Instead of Frugal Friday, I’ve decided to do a Frugal Finds Coronavirus Special to collate a range of things to do to keep you relaxed, busy, entertained, distracted or productive as required. It’s good to see many companies coming together to support emergency workers or giving something back to society in this time of chaos and uncertainty.
★★★
Free Wash, Blow-Dry & Style For NHS Staff
NHS staff get complementary service at the moment at Rush hair salons. They’re offering a free wash, blow-dry and style. “NHS Treat valid until 31.05.20. NHS Treat entitles receiver to a wash, blow-dry & style. Subject to availability. Valid with selected stylists. Offer can only be redeemed once per client. Offer cannot be booked online, to book your appointment phone your nearest Rush salon and quote ‘NHS Treat’. Show valid NHS card at time of appointment to receive complimentary hair treatment. Photocopies will not be accepted. Rush Hair & Beauty reserve the right to withdraw this offer at any time“
Find the nearest Rush Hair & Beauty here.
Free McDonalds Drink For Emergency Services, Health & Social Care Staff
McDonald’s are saying thanks to all emergency services, health and social care workers during the coronavirus situation with a complementary drink. “Just show your work ID in a restaurant and have any free drink on us”. It would have to be to take away as all McDonald’s have remove dine-in options.
Free Hot Drink & 50% Off At Pret For NHS Staff
As per their recent Tweet, Pret are showing gratitude by offering all NHS workers a hot drink on the house and 50% off anything else from 18th March.
Since starting this draft, I’ve discovered that a lot of food/drink outlets are showing gratitude with a free drink or food discount to certain workers, predominantly NHS staff. If you know someone in the healthcare profession that may benefit from this during this hectic time, let them know.
Free Disney+ 7 Day Trial
The hotly anticipated Disney+ has become available in the UK and new users can get a free 7 day trial. Don’t forget to cancel before the week is over. Usual price £5.99 p/month. Get your free 7 days here.
Learn Spanish – Free eBook
Currently free on Amazon is Spanish for Beginners: Learn the Basics of Spanish in 7 Days. You can find it for Kindle download here.
Fluent Forever App – 1 Month Free Language Learning
Fancy learning a new language with an app rather than eBook? This is “for folks who are new to our app, or folks who have tried our app in the past and let their trials end without subscribing.”
If this is your first time ever using our app and you need to make an account. Visit fluent-forever.app and sign up. Pick the monthly plan & use this code: STUCKATHOME You are ready to use the app for the next 30 days. You can download it from either app store.”
Calming : Breathe / Smiling Mind Apps
You can access free content (or pay to upgrade for more activities) on various mindfulness apps, like the Breathe App and the Smiling Mind app. The latter isn’t as well known but it’s from a non-profit organisation, and you can find out more here. A Google search will also bring up ample breathing techniques, stress-relief activities, mindfulness meditations on YouTube, and so on.
Cambridge University Press – Access Over 700 Free Textbooks
Cambridge University Press are providing free access to over 700 of their textbooks. It’s read-only and can’t be downloaded, but you can view it easily on your Internet browser and it’s free until the end of May 2020.
Creative Cloud Users – 2 Months Free (Worldwide)
If you’re a current Adobe Creative Crowd user, they’re giving you the chance to get two months of free access. I believe this should be for anyone, UK, US, worldwide, so it’s worth checking it out to see if you’re eligible. This site has more details and a guide for setting up your two free months.
Free Will Writing Service (via Cancer Research UK)
Do you have a will? Not many are confident in talking about wills, yet it’s a sensible thing to have in place if you don’t already. You don’t have to be chronically ill or anticipate needing it, and you certainly don’t want to think about it needing to be used. But it’s better to have one than not because of those you’d be leaving behind.
Cancer Research UK has a free will writing service for those 18+. You can do it conveniently online, but there’s a telephone option if that’s easier for you. There’s also an option to leave a ‘legacy gift’ to the charity if you wish, though it’s not obligatory to use the service.
Find out more & create your free will here **Expired**
Udemy Free Online Courses
The online course provider Udemy have a range of free courses currently available, including some more technical ones like SEO Training & Python For Beginners. Save your pennies and learn for free! You can browse the catalogue here.
Adult Colouring – Free Printables
Colouring is a hobby, pain distraction or form of stress-relief for many. Great for adults and kids alike, it’s great for when there’s spare time to fill. There are various online printables if you have access to a printer. For example, Trail of Colors has lots of variety in terms of style and level of detailing, all of which can be easily downloaded, saved & printed off. Faber-Castell, a prestigious brand for pens and art supplies, also has a neat little range of free quality colouring pages for adults.
There are also colouring books you can find online – check out my gifting post for suggestions on colouring supplies and my recommended colouring books.
Free iColour App
For a limited time, you can download the iColour app for free in the iOS App Store (was previously £24.99) for use on Apple devices. It’s a little limited as it requires subscription for certain elements, but still good for casual use for free!
Free CPR / First Aid Courses
Brush up on your first aid for with a free CPR course or another of the Save A Life by NHCPS courses.
