15 January 2016

Free For All Friday No. 374 - By Steve

The paper diary and calendar is very much alive and well here in France. In the last couple of weeks we have been literally showered with free diaries and calendars!

It started with a wall planner/calendar from a local taxi company they also included a couple of small pocket calendars. Then just before Christmas we had the annual visit by the local fireman to let us have a full colour wall calendar with many pages of information for a small donation. I laid claim to this one!

Just before New Year our local council issued us with an A5 wall calendar with the details of our recycling collections, this went up on our notice board in the kitchen.

On visiting the shops we have been offered a variety of free calendars and pocket diaries by the hairdresser, insurance company, pharmacy......

It was the same last year and I gave most of them away!  Does this happen in your country?

It's Friday so feel free to discuss anything Filofax or ring bound related. Have a great weekend.


9 comments:

  1. it`s not that common, but we do get many free calendars from firefighter (mostly from volounteers, as there is something like this along with state firefighters), chimneysweeper, most of daily and weekly papers include one each year, then you can get some really nice one with a monthly magazines(this happens mostly with lady magazines). Ilive in Poland :)

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  2. This used to be very common in the UK. Wall calendars, pocket diaries, desk pads etc etc. Even ringbound organisers with company logo on the cover in the 1980s! Apart from a few small businesses (eg car repair garages and trades such as builders) it seems to have largely died out here. Even our local weekly newspaper didn't bother this year.

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  3. Not so much anymore. There have been years when I was inundated with calendars from the insurance company, various vendors, banks, grocery stores, etc. and I gave those away as well. There's only one calendar that I insist on having every year: it's a three-month wall calendar that I can only get from our food rep and it is awesome. I need that calendar to function! I usually start asking for it in October. This year she tried (I think) to get out of giving me that calendar and sent me a pasta sampler instead (including squid ink ravioli!). Nice try, I said, and then emailed her to ask when I would receive my calendar. I've had it since the end of November, and this week she sent me a dessert sampler, so I guess we're good:))

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  4. There used to be a free Letts pocket diary in the Scotland On Sunday newspaper the first Sunday after New Year's day. It was a little weekly diary with a paper cover, and contained lots of Scotland-specific dates. I collected them every year I could, which was back before we lived in Scotland and were coming here on our holidays. Getting this little diary every year meant making sure to buy the newspaper at the airport on our way out of the country, because that was the day we always flew back to where we were living. They stopped offering the diaries several years ago, and I was very sad because I enjoyed collecting those little diaries! It was an annual tradition.

    This year we got a very nice free wall calendar from our friend who is a landscaper but that was all. I like free calendars!

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  5. It seems to have died out here in the San Diego area. Hallmark used to have a small, free handbag calendar that was fantastic. The last time I saw one was a few years ago, and they were now charging for it. Even the bank no longer gives one out. People are really into their tech. My planner gets a lot of snarky comments. It's a shame people can't embrace both worlds, or at least entertain the idea that one size does not fit all.

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    1. I live in San Diego County and yes, people are tech snarky here, but my tax preparer sent me a sweet little monthly calendar with my appointment card this year.

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  6. I very rarely get offered free calendars.. however some of my friends and clients have.. however in recent years their has been a substantial drop in ones being offered.. Also in the past magazines used to have a free diary or calendar in their December issue not this year...so in the UK it seems to be dying out...

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  8. I forgot to mention I get a pocket diary from the IET (IEE of old) each year.

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