Great Prices Here

I have written plenty of posts about how to spend money – more like how to save while spending. So how about one on earning real cash. In a moment of desperation for a shopping trip, and feeling the guilt for having been spending too much, I started to look for ways to make some extra cash off this blog. I came across Pay Per Post on another blog. After a simple signup procedure and registering my blog, I had to wait patiently for 3 days for my blog to get approved into the program. Sure it did get approved. So now I begin my quest to make some money while I continue to bring you handpicked deals and discounts.

The system is really simple and convenient. There is a marketplace where advertisers post their requirements and you can choose to write about whatever catches your fancy from amongst the opportunities available to you. You need to have the post up within 6 hours after accepting; else it is opened again to for other bloggers following your failure to put up the post within the time frame. Every post goes through an approval process to make sure it meets quality standards so as to provide good value to the advertiser. The advertisers hope that these posts across the blogosphere will help drive traffic to their sites and improve their rankings in the search engines. I am yet to check up the monthly earnings limit. They pay monthly via Paypal.

So here I go, all set to try making some extra money to fund my shopping itch from time to time. Wish me luck!

Tags: Make Money by Nicole Price
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Yes, yes, but I can buy myself some ultra cool Beatles stuff! Read on if you are a Beatles buff, and especially if you are not and Beatle-mania left you unscathed. (I am a huge Beatles fan and think that they (sorry Elvis) were the greatest rock band ever!)

I was actually looking up some lyrics when I came across giftapolis.com. This site has a huge collection of all kinds of Beatles merchandise: T-shirts, coasters, mugs, posters, wall clocks, bags, boxes, photo frames, and all kinds of really neat stuff, which I wanted all at once! My favorites were the Yellow Submarine wall clock at $24.95, Beatles Salt & Pepper Shaker Set Drums Style at $14.95, a yellow tote bag and notecard set in a matching box at $14.95. This is just a small sample of all the goodies that they stock.

Rockmerch is another site that has a lot of Beatles stuff: buttons, posters, patches, lanyards, stickers, key chains is also a must visit. I thought the Zip up hooded fleece was great at $26.95 especially since it has the Beatles logo in the front and the Let it Be artwork at the back. I also like the 62×21 door poster at $12.95.

Cartoonstock is a site that has giftable cartoons of the fab four and is worth the visit if not to buy, at least to take a look and a have a good laugh at the cartoons on display.

Wicked cool stuff is a site that has a lot of great gift ideas but is a bit thin in the Beatles department. Yet, there is this nice coffee mug, at $ 11.95 (available at giftapolis for the same price). An 18″ talking John figure at $44.95 was not that appealing to me (but don’t mind me, I am principally a Paul fan). I also liked the fab four cookie jar at $48.97

A very interesting site for Beatles collectibles is this one but quite frankly I would not describe any of the featured merchandise as a bargain. I mean Ringo bubble bath for a whopping 150 pounds (not dollars) and Paul bubble bath for 120 (and why is Ringo more expensive than Paul anyway!) is way too steep for me. They have several really fascinating ideas, but not bargains so let’s move on.

The guys at Beatle bay take their memorabilia buying and selling very seriously. We are talking original stuff here: autographs, posters, albums, original merchandise etc. They are also very happy to buy Beatles stuff off you.

Tags: Best Deals, Entertainment, Gifts by Nicole Price
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I take up where I left off in my last post, and continue talking TVs.

Fact is, even the cheapest of these very nice TV sets aren’t really cheap, so we should take a long look at the common or garden variety of tube TVs (or analog or standard), the ones that have served us so faithfully over the past many decades. Their fancier cousins notwithstanding, these TVs are not going away any time soon. But deals on this variety of TVs were not so easy to find!

The chief drawbacks for this kind of TV are their bulky size, considerable weight and obviously the limiting factor of the screen size. The screen size cannot match its Plasma and LCD counterparts and the bigger screen sizes can make this kind of TV take up a lot of space and can weigh 200 pounds! In spite of the drawbacks however, the good old tube TVs are still very popular and people who go to a TV showroom come away with a tube TV simply because of the cost factor.

