Great Prices Here

What is better than a bargain, a discount, a good deal, an on-sale item? A Freebie, that’s what! Economists, however, would disagree with me, because the theory is that if a thing is free, its intrinsic value for the customer will be reduced. Whatever! I love freebies so lets go shopping. Without any money!

Freebies Archive is a site that claims to offer all manner of things free, including free laptops and free iPhones. Now that made me very suspicious so I delved a bit. Lots of pages regretted to inform me that the offers were no longer available or had expired; others redirected me to pages where I saw that in order to get the alleged ‘free’ iPhone you have to do all kinds of things and the rules stated:

“Please note Sponsor offers may require you to sample and/or purchase products of interest and/or take other actions such as applying for or obtaining a loan or extension of credit (including credit cards), transferring a balance, or similar steps. In order to remain eligible for your gift, you must complete all of the sponsor offers that require you to sample and purchase products of interest within 180 days of signing up for our service.”

Hmmm, not free after all. I looked with rather less suspicion upon the free samples sections. However a lot of these also redirected me. My desire to get 6 free toothpastes took me to a site called Brandrama (wonder if this one was named by someone hung up on the ghastly 80s band Bananarama) where I was firstly asked for my email address and the home page told me that the six tubes would be mine if I “took a survey and completed participation requirements where I sampled and purchased products of interest”. Most of the offers ominously informed me “Participation required”. Lots of strings there, and sounds like work to me.

Frankly disheartened I clicked on the free antivirus software, very hopeful that at least this would yield a genuine freebie? Nada, me hearties! The page offered zilch, it came up blank! Thoroughly dejected I ploughed on to the free Books and magazines section. A free magazine subscription offered me “the opportunity to participate in health surveys and polls.” And in all probability it will be an email subscription, so my ebbing enthusiasm evaporated entirely. Then there were free fonts to be downloaded, which I did, but my computer informed me that I would need to go and find the appropriate program to open the damn thing.

I hereby, most gloomily conclