Free Movie Acting

Yoostar is at Perelman Quadrangle letting students be a part of the movies. By using a green screen, the group is able to digitally place students in a famous movie scene. They also have samples of makeup.

Free Printing

The Carriage House, better known as the LGBT Center, offers free printing to any Penn student. Instead of paying 7-cents per page, students can print as much as they want for no cost. You do not need to be LGBT.

Free Picnics with Amy Gutmann

Penn President Amy Gutmann has been opening up her on-campus residents to students the past few Tuesday nights. Last week, it was the Junior Class who got a turn and this week the Sophomore Class is invited. At her one hour picnic, students get the chance to sample some dinners, drinks (non-alcoholic, of course), and walk away with a few T-Shirts, water bottles, and other goodies if they are lucky.

Free Glasses of Water

One of the biggest tips is just drink water. You can save a lot of money ($1.25 a bottle twice a day for a week costs more than $17!) and save a lot of calories (more than 2,100 a week!). Yes, Philly water can taste disgusting. I wouldn't suggest frequenting too many water fountains on campus.

Penn has recently unveiled new 'Quench' water machines. The machines are basically like any Arrowhead or Sparkletts water machines, but do not have a 5-gallon bottle on top. Instead, they have an input valve that takes water through a pipe. The water is filtered, and therefore tastes better than the standard water fountain.

Another way to get great tasting water on campus is at Houston Hall. In the market, you can fill a glass full of water at the soda machine, and even get some ice. They won't charge you for the cup, which you can get in a 12oz or 16oz size. The water is also filtered.

Free Money

Minimum wage in Philadelphia is a meager $7.25, but you can earn a bountiful $10 by participating at the Wharton Behavioral Lab. In 40-60 minutes, you can walk away with $10 cash! That's right, cold hard cash you can put right in your wallet or purse. Signing up is free, you do not necessarily be a Wharton student, but you will need to fill out a w8 or w9 form depending if you are an American Citizen or Foreigner. For more information, visit the Wharton Behavioral Lab's Website.

Free Yogurt at Sprinkles Frozen Yogurt

Sprinkles Frozen Yogurt will be offering Free Frozen Yogurt to all Wednesday September 23. Think Chipotle last spring giving away free burritos for a day. Stop by for a sample at 36th and Chestnut.

Is it really free?

As Professor Stein taught us in ECON 001, "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." As we learn in Team America: World Police, "Freedom isn't Free." As we learn from Weight Watchers, "Fat Free foods still has calories."

Nothing is really free. We go to the free a capella show, but at the expense of the $10 theater production. We go on a free trip to Hawaii but have to sit in on a boring 5 hour timeshare presentation. We watch another episode of our favorite TV show online at the expense of an extra point on an exam later that week.

For this blog, we value human time at about $15/hr. That means we assume most humans would do any reasonable job for one hour to earn fifteen dollars. Most of us would agree, given no other option, we would babysit for $15/hr, we would work a college house info center for $15/hr, we would flyer on Locust Walk for an organization for $15/hr, or we would even make turkey sandwiches at Wawa for $15/hr. We most likely wouldn't clean toilets at that wage, but this blog goes on the notion that if we can get something valued at over $15 for putting in a full hour of work, we would include that item as something we can get "for free."