Everyone likes free stuff. Buy a shirt get one free. Free kids meals with the purchase of an adult meal. Buy perfume and get a free bag.

Well, now Kiplinger has compiled a list of Internet sites where you can get all kinds of free stuff. They call it their Fabulous Freebies 2009 list – 30 goods and services, which won’t cost a cent.

Here is a sampling. Go to their website to get the rest.

FREE LODGING. Try hospitality exchange sites such as www.CouchSurfing.com, www.HomeExchange.com and www.IntervacUS.com.

FREE DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE.  Try 1-800-GOOG-411 for business phone numbers and  1-800-FREE-411 for business and residential directory assistance.

FREE TV AND MOVIES. www.OVGuide.com will give you a list of TV and movie sites including www.Hulu.com, www.Veoh.com and http://www.fancast.com.%20individual/.  

FREE FINANCIAL PLANNING. Voyant is a site where users can map their financial goals.        

FREE E-BOOKS At www.Gutenberg.org, you can download more than 30,000 e-books, including works by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and James Joyce, according to Kiplinger. Google Books allows users to search the text of seven million books.

FREE BIRTHDAY GOODIES. Get free admission to Disneyland or Disney World parks. The birthday club at Toys R Us gets a kid a free toy or gift card every year. Get a free meal at Famous Dave's BBQ and free ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery and Baskin Robbins. 

FREE TOUR GUIDES. The Global Greeter Network organizes volunteers to give free tours in cities worldwide—including New York, Houston, Chicago, Paris, Buenos Aires, Melbourne, and Toronto.

FREE MUSIC.  For a free way to get your groove on, try Pandora.com. Type in a favorite song or artist and this online music-streaming service will play similar tunes it thinks you'll like. It's a fun way to discover new music. You will have to listen to the occasional ad –- but they're super-short and infrequent. Pandora gives you 40 free hours of listening per month.

There really is a ton of free stuff if you just know where to find it.

Until next time…

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Ed