So you can get this Philips set for the very reasonable price of $169

or this 27” Toshiba for $300

Since a lot of manufactures such as Samsung are continuing to better the technology of the analog TV, there is the slim fit tube technology available that is less bulky and most space effective. You can get this very good looking Samsung set for $349.

Another really little bargain that I came across was this really cute pink 13” TV for a mere $70 which I thought was a great gift for a little girl!

Oh! And what of HDTV (high definition TV), a term that is so often bandied about? Is that one more kind of television to confuse me? It isn’t so much a kind of TV; it is what goes along with your TV. To put it quite simply, it is the sort of service you opt for where you watch TV, so your TV is either compatible with the high definition technology or is not. There are some good deals out there which combine the TV and HD service package, so happy viewing.

Tags: Best Deals, Electronics, Entertainment, Gifts by Nicole Price
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Let’s take a look today at televisions, only TVs are no longer just TVs. Time was you wanted to buy a TV, you decided which brand you liked best, perhaps the color and screen size and your budget; it wasn’t difficult. These days it can be positively nerve racking! They’re flat, they’re LCD, they’re Plasma, they’re High Definition, enough to befuddle my not-very-tech-savvy self! Poor us, spoilt for choice! If you thought settling on a DVD player was complicated, here’s some more complication for you:

It wasn’t enough to give us flat screen TVs, they had to improve technology to the extent that you can put your TV up on the wall so that it takes up only as much space as a painting or something! So the question I asked myself is which is better to buy, a Plasma TV or an LCD TV. On the face of it I couldn’t see any difference but research revealed that they are both based on completely different technologies. After reading a lot of different articles here and here, (just in case you are interested), I came to the conclusion that it has to be the consumer’s personal choice: both have their own pros and cons, and if you cut out the mumbo jumbo, it is twelve of one and a dozen of another!

I put them side by side (that is an LCD on the left and a Plasma TV on the right) but for the life of me I cannot tell the difference, they are both really pretty, I grant you that!

So here are some good offers for LCD TVs that I came across, all of them under $1000. These are for recognized and well known brands that consumers have rated and given a ‘thumbs up’ to. The JVC 37” mentioned here and available at Vanns.com costs exactly one grand and includes free shipping. The 32” Samsung is highly recommended here and costs upward of $679.95. The 37” Sharp mentioned here and available at Office Depot costs $800.

Among the Plasma TV range, the 42”LG plasma costs $889 if you don’t want it shipped + a hundred more if you do.

The 42” Philips plasma TV costs $900 + $100 shipping.

To be sure there are cheaper sets available, in the smaller screen segment which you may also want to check out. The offers I have told you about may vary from day to day.

Now we come to the good old standard or analog TV, which I am afraid will have to wait till my next post, because I have already rambled on long enough in this one, and your poor head is probably spinning as much as mine!

Tags: Best Deals, Electronics, Entertainment by Nicole Price
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As promised, this is one more in our Valentine day series. If we got some good deals on DVDs, we now need a player on which to play them, don’t we? So today let’s take a look at all the permutations and combinations available in the DVD player segment. Later we can do HD and LCD TVs and also take a look at Home Theatre systems.

Without revealing my age, I must tell you that I am of the generation that is rather conversant with the VCR (the Video Cassette Recorder, duh!). So when I looked to replacing the almost obsolete VCR, I thought to myself I still want to be able to tape TV programs so I don’t miss anything and be able to play DVDs as well. Apparently a lot of people thought like me and there is a plethora of DVD players available in the market, there are even DVD/VCR combination players available! Then there are DVD recorders with which you can copy DVDs and DVD recorders with hard drives, which you can use for ‘taping’ TV programs. Confused? I was too, still am a little confused, truth be told! It took me a lot of time to sift through all the ‘DVD deals’ on the internet, and here is what I came up with:

Let us first take a look at the simple DVD player: connect to TV, insert DVD, press play, watch movie. You can get a Philips DVD player here for as little as $36.99!

[Read more →]

Tags: Best Deals, Electronics, Entertainment by Nicole Price
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Okay, I have to tell you straight up, I can’t really tell my Plonk from my Cabernet Sauvignon. In fact I can just about pronounce the fancy names. Don’t expect me to wax eloquent about bouquet and finish etc. Well never you mind, we will still try and find the best discounts available on wines for our Valentine day series. We did bean bags for two and then discount DVDs, now let’s see if we can get some discount wines.

