I love getting stuff for free and the Internet has a plethora of fabulous freebies. Many times I will save and use sample freebies in gift baskets or care packages. But you have to understand that nothing is ever really free. You have to give up something - usually personal information - so it's a trade-off. However, there are ways to get around somewhat anonymously while still collecting neat stuff.

When applying for freebies, contests and refunds, many times you will be automatically signed up to receive notices about more special offers and sweepstakes, so create and use a throwaway email account from Yahoo! or Hotmail to reduce spam. Despite privacy policies that require you to jump through a number of hoops, marketers often sell your email address and other personal information to third parties who will send you all sort of interesting and unwanted offers. Once you start getting too much junk mail at that email address, simply get another one and start over.

I also have a separate PO Box that I use specifically for junk mail. For only $25 a year, it gives me great peace of mind and really cuts down on the amount of trash mail I get at my personal and business addresses. Whenever I need to give out an address online or elsewhere that I'm not sure how it will be used, I give them my junk mail address. Then if turns out to be a legitimate sender, I can always change it. And I never give out my phone number. If a marketer insists on having it, I will enter my area code and then 555-1212 (which is the number for information) or 987-6543 (counting backwards).

Often you will be asked to "complete an offer," which may entail receiving a free magazine for a couple of months or applying for credit. Look the offers over carefully before signing up and remember to keep track of opt-out dates so that you can cancel an offer or subscription before you are charged for anything. I usually do this through an online reminder calendar. There are a lot of free calendar services that you can use online such as Google or Yahoo.

Some freebie offers will ask you to pay for shipping and handling, which I consider to be fair so long as the costs are not exorbitant. Just use your best judgment when applying for offers, and if you are ever in doubt - don't do it! If you need to pay for shipping and handling, be sure to use a credit card and not a debit card - unless it is a PayPal account. PayPal offers consumers a lot of protection and if you keep only a minimal amount of money in the account, con artists are not able to take out what isn't there.

So are you ready to look for some fun freebies? Start browsing for great offers on the Internet ==>BusyMomsRecipes.com and click the "freebies" link.