It feels like there's a free trial period for everything these days. And for the savvy frugal folks out there, trial periods may be a great way to hack your way to savings on services that you would like to use, but aren’t sure about. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Pull up a seat and prepare to get schooled on how to find the best free trials and save money.
The Best Free Trials to Stay Fit: Exercise More, Pay Less
Need to get fit for a trip this summer? You wouldn’t believe all of the free (or nearly free) online streaming trials there are for fitness services. Love yoga? You can stream Do Yoga With Me, which is always free. Once you’ve worked through all of those videos, you can also sign up for a free 30-day “yoga challenge” via DoYouYoga. Namaste!
Not into yoga or need access to a more intense daily workout? Beachbody on Demand has a free one-month trial period. It’s a great way to work out with your favorite trainers — Chalean, Tony Hortan, and Shaun T, to name a few. Interested in P90x, but don’t want to buy the DVDs? Love hip-hop abs and other such aerobic exercises? This is a great option for people who would like to try out different types of workouts.
Grow Your Business Without Shrinking Your Bank Account
Now that we’ve figured out how to hack your fitness for free, let’s focus on growing your business for less. Many coworking spaces offer free drop-ins to try out the space.
Given that finding a great coworking space is like dating, it may take a couple of drop-ins to decide if a space is a good fit for you.
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There are new companies that allow people to reserve a spot at different coworking spaces throughout different cities. One of them offered a huge discount at the end of January. Users paid a small percentage of the monthly fee, but ended up getting the equivalent of three office visits for free. Score!
Need additional storage for your business-related projects? Dropbox Business has a free 30-day trial. There are many other companies out there that also specialize in data storage. Spend some time checking them out as you begin purchasing tools for your business.
The Best Free Trials for Online Services
Love Amazon? Are you going to sign up for Amazon Prime? Take advantage of their month-long free trial period. Order the items you love for less.
Looking for love? Check out the different online dating websites to see what free trials they may offer. Sites like eHarmony will offer free “communication” weekends. That said, many free trial periods on dating sites are set up so that you only receive the full benefit after making an actual purchase.
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You can also hack your way to savings with online entertainment by checking out HBO or Spotify’s free one-month trial period. Spotify also offers a free service package, but it’s not clear how much access customers have to great music with that level of service.
Proceed With Caution
Before you begin signing up for every free one-month trial under the sun, there are a few issues to consider. Yes, it’s great to save money, but if you have no intention of using the service, then maybe you should skip it.
Several companies request credit card information from free trial users in the hope that they will forget to cancel their subscription and get charged for the service. I signed up for a couple of free trial offers last year, but liked the services so much that I didn’t cancel my subscriptions. Unfortunately, the charges continued even after I stopped using the services.
You may also want to double-check the cancellation process, as some companies make it a bit difficult to cancel your subscription.
If you keep these warnings in mind, free trial-ing through life is worth a try — at least for a month!