There are 5 options here: ACLH Advanced Cardiac Life Support / PALS Pediatric Advanced Life Support / BLS Basic Life Support / CRP & First Aid / Bloodborne Pathogens.
All courses have free certification. They’re 100% online and claim to be internationally accepted (98% acceptance rate).
You can find out more & sign up here.
Amazon Prime
This is such a useful service so many, and perhaps even more so now. If you’ve not used Amazon Prime before, or haven’t in a while, you may be eligible for a one month or one week trial.
If not, it’s £79/year or £7.99/month in the UK. Choosing the monthly option means you can flexibly take it up or cancel as you wish, so you can choose just the months you’ll get the most use from it.
In the US, it’s $12.99 p/month and you may qualify for a 50% off offer or a free 30-day trial.
Prime provides the following: 1. Unlimited One-Day Delivery on millions of items 2. Watch thousands of movies & TV shows with unlimited instant streaming 3. Access to over a thousand books, comics & magazines with Prime Reading 4. Secure & unlimited photo storage with anywhere access 5. Over 2 million songs on Prime Music. There’s also Amazon Pantry for groceries/household products that you can make use of.
Amazon Music – Free 30 Day Trial
For a limited time only, you may be eligible for a 90 day free trial of Amazon Music HD (I think this ends around 25th March). If not, or if you’ve used Amazon Music previously, there may be another offer available. For instance, I had 3 months of music for 99p last year, so it’s worth checking if you’re interested. Very easy to use and a huge selection, plus it also works with Alexa.
Amazon Audible – Free Audiobook 30 Day Trial
Amazon Audible is offering a free trial for 30 days. You get a free audiobook to keep, and you can choose from the world’s largest collection of audiobooks. It’s £7.99/$14.95 per month after the free trial, where you then get one audio book every month, but you can cancel easily any time.
Amazon Kindle Unlimited – Free 2 Month Trial
With libraries shut or soon to be shutting, Kindle books are a blessing now more than ever. You can use any device for Kindle, too – just download the free Kindle app.
There’s an offer for a 2 month free trial of Kindle Unlimited, usually priced at £7.99 p/month, for Prime members.
Kindle Unlimited gives you unlimited reading of over 1 million book titles, access to magazine subscriptions and unlimited audiobooks with Audible narration.
Offers can vary depending on eligibility so it’s worth taking a look at what you might be able to get.
Home Blood Tests With 25%/10% Off (UK)
You don’t have to leave the house for blood tests if you choose the Medichecks finger prick test kit. I have reviewed the Medichecks home thyroid testing previously, and had a highly positive experience. They offer an extensive range of blood home tests in the UK and use reputable labs for reliable test results. Kits are sent straight to your door for quick, convenient testing, so it’s a brilliant option if you can’t get the tests you need via the NHS.
You can use use the link and the code FP25 for 25% off all finger prick tests for a limited time.
You also save 10% by using this link on all tests & adding the code INVISME10 at the checkout.
Free Computer Games At GOG.com
A bunch of free games, 27 at present, available on GOG.com. Most are playable across Windows, Mac and some on Linux. They include the likes of: Alder’s Blood Prologue, Jill of the Jungle: The Complete Trilogy, Stargunner, Ultima 4: Quest of the Avatar, Beneath a Steel Sky, and more. You can find them here.
National Trust – Free Parklands & Gardens Access (UK)
Update: 23/03/2020 – Many have since been closed due to heightened restrictions. Please check the National Trust site before visiting any of their outdoor areas and coastlines. Stay home, stay safe. Walk close to home safely if you need essentials or daily exercise for you and/or your pet.
While National Trust properties and cafes will be closed, they’ll be opening up some parklands and gardens for free, so you can enjoy the great outdoors safely during the social distancing measures. You can check out the National Trust’s statement and search for outdoor areas here.
Parents : Free Scouts Activities For Kids
Scouts have made over 100 activities available temporarily for use over the coronavirus and school closure period. They can be completed indoors and all have positive outcome goals (ie. to be educational, creative, support memory, problem solving, communication skills etc). *Offer ended*
Is there anything here that you or someone you know may benefit from? Is there anything in particular you’re looking for at the moment? Let me know and I’ll see if I can help.
It’s an incredibly stressful, worrying time for all. Be kind to yourselves and one another. Please stay safe and as well as possible everyone.
Caz ♥
34 comments
Great finds! And it’s nice to see businesses supporting health care and emergency workers.
Very nice businesses supporting the NHS.
Free is GOOD! Are you able to get the free audiobooks I mentioned in my last post? I hope it’s available in your area too.
That is a very useful list. I have been using Leslie Sansone “walking for health” You tube videos, now I can’t get out as much. Also Duolingo for free fun language learning .Keep safe Caz
I love Amazon Prime. I’ve had it for years and it’s worth the membership dues. I save that and more.
Have a fabulous day and weekend, Caz. Big hug. ♥
You always manage to find great ones, Caz – many tx & wishing best for you <3
Thanks for sharing all these freebies, these are all great offerings from the companies. it’s so great to see how we’re pulling together to support each other.
