People are always after something for free! There’s no feeling quite like finding a great offer or deal that someone else hasn’t found yet, it can make you feel as though you really should have applied to be on the Apprentice. However, one person wanted to amass all of the internet’s secret freebies in one thread, by taking to Reddit to ask, “What free things online should everyone take advantage of?”
The question received thousands of responses, and here are a collection of the most useful and strange free services that you could be claiming today!
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Free Children’s Books
“Dolly Partons Imagination Library if you have a child younger than 5. The send an age-appropriate book once a month. It’s amazing! I have so many books for my daughter since I signed up and she loves getting them in the mail!” — dirtpunkgirl
Dolly Parton set up this charity in around 1995, and the website explains the company’s mission as such: “Dolly’s vision was to foster a love of reading among her county’s preschool children and their families by providing them with the gift of a specially selected book each month.”
It is available in the United Kingdom, USA, Republic of Ireland, Canada, and Australia.
A Free Canadian Flag
“Canadians get a free Canada Flag that was flown on parliament hill. Only a 40 year wait tho.” — zeshann
Sadly, the request time is now up to over 100 years for a parliamentary flag, so maybe don’t go getting your hopes up too high.
How To Not Get Stung By Mechanics
“1aauto.com. It is a car parts supplier, but their videos show exactly what tools you need, what parts you need, and how to do a repair yourself. Great money saver if you don’t know much about mechanics. Someone I knew was going to get screwed by their mechanic (700 bucks for a water pump replacement). Showed them that, they did it themselves for 30 bucks. It makes it quicker too, knowing what tools you need ahead of time for your particular car.” — Creepysideboob
This person went on to also recommend Repairpal.com, for those of us who are a little too nervous to be trying our hand at being mechanics, but who want to make sure we’re getting a fair quote from a mechanic.
Free Education
“Use Khan Academy for literally everything. It’s free knowledge that you can use to clep out of university courses or to simply invest your time in a worthwhile topic. Free quality education is the best education.” — DSGN_VEGA
My own biology teacher used to rave about Khan Academy while I was studying for my A-Levels. They really do have some fantastic resources!
Free Photoshop
“Photopea. It’s a Photoshop clone that is completely free (unintrusive side banner ad, can be removed by a one-time payment) and has all the basic features of Photoshop, using basically the same interface. If you’re used to Photoshop and just need to get something quick done, there’s nothing better out there.” — 11_1000_11
Some people also pointed out that Photopea can be a good starting point to work with instead of jumping in at the deep end with Photoshop.
Terms Of Service Reader
“Terms of Service; Didn’t Read. A free site for people too lazy to read the entire Terms of Service.” — numbers909
This is actually a really interesting piece of software , and aims to make people more aware of what they are really agreeing to.
Unlimited Cloud Storage
“If you have a .edu email through your school that uses Gmail, you get unlimited Google Drive storage.” — pops992
Not perhaps the most flashy thing on the list, but still pretty damn useful.
Flight Radar
“Flightradar24. It allows you to see plane traffic live” — Karlottobenz
I regret finding out about this free piece of software, as it is a shockingly easy way to throw away hours by just staring at the flight path of every plane and hot air balloon currently in flight!
Free Language Lessons
“Duolingo I have been using this for quick Spanish lessons with my morning coffee for a couple years now. It doesn’t override the need to take classes for college credits, but I recently had to take a course and it was a breeze. There are a few hundred languages that it teaches and the mobile app makes it easy to do anywhere while waiting.” — justadrtrdsrvvr
Some people pointed out that Duolingo is good for basic phrases, but is not great for grammatical constructions. So, it should be used in conjunction with a proper course.
Bibliography Builder
“Maybe not everyone, but for students Zotero is a lifesaver. It will store your sources, import them to a bibliography in whatever citation style you need, and even create in-text citations in your paper. It saves hours of work. Zotero.org” — secondhandbanshee
Like most of the people commenting on this thread, my main question with this one was, “Where was this when I was frantically trying to finish my bibliography for my dissertation?!”
Free Apps
“ninite.com. One place to select what you want installed, without all the hassle. I use it for freshly formatted PC’s to reinstall everything.” — b_ootay_ful
Ninite’s free software installer is actually quite an interesting and convenient website. There were also a lot of Tech workers who claimed that they used this service, which is a good sign.
Free College Books
“Library Genesis, a great place to look for and download college/university textbooks for free, as well as other books.” — EarlyHemisphere
Apparently this site is blocked in a fair few countries, so you may need to find a way around that obstacle.
Free Tax Software
“If you’re in the USA and you earn less than a certain amount of money — currently $69,000 — you can use the same software to file your taxes for free. The system is called Free File , and companies that sell you tax software are trying very hard to make it difficult to find. Don’t let them.” — Portarossa
FreeCycle
“https://www.freecycle.org it’s literally people giving away stuff they don’t need/want any more that they can’t/don’t care enough to sell” — TheAwkwardDyslexic
If you haven’t checked out FreeCycle, then you may want to have a look. There could be someone giving away you’re dream gift just around the corner from your house!
Music Online
“Music. We take it for granted in this youtube era but just a few decades ago, music wasn’t accessible to people at all and not even the rich had access to all types of it. Now this globalized era has given us countless options” — Vasheroth
The music industry is in a really strange place at the moment. It is so hard for musicians to generate any revenue due to online streaming platforms and illegal downloads. If you like an emerging band, buy a CD, as that show of support will be worth more to them than 100, 000 streams online, and studio time isn’t cheap.
Free Boxes
“USPS and UPS both will deliver free packaging boxes, envelopes, bubble wrap, etc. to your house. Literally doesn’t cost a thing and you can get like 50 boxes at a time.” — mackzs
So, if you’re in need of 50 boxes at short notice, you know where to head to! This could quite easily be the best free Christmas present for a cat!
Satellite Scanners
“Astronomer here! You can look up all the satellites flying over your house tonight, including the ISS, Hubble Space Telescope, those pesky Starlink satellites, and whatever else your heart desires, complete with star maps and precise timing. The website is called Heavens-Above and there is an Android app, but unfortunately no iOS one last I checked. (For iOS I use ‘Sputnik!’ which is free and tells me the ISS and Hubble passes overhead.)” — Andromeda321
Much like the flight radar, this is another place where your spare time will go to die.
Free University Courses
“Most large universities have their courses online for free. MIT Opencourseware .” — nowhereman531
Most of the responses on this thread have been about free educational resources, and it is great that there is so much out there that we can be using to expand our minds! Perhaps this would be a better use of my time than watching literally anything left on Netflix tonight.
Coding Classes
“Codecademy is an awesome site to learn how to use some programming languages. Doesn’t get into the really advanced stuff, but it’s good for a start.” — LeowRojas
There were a lot of people saying that this was really useful for getting their kids into coding. So, if you want your child’s room looking like a tech suite from one of the Bourne films then this might be a good place to start!
List Of Free Lawsuits
” Top Class Actions basically a site that lists active class action lawsuits you might qualify for. I’ve used it for trivial things like suing red bull for a free case because it ‘didn’t give me wings’ but on a serious note. It made me aware of the suit against Equifax for leaking my data. That should be a settlement worth over a $100. It’s a cool way to hold corporations semi accountable, and score some money/freebies for any wrongdoing that went under the radar.” — Zee_Ventures
This one is a slightly more complex and questionable one. However, at its heart it is legally free money I guess.
