On the receipt from the McDonald’s dollar meal (which costs $1.06), it said I could have a free, superduperblooper size french fry if I entered a code number. Only one per customer, per visit.
So I went to the web site, answered a few questions like “how much do you like McDonald’s fries?” with “only if they’re free,” and got the code number.
Next I took the receipt, with code number (begins with “8” or it’s not legit) to another McDonald’s and ordered one superduperblooper size french fry. Only. To go.
I was handed a big bag of superduperblooper french fries. Only. To go.
That’s a shitload of fries, and it was more than enough for lunch. Highly nutritious, you bet.
And I got a new receipt. *For a zero purchase. *And it said, “For a free superduperblooper size french fry, take this to any participating McDonalds with the code number.”
So I go to the web site, answer the questionaire, and get the code number. (I know, you’re thinking, “Why not use the first code number?” But I’m an idiot.)
Next day, I have a big bag of free french fries for lunch. With a receipt that says…well you know the drill.
So how long can I keep this up? I am budgeting zero for lunch this month. I have to save for Christmas.
I’m guessing they’re banking on the fact that at some point in the near future, you will either buy a high-margin soda with your fries, or die from eating too many of them.
Some bets will never pay off. I haven’t bought a soda at a fast-food restaurant for at least 30 years. Like when Mickey D’s stopped using beef tallow and the world came to an end.
Jeez, I’m not the healthiest eater in the world, and I loves me some good junk food, but a month worth of lunches (hell, even one lunch) consisting of nothing but McDonald’s french fries . . . man, bring back the barf smiley.
I must turn my ex onto this scam. She’s a McFries junkie, has high blood pressure already, and always ready for a free lunch. The Clown might just be the one to rid me of her once and for all!
I am not poor but I love deals like that. Subway is my go-to lunch and I keep it healthy. Just a toasted ham sandwich, no cheese with all the veggies for $3.75. It is a good deal even if I have to pay but I get so many free coupons straight from them that I often don’t have to. Between the reward card, the printed store coupons and the receipt coupons, there is no way they are making any money off of me. Their store specific coupons are generous (two foot long subs for $5 for example so I can give people free lunches with no cost to me if I want) and they are also just printed pieces of plain paper so I can go straight back to work and make as many as I want. I can also get a free cookie every day by taking their 1 minute online survey.
There are some extremely good deals out there. I swear to you, this is no bullshit. I have traveled for the past three years and never bought a single plane ticket, hotel room or rental car personally. The key to it is that you have to have a very good credit score, take the credit card introductory points, exchange them for travel expenses and then cancel them if they try to charge you a fee the next year (they will usually extend it if you are nice; Chase bank is the only hardass about it but you can still beat them easily).
I have traveled to Hawaii, Las Vegas, Dallas, Colorado and I am going to Virginia next month for a total cost of the $10 conversion fee for each one of them. I have other credit cards that pay for parking and the hotel rooms. I even have a Nexus 7 tablet in the mail completely paid for just by converting an introductory offer.
There are only certain people that qualify. You have to have a relatively high income and a very high credit score but you can rape them for freebies if that applies to you. The credit card companies make their money back through stupid people that carry balances but I don’t. I just take what I can from them and then move on even within the same bank. I have so many free airline tickets and hotel rooms at this point that I can’t even use them all in any reasonable amount of time. Once those are gone, I just cycle back and get new introductory offers without paying a cent. Rinse and repeat as necessary. It doesn’t even take much work at all because I set it all up online and pay for everything as soon as I qualify for the benefits.
When I was an impressionable youngster, Mountain Dew held a promotion where one in five caps was good for a new free Mountain Dew. What they didn’t account for was that by holding the bottle at an angle, you could easily see which bottles were winners. I think I had free soda for a year with that promotion.
I had the same thing with Sprite when I was in HS. Thing was, I didn’t even like Sprite, but I still drank a crap-load. Hunger may be the best sauce, but when you’re fifteen, feeling like you outsmarted The Man is a close second.
Reminds me of where I used to work…Papa Geno’s had a promotion where your lunch was free (if they failed to serve you within 10 minutes). I ate a lot of free lunches there.
I’m confused, Do you think you are some kind of winner? Or are you complaining that you are in McDonald’s fries hell, resigned to eating those fatty strips of starch until the inevitable coronary/stroke gets you.
Got myself a Kindle this way from a plain AMEX. I can’t cycle them too fast because I have to make sure I hit the charge floor within the time limit (currently waiting to hit $5k on one card for Starwood points).
Some folks take out a personal and a business card of the same type. Ever tried that?
I’m sure some other Dopers will remember the summer of '84, when McDonald’s had a big Olympics-themed promotion. Every time you bought something, you would get some scratch-off tickets with an Olympic event written on each one. If USA won gold in that event, you got a burger. USA winning silver got you french fries, and bronze got you a coke.
Well the USSR boycotted the Olympics (held in L.A.), and so the USA won a LOT more medals than we would have otherwise, and probably a lot more than McDonald’s anticipated. My family was taking a road trip through the western US that summer, and we ended up getting a ton of free meals from that promotion.
