Tuesday 24 February 2015

Can reading magazines be a frugal activity?

I used to buy magazines a lot of years ago, not so many, but I liked to occasionally read something about cooking, home improvement or travel ( and yes, it was before having the possibility to read almost everything online ). 

When we embraced a more frugal lifestyle, we gave up buying magazines as we did not consider it a need and we thought that we always had the possibility to look for new ideas online.

However, I have to confess that sometimes I am missing the pleasure of flipping through a magazine.


Ok, that's it, no problem, but what if I have the possibility to receive a completely free magazine? 

Yesss, a few months ago my supermarket gave the opportunity to receive a free subscription for 6 months to a weekly magazine against the purchase of 2 units of liquid soap.

Today I have received the first copy


Yeah!!!!
 and now I have 6 months of very frugal reading!

Is it really frugal?

I think so because:
- the soap is the one I usually buy
- I bought it when it was offered with a 40% discount
- I just had to register on the web page and send by mail a copy of the receipt ( cost for this 0,60 Euro )


Moreover, I already knew the magazine as I bought some copies in the past and so I was sure it was really interesting :  it's a double win for me.


And you? Do you regularly buy magazines? Would you have taken the opportunity or do you think that it is not worth it?


16 comments:

  1. Am I your first person to comment? Anyhow, welcome to the world of blogging. Thank you for commenting on my blog. I am now following your blog via email.

    I am a magazine junkie, I LOVE THEM. I am trying my hardest to not buy any, but as you saw today on my blog, I bought to on the weekend. I do swap magazines though with my book club so all's not lost.

    Gill in Canada

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  2. Yes, you are the first person to comment, thank you, you are so kind!

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  3. I haven't shared this with anyone yet (seriously need to blog about it) but there is a website called "recycle bank" and you go through short slideshows and quick little articles and get "points" that can be redeemed for a number of things, including magazines. My wife has been doing it a while and she now gets a magazine through it and I'm lucky because she ordered ME a magazine as well! Free magazines!

    Wow I just realized this looks totally spammy haha, especially since this is my first comment on your site. But seriously I like the website and I'm all about free content!

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    1. Thank you very much for your comment! I will check the website!!!

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  4. I used to buy an awful lot of magazines, sometimes not having the time to read them and ending up buying the same once twice ! I don't purchase them anymore but my daughter has a subscription to the French "Elle" so I read it when I stay with her. Your method is excellent especially since you already bought the product anyway !

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    1. I completely understand what you mean when you say " sometimes not having the time to read them". I was there too. Let's welcome our new Frugal Life!

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  5. I used to buy magazines but I now find myself enjoying crosswords more...not just the regular ones but the mixed ones if you know what I mean. Cryptics, Syllacrostics, etc. You have a very nice blog, thank you so much for sharing. Warm greetings from Montreal, Canada. :)

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    1. I will follow your suggestion and I will try with crosswords....Thanks :)

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  6. I used to buy magazines but I now find myself enjoying crosswords more...not just the regular ones but the mixed ones if you know what I mean. Cryptics, Syllacrostics, etc. You have a very nice blog, thank you so much for sharing. Warm greetings from Montreal, Canada. :)

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  7. Happy to see a new blog on the block! Just as new here as yours :)

    I used to subscribe to magazines - think flipping pages IRL is more satisfying and there's that "flair" to holding a hard copy - it just looks chic!!!

    However I discontinued the subscription by not renewing it in September 2014...because 1) it's a really expensive magazine; 2) I still have some backlog copies, struggling for time to catch up with them; 3) even though the content is superb, I cannot hold on to the hard copies due to running out of storage space! So it's essentially buy, read, then throw away / recycle for me, doesn't sound that environmentally friendly right?

    I thought about buying the digital access membership, but I knew too well i would not bother to log in and view after the initial handful of times - so I just stopped and went cold turkey. Still not missing anything, yet!

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    1. Thank you for your comment and for your visit! I agree with you for what concerns degital access membership as well!

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  8. hello sabrina,
    welcome to theworld of blogging. i love reading magazines,too. but at time i try not to buy magazines. they are too expensives for me.
    have a nice weekend,
    regina

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  9. I understand completely. You can find anything you want on the internet but it doesn't replace sitting comfortably with a cup of coffee and your magazine and dreaming of thee places, projects and things on the glassy pages. I'm a new follower from the US.

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  10. hi, I just realised your blog is new after posting elsewhere on your blog, so success wishes from Holland! I live in an apartment building, we have a large basket on the ground floor with magazines of all kinds to pick and chose. You drop some in, you take out what you like. It helps my magazine fix. Also at the office, we have book sharing cupboards where you can bring/ take and keep books/magazines from. We are given two national newspapers by our next door neighbour daily. I never buy magazines or papers anymore. We do get one magazine via our creditcard company Villa dÁrte, we enjoy reading that just to laugh at some of the prices of the objects that they show! Happy blogging!

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