Free Food

Free food is the ultimate in freebies: endlessly varied, always useful, rarely much trouble to get. These are some of the best ways to get food, ranked in order of the effort it'll take you to get your meal.

Write to companies for samples. Hundreds of companies have standing offers to send samples of their products or coupons for free products to anyone who signs up. You may get extra junk mail afterward, but you'll also get useful coupons. Find companies by searching for "free food samples," or try a freebie directory like Totally Free Stuff.

Hang around food kiosks at closing time. Some stores, like Cinnabun, can't keep their stock overnight, so they hand out boxes of leftovers to whomever's around when they close. Keep your ears open and you'll learn which stores do it.

Ask local gardeners for their extra vegetables. Toward the end of the growing season, gardeners are so desperate to get rid of their bounty that they'll force you to take it if you don't ask first. Start dropping polite hints near the end of the summer.

Attend boring college functions. Department party? Guest lecture on Amazonian flooding with a reception to follow? Evening of chamber music with refreshments? Yes, it's as interesting as watching wet cardboard curl. But dude, free food.

Join focus groups. In return for a few hours of your time and a couple of pages' worth of survey questions, you'll get free food—either because it's what's being researched or because it's a bribe to get people to attend—and maybe a few bucks. Find focus groups and research groups in your area through Google, or use a directory like Volition.com.

Enter restaurant contests. Many restaurants have a weekly or monthly drawing for a free lunch, and all you have to do is drop a business card in a bowl by the register. Make up a few "business cards" on a printer—you don't need to invent a company, just put down your name, phone number, and one other way they can contact you—and keep them ready in your wallet.