Freebies

Yesterday was "free slurpee day" at Seven Eleven. Apparently, Monday is free mocha day at McDonald's. There is a ton of leftovers in the kitchen here at work so it is not an exaggeration to say that I could have free lunch and snacks for the next few days.

The problem is that I don't really want any of these things. Occasionally, my Sevem Eleven has a sugar free slurpee that is nice but I wouldn't drink the sweetened kind at all, ever. I enjoy a nice mocha but I'm not really interested in one from McDonalds and I'd have to make a special effort to go there to get it anyway. The stuff in the kitchen includes a lot of chips and store bought dips. There is also cheese and pepperoni but how much of that do I want to eat at lunch time?

I'm constantly running into things I could get for free and having to debate whether I want them enough that I would pay for them if they weren't free. I know people who reflexively take anything that is free regardless of whether they want it or not. My old boss would always get the potatoes and toast with her eggs even though she was doing the Atkin's induction, just because they came with the meal (funny thing is that it turns out that if she has just been nicer to the people at the restaurant, they would have discounted the price for her for not taking the extras).

On some of the coupon blogs I've seen people comment that they've gotten so much free stuff they don't even know anymore what they have.

For me, I think that unless I'd be willing to pay for an item or know of someone who would appreciate it, I'm going to pass up on the freebies. In the end, they just raise the price of the item for the regular buyers, they generally have a bunch of packaging that will have to be thrown out, and they are often form food companies I think I'd rather not appear to support.
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