The cost of "free"

The word "Free" is used quite often in our vocabulary anymore. In this era of recession, many of us are more price conscious than we ever used to. In some instances, "free" may be the best deal out there. Then again maybe "free" carries some cost with it too. Here are 3 recent examples of "free" that happened around me.

1. I talked recently in this blog about my visit to Denny's on the free Grand Slam day. I didn't mention it at the time, but there are costs involved with this too. There's the cost of gas travelling from Midland to Saginaw on a snowy day, the time waiting outside in the cold during lunch hour with TV cameras hovering mere feet away from you, and (probably my least favorite) realizing that Saginaw County restaurants (unlike Midland County's) are not smoke free. Definitely some costs there, not all of which are in dollars & (s)cents.
2. A family member (not me) received a free car recently from a friend. That family member (and the person giving it to them) knew of some faults with the car, so (after a lengthy delay) the car was able to be driven to the family's repair shop and repair the car. After hundreds of dollars just to get it on the road, more work was discovered and added hundreds of dollars more in repair work. Obviously, the family member will not be keeping this car. In this case, "free" came at a very high price.
3. Our local newspaper has a coupon for a free something (from a local business) on the second page of each day's edition. Usually, this is for something like a candy bar or a fountain drink. Several pizzas have even given free breadsticks as part of this deal. Usually the item being given away has a retail value of less than $2.00, so it doesn't give the store a huge loss unless there's significantly more demand than normal. Here again, are the costs of travel (especially if you're going out of the way to get this free item), and the cost of the newspaper ($.50 daily / $1.50 Sunday).

There you have it, three examples of free and their mixed results. As always, do your own research for the best deal you can get. Maybe it's free. Maybe it's half off. Or maybe it's paying full retail price. Point is - you never know until you know.