats and putting them in pasta. I might actually like them better that way. You have a point about the term BOGO. I guess I found it weird at first ( I think I first heard it on a Payless Shoes ad) but after a decade or so I got used to it lol. I checked your thread on expired food. I must say I play it rather fast and loose with expiration dates and I don't seem to get sick. I also don't much care to follow a recipe ( with baking, that would be more important, but surely one can just mix some random things with pasta that seem like they would taste good)
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Scott Hardie | August 6, 2026
Ha! I love the quotes! 🙂
I'm wary of heavy markdowns because too often in my experience, shady operators will use them to offload their stock of borderline-expired food, and I don't trust expired food. But when you find a trustworthy place for your shopping, sales like that can be fun. Southern grocery chain Publix has made never-ending "BOGO" sales their signature promotion, and sometimes when I crave novelty, I use those sales to help me decide what to buy, since they often feature new brands I've never heard of. I suppose that winding up stuck with seconds of something that I disliked the first time is probably not the wisest risk to take, but it hasn't happened yet.
There's a tiny, pedantic part of my brain that will never not glitch at the term BOGO. Of course if I buy one, I'll get one; that's how shopping works. Oh you mean buy one get one free? Because that would be BOGOF. (If my snark comes across as annoyance, take my word for it that I'm annoyed that my brain won't ever let this go, and not annoyed at the phrase itself.)
I don't know what you could do with 8 mayo packets and 2 hot dog buns, but at this rate I feel like you're going to score some other freebie that will tie it all together somehow. 🙂
Happy hunting! This sounds like a fun hobby!