Companies love to give away free stuff. Retailers give away free perfume, food, alcohol, baby stuff, cosmetics and all sorts of other products. However, there are a lot of scams out there - so when you're looking for free stuff, make sure you do it intelligently. Things that are too good to be true normally are! Most of the free things you can get online are generally not too costly, so really lavish freebies such as holidays and cars are usually scams.

Follow these top tips and you won't go too far wrong when it comes to getting quality free stuff:

Always use reputable websites with genuine offers – if the site looks dodgy, it probably is, so don’t give away any personal information.

Retailers only need your name, email address and mailing address to give you free stuff – any more than this and it's probably a scam.

The best samples or freebies are normally only handed out for a limited time only. So you need to get in there first by ensuring you sign up to all your favourite brands' newsletters.

And while you're about it sign up to all the restaurants, high stores and other sites you use regularly to get their money-off vouchers and coupons.

Use competition websites – someone has to win, why can’t it be you?

The internet is not the only way to get free stuff; always be on the lookout when you’re out shopping and ask the cashier and store assistant.

Look out for promotional offers and competitions going on in your favourite high street stores and supermarkets. Enter them. You could get lucky.

Write to your favourite retailer and volunteer to test their latest product samples for them. Most companies won't ask for them back.

Signing up to all these websites means they'll send you all their latest freebie deals. If you get fed up with it, you can always unsubscribe to their emails. Happy shopping!