By Brandon Specktor
Free e-books and audio books
Before you buy a pricey tablet e-book, visit Project Gutenberg, a massive repository of more than 50,000 free e-books, including many required reading classics such as Huckleberry Finn, Frankenstein, and A Tale of Two Cities. Many titles can be read directly online or downloaded to an e-reader—but if you prefer to listen to your literature, visit LibriVox, where you can download thousands of free audiobooks read by well-spoken volunteers. (You can even learn how to volunteer yourself!) Finally, for even more literary free things online, visit openlibrary.org to join a free online book-lending service carrying more than a million titles. Check out these other great sites where you can read free books online.
Millions of free coupons
Before you shop—online or in stores—look for the bounty of free coupons available free online. RetailMeNot allows you to search through more than 50,000 stores for free coupons and highlights current deals for big-name retailers on the homepage. Meanwhile, GoodRx provides huge discounts for expensive pharmacy prescriptions. Here are some more insider secrets to help you save money at your favorite stores.
Free college education
What do you feel like learning today? Class Central pairs your interests with free online college courses from institutions such as Harvard, Stanford, and MIT. Khan Academy provides thousands of free video lectures on all subjects. Learn any language under the sun with Duolingo, a free app that turns language-learning into a fun game. Boost your resume on EdX by taking courses from top universities, then buying cheap verified certificates to prove you’ve learned from the best. And if your brain is still not satisfied with all these free things online, scroll through this list of other free learning sites out there.
Free photo editing software
Want to give your family snapshots a Photoshop touch, but can’t afford pricey Adobe software? Download the next best thing with free apps like Pixlr , GIMP, or Paint.NET. All of these free things online don’t cost a thing and mimic the vast image editing capabilities of Photoshop.
Free music streaming
If you’re sick of paying for music on iTunes or Apple Music, or you just want to broaden your musical horizons, there are quite a few free things online to choose from. Spotify is a popular choice, and it’s totally free if you don’t have a premium account. While you can shuffle any album, artist, or playlist on the free version, it does have some downsides: You need to listen to ads, and you can’t pick individual songs or stream offline on the mobile app. With Pandora, you can create a radio station based off of any song, artist, or genre—balancing songs you already like with new finds. If you’re more of a radio lover, try iHeartRadio. You can stream your favorite stations or make new ones based on your favorite artists.
Original feature at Reader’s Digest
