(More) Free Stuff on the Internet

Free online college courses: Okay, so maybe you won't earn actual college credit for attending the free online courses offered by prestigious schools like MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, Tufts or UC Berkeley, but you'll learn a lot, and you can't beat the price of tuition.

Free vegetable and flower seeds and trees: Planting a vegetable garden can save on my grocery bills, and attractive landscaping and gardens can increase the value of our home. These nonprofit organizations provide free seeds for the sowing: www.dinnergarden.org and www.freeseeds.us. And you can get 10 free tree seedlings when you join the Arbor Day Foundation for as little as $10.

Free factory tours: Growing up in a family of cheapskates, our summer vacations inevitably included stops along our travel route to take in as many free factory tours as possible. Not only was it free entertainment — and educational to boot — but a lot of times we came away with free samples. I still can't pass up a free factory tour when I travel. This website lists free tours of factories and other commercial facilities all across the country.

Free shipping day: Thinking ahead to the yearend holidays, mark Friday, Dec. 16t on your calendar this year, because that's officially "Free Shipping Day" on the Internet. On that day, more than 2,000 online merchants will offer free delivery (promised by Christmas Eve) within the continental U.S. Go to this website to find a listing of participating merchants:

Free online translation: No habla usted Español? OK, maybe you don't speak Spanish. But with free online translators like these, you can translate your words into just about any language or translate foreign language text back into English: www.freetranslation.com, www.worldlingo.com, www.Translate.google.com.

Dove posso trovarlo per libero? (That's Italian for "Where can I find it for free?")
 
Jeff Yeager is the author of The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map to True Riches and The Cheapskate Next Door. His website is www.UltimateCheapskate.com and you can friend him on Facebook at JeffYeagerUltimateCheapskate or follow him on Twitter.