Great to see some niceties!
This is cool.
Awesome list, Caz! I’m curious about those free coloring printables. I’ve had quite a few friends who absolutely loved sitting down to an adult coloring book, calendar or other project. It always kind of looked addicting to me.
I am grateful to hear the medical workers are getting special treatment as some of these food and drink establishments. Heaven knows they are really putting themselves on the line for the population every single day. God bless & protect these precious people and their loved ones.
Amazon Prime is always a winner in my book. I have saved so much money over the last 12-14 years of having it. There have been times I couldn’t believe how much money I was able to save. Personally, I love supporting local businesses because they desperately need it. The problem is when their price is $100+ higher. Ouch!
Love the idea of taking this break to start learning a new language, too. What a cool idea. It could easily turn into a passion or hobby for so many folks.
Thanks for sharing Caz. These were a lot of fun to read about. ♥ Stay well my friend. ???? ~ Holly
thank you so very much Caz for listing all of these items! i have been clicking around and enjoying it as i am stuck in bed. 🙂
Terrific post, so many great things to share with everyone!
This is so good to know! I’m so glad there are such awesome things like this.
Great post as always Caz. There are lots of frugal things you can still do.
It’s nice to see some treats there for our hard working emergency services staff – they really do deserve it at the moment. Luckily, I don’t have any children to entertain, that must be hard at the moment. There’s certainly a good choice of things to keep us occupied there, although my daughter has just introduced hubby to Mario Kart, so they are happy – for 5 minutes, then I’ll show them your list 🙂
It’s so nice when we see businesses coming together to help people in these times. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Great links, Caz; so many options for us all…
Here in Australia there are many offering their holiday homes/rental properties for the health service/emergency service folk who find themselves in need. There are certainly many who make us all proud in times of crisis. Free is certainly the best service of all…
xoxoxo
Charlee: “Our Dada has gotten some games from that GOG.com!”
Chaplin: “Yeah, he got one called ‘Sunless Sea’ that he liked so much he finally had to cut himself off from playing it.”
Charlee: “I’m pretty sure he liked that one because he got to have a cat aboard his ship. I think it reminded him of you, Chaplin.”
Chaplin: “Aww, that’s nice.”
Charlee: “Yeah, it was called a ‘Wretched Mog’, if I remember correctly.”
Chaplin: “Hey! I’m not wretched!”
Charlee: “You are a Mog, though.”
Chaplin: “Well so are you.”
Charlee: “It’s a fair cop.”
It’s so nice to see so many companies offering their services for free during these hard times. Thank you for putting together this amazing list!!
This is so thoughtful and cool, Caz! Thank You and Cheers!!! 🙂
Thanks for a great list. We all need to take time out rather than have time on our hands take us out. Stephen Fry said on the Marr Show that doing everything just a bit slower can help relieve the stress that many are under at the moment. A lot like Mindfulness.
I went through Amazon Prime yesterday and found lots of ‘free’ TV series that we can watch. Thoroughly enjoyed an episode of Travel Man this evening: Richard Ayoade & Rhod Gilbert in Miami. Brilliant.
Also can back your recommendation for Kindle. Use ours everyday for books, TedTalks, news, music videos.
Stay well, stay safe, stay apart. ❤
Maz x
Wonderful gesture by MCDonalds. Good to see a big company giving back.
Also, Amazon Prime is wonderful, I watch their movies all the time and the fast delivery satisfies
that need to have your purchase arrive quickly.
Be well Caz. Please stay safe.
Thank you Caz. Kindness at its best. xx
Wow, what a fabulous round-up of finds Caz! I’m so glad to see the outpouring of support for the health workers who are working tirelessly to take care of people. I have Amazon Prime and Amazon Music, and I love them both! I’ve been thinking about trying Audible, but I’m still a little undecided. Thanks for sharing all these great deals. Stay safe and well sweet friend!
Take care of yourself…
I hope you are doing okay…
Love, light, and glitter
Wow that’s an awesome list of free finds. I would definitely explore the udemy online. Thank you so much for sharing!!
Hope you’re doing well Caz!
I’m assuming it is free everywhere . . . right now Audible is offering some FREE to listen to books on Audible Stories. This is not the regular 30 day trial (or whatever that is). It is free online listening so you don’t even have to have the app. There are books from “Littlest Listeners” to teens with some classics thrown in. I saw some language title on there. I have Audible so even though some of the books are in the “Elementary” section I have listened to them because they were part of the two free a month. They were cute and entertaining . . . . so if you are looking at the selection don’t discount the books for the little kids! This was a great idea to share all this stuff!
Thank you so much for including my ebook, Caz ???? And a great round-up of freebies and things to check out while we are all stuck at home xx
Useful list!
Thank you for sharing
I’ve only just spotted this! Another great list of finds. I’m glad that some of those companies are coming out to support the NHS. They certainly deserve it.
Caz, you’ve gathered a wonderful selection of freebies and it’s encouraging to see so much goodwill and kindness!
A timely and kind idea.
This was a great post! I like the useful info being current for REAL life