There are many online wine shops, that offer to both sell you wine and offer you an education. Wine clubs, wine tastings and pairing wine with the right food are all offered on the sites I have talked about below:

The Wine Buyer is a fairly good, easily navigable site that offers selections of reds (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir etc.) and whites (Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling etc.) with the sale items shown on the home page. The home page guides you to a selection of free shipping items as well. There is also a region based classification of the wines such as the different wine producing regions of the US, South America and Europe. They have wine gift baskets on sale as well. For instance, the California Wine and Snack Basket is available for the sale price of USD 39.98

Wine Legend is another online store that offers prepared gift baskets such as this one called Birthday Cheer which comprises a bottle of champagne in a silver bucket with shortbread cookies, raspberry spread, chocolate truffles and toffee cashew nuts for the price of $73.99.

Rather steep that, so the Liquid Discount site has a whole segment devoted to wines at under $15, as does Shoppers Wines which has segments for under $10 wines as well as under $20 wines.

So go ahead and take your pick, and savor all the wonderful wines on offer!

Tags: Best Deals, Celebrations, General by Nicole Price
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Let’s call this a sort of Valentine Day series… We plan to continue our celebrations over the weekend. The day before I told you about some great deals on out sized bean bags. Today I’ll try and see how to get great deals on DVDs.

I was thinking Roman Holiday, because it is a lovely bitter-sweet romance with the adorable Audrey (Hepburn) and the gorgeous Gregory (Peck)

May not be the first choice of my significant other, but he will have to lump it (after all we’re not getting togged up to go clubbing out of deference to him) and like it! I am willing to go as far as Casablanca or Gone with the wind but that is it!

So returning to the quest for bargain DVDs, on my perambulations across the net, I came across this very useful site Cheapest DVD Price. What this site does is this: when you type in the title of the DVD you want, it will do a search and give you a list of all the different editions of the film: Collectors’ edition, twin DVD pack, with or without bonus CD etc. You pick the edition you want and click the button that says ‘find the cheapest price’. What it then does it gives you a list of all the different places that you can buy the DVD and their discounted prices. It tells you not only the offer prices at sites like half.com, amazon, A1Books and Overstock but also gives you the respective shipping rates, and coupon information (in any). When you select the one you’re interested in, it takes you to the very page on the site in question. Real simple!

Oh! and since I love, love, love books (reading and gifting) I have to tell you that this site offers you similar services for books, this one for CDs and this one for textbooks as well. You can browse the textbook site by subject as well.

Tags: Best Deals, Celebrations, Entertainment, General by Nicole Price
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Ahead of this Valentine’s Day, I got to thinking what me and my significant other would like to do on the day. I know that he hates crowds and loud music and that really narrowed down the field for me. We agree on movies, so I thought to myself get a rom-com DVD and curl up with it, accompanied by a little wine and a nice home cooked dinner later…. Perfect! I’m not telling you what I plan for later on.

I recently came across a brilliant item for two people (or more, at a pinch) to curl up on: It’s a seven foot bean bag! Truth be told I didn’t even know they came in that size! I found a good bargain at this Online Furniture Store where this baby is offered for $219 and comes in moss, tan and black colors. Amazon has a similar offers (costs a bit more but with better color options). But what I like about this one is that it isn’t that horrible faux leather finish, this is a cotton blend so it does not stick to bare skin (believe you me, this is important!).

Another option is a foam lounger: this one is a longer shape and can even double as a couch to sleep on! So if you are the sort who people drop in on unexpectedly, this one might be better, though more expensive at $329.95 and above. This one comes with different color and fabric options (not the cute guy though, you have to find your own cute guy or girl).

These items are also sometimes called sack chairs or love seats. Here they are available in many different colors…

…even pink (don’t know that I want a pink one though) They offer you the discounted price of $339 and this pic shows you how easily two can curl up, or not, whatever. Anyway, Happy Valentine’s Day y’all!!!

Tags: Best Deals, Celebrations, General by Nicole Price
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