I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…

Another way to break brand loyalty - embrace free samples

Yesterday’s post on No Credit Needed for the 33 days and 33 ways to save money and reduce debt challenge was about Brand Disloyalty. Basically, it talked about not being loyal to a particular brand to get savings when there are sales and especially, try generics as a substitute for your favorite brands.

Well, I have talked before about buying generics - I shop at Aldi for example, which is all generics all the time. But there are some things that I am very very hesitant to try generics or brand-switching on - toiletries. I find I am very loyal to particular deodorants, shampoos, and conditioners especially. I have too often in the past bought a different brand than I usually use of one of these things and had disastrous results. No one wants to have wet spots under their arms halfways through the day or have their hair feel like straw from being under-conditioned (or have their scalp bleed from a reaction, which actually happened to my mom). And even if you don’t have a strong negative reaction, if something doesn’t work as well, you aren’t as inclined to use it. I am still working my way through a deodorant bought in 2002 that works okay as long as I know I won’t be doing anything strenuous. I hate buying something and then throwing it out without using it all. And toiletries tend to be expensive items in general so it drives me crazy to spend a lot of money and then effectively waste it.

So I combined my love of free samples with my desire to reduce spending and try out for free many many different brands and types of all sorts of things. For example, right now I am trying out Dove deodorant. In the past I’ve gotten different shampoos and conditioners for free and found a few that I really like and would buy on sale or with a coupon.

Now, this won’t generally work with generics — you usually can not get a free sample of a generic, and if you want to switch to a generic you just have to bite the bullet and try it. And, I have heard about loyalty clubs at drugstores like CVS where people manage to get toiletries free, and I keep meaning to look into that and don’t. Because a free full size would be cool too. But this technique of finding free samples of items I use but different brands (google searches for “free shampoo” etc are your friend!) has really helped me break some of my brand loyalty.

And if I get a free sample of something I normally use along the way… well that is just a bonus.

~J

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