Audible.com is giving a free audiobook version of the popular personal development book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey.

I’ve read about half of the print version, and it does have some useful tips. One idea that I explored previously was to focus on your circle of financial influence.

Might be worth a download to see if you like to listen to audiobooks while commuting. Turns out, I don’t.

I’m a day late on this one, but perhaps there is some free make-up or perfume left:

As part of a class action settlement, $175 million worth of free cosmetics products will be distributed to members of the class for a maximum of seven days, while supplies last, on a first come, first served basis, beginning on January 20, 2009. No rainchecks will be issued. The products will be distributed at stores owned by the Retailer Defendants.

See CosmeticsSettlement.com for a list of participating stores and products. Thanks to reader Jeremy, but I take it back if this makes me have to drive to the dreaded mall today. 😉

Sprint Nextel recently settled a lawsuit over the early-termination fees (ETFs) on their contracts. I believe the it was over the fact that the ~$200 fee stayed flat even if you were on the last month of your contract. You can find details at SprintETFSettlement.com.

There is a whole bunch of legal-speak in there, but it would appear to me that anyone who was a Sprint customer and entered into a cell phone contract between July 1, 1999 and December 31, 2008 should take a closer look. If you click on “File a Claim” and enter your information, it will guide you to the award you are eligible for. You’ll need your Sprint/Nextel phone number at the minimum.

In general, it would appear if you were charged an ETF and can provide documentation, you can receive $90. Even if you didn’t cancel your contract, if it was because you were afraid of the hefty cancellation fee, you can get a check for $35 for each line.

Wainwright Bank, a regional bank based in Massachusetts, is offering a $200 Series EE U.S. Savings Bond when you open a new Value Checking account and have direct deposit. $10 minimum to open, and no minimum balance with direct deposit. Wainwright Bank & Trust Company is FDIC-insured.

*To be eligible to receive a free $200 Series EE U.S. Savings Bond you must open a new Wainwright Bank personal checking account and have a recurring payroll, Social Security or public assistance Direct Deposit made to the account; limit one bond per household; bond will be mailed within 90 days of account opening; account must be in good standing with active Direct Deposit at time of Bond mailing.

Updated: Called in and asked a few questions. Seemed like a nice regional bank. They said no credit check, but they do a Efunds/ChexSystems background check. You can open online, but they just end up printing it out and processing and approving it manually, so can take a few days. You don’t need a MA address if you open online, but you do if opening in-branch.

You can request initial order of checks with application, or decline. I forgot to ask the cost. It is unknown if you can simulate direct deposit with an ACH transfer from an online bank or PayPal.

Note that a EE bond is only worth half as much as its face value initially, so the bond is actually worth $100 right now. They currently only earn 1.30% interest, but in 20 years they are guaranteed to be worth at least $200. I’d probably just cash it out after a year and avoid having to keep track of it. Thanks to reader Susan for the tip.

Here’s another creative idea for a website. GiveawayOfTheDay.com lets you download a fully-licensed, no-trial, no-shareware version of some neat software. The catch is that it is only available for one day, during which you must both download and activate the software on you computer. Also targeted at the Windows OS.

The developer of the software gets some good publicity, feedback on their product, and the opportunity to earn money down the road with future license upgrades. If you think about it, most people who download the product this way were probably not going to buy it anyways.

Today’s download is PDFZilla, which converts PDFs into “editable MS Word Documents, Rich Text Documents, Plain Text Files, Images, HTML Files, and Shockwave Flash SWF Files.” Of course, you probably won’t find something useful to you every day, but it’s worth adding the feed to your RSS reader. There was some DVD authoring software that looked promising a couple days ago.

Suze Orman was on The Oprah Show today, and is promoting her new book Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan by offering as a free PDF on Oprah’s site. Here is the download link. Expires in a week on 1/15. Thanks to reader Anthony for the tip.

I haven’t read this one yet, but she also did this previously with her Women & Money book, which I did read and review.

Few more quick reminders:

• The WTDirect $250 Winter Bonus offer ends 12/31.
• The MyCorporation Free Corporation/LLC Filing Service offer ends 12/31 has been extended to January 2009.
• The California 529 $50 Gift Card offer ends 12/31.

Okay, found one more freebie. Humana is offering a free copy of the 72-page book Retirement For Dummies by mail when you sign up for their REAL community. You must be of age 50+ to qualify. It looks like this book was specially made for Humana, as I couldn’t find it on Amazon. Via FW.

Intuit is offering their Quickbooks Cash Register Plus Software for free instantly via download. This is the 2009 version, which is selling for $239 on Amazon. As the name suggests, this software turns your laptop into a cash register, accepts credit card payments, and syncs with Quickbooks very easily. No hardware is included. (Expired)

I decided to take one just in case. You just checkout for $0 and you receive a license key and a download link. No credit card required. It says the offer expired 12/15/08 but everything appears to still work. Via SD.

Not a business? Don’t forget that you can also get personal finance management software Quicken Online for free as well to track your household expenses.