I need to clear the air about the post title. America is the ‘Land of the free’, but Topher subsists in the ‘Land of the freebie’. In a costly world, most of us trudging adults have a soft spot for something ‘priceless’. As they say, ‘The best things in the world are for free.’ We’re not talking about the Freeview ad, which reused that phrase to no end. Today we talk about free food and stuff, giveaways that brighten up our day and show the best of the human spirit. While there are many out there, I’ll give you guys a limited sample.

Free pizza at Dominos. Over one month, Dominos is offering 20,000 free pizzas over four instalments. There is a freebie each day for thirty moons, from free crust upgrade to complimentary 1.25L soft drinks, buy one get one pizzas to extra bacon. Domino’s generosity has been a big reason why they’ve blasted the competition away. They can count on continued success should they keep this up. Last I heard, those 5000 pizzas were gone after five minutes. Everyone loves a freebie (insert devil smile here).

Birthday freebies. This one is worth a whole article onto itself. Free birthday Boosts, free meals at Subway and Oporto’s, discounts at clothing retailers, free ice cream at Baskin Robbins, free burrito at Salsa’s…the list goes on. Some of these could only be redeemed on the day, while others are more lenient. 

Free burrito day at Guzman y Gomez. A few months ago this Mexican franchise had a free day where, for two hours during lunch time, you could grab a burrito for nil. As expected, there was a long queue. Regardless, I didn’t bother.

Free breakfast. I must admit this is almost unparalleled. Someone told me about this. A friend of a friend was apparently walking outside when she saw a table with pastries, sandwiches, and drinks. While others just passed by, she asked a few questions and learned that said tableful was free of charge. There were six food items there, and the friend tried a few, including the milk tea. It was very serendipitous as said friend had skipped breakfast. How cool is that? Upon seeing her eating, some of the other passers by joined in on the fun. One even did take away to the tram stop. I heard the volunteers were very helpful. In Melbourne, there is always a kind stranger.

Free block of cheese. Yep you’ve heard that right; not just a sliver of cheese either, but a quarter kilo of the good stuff. This took off last month. The New Zealand company, Mainland, was offering free blocks to the first 10,000 claimants. You had to register online with your email, and they’ll then send you a code which you can show at the counter. You could then take a pick of their range at the Kwik e mart, get your code scanned and voila! The block costs $8+, but I didn’t claim my code since we regularly buy Mainland cheese. Anyhow, the 10000 blocks were history after the second day of promotion. 

Of course, this is not to say that everything here is free. A more accurate pronouncement is that most things have a price, some of them may go down, but you have to practice utmost patience if you were to grab a free one. When there’s no out of pocket cost, you have to act quick. Many peeps would have the same idea, so shoot now, or forever hold your silence. If it’s not a race against time, please be prudent. You wouldn’t want to grab five sauce packs when you only need three. You’ll find out that mere weeks later, the free chicken sauces were free no more. So think before you whack, but don’t overthink. After all, you can’t be caught partying in two islands at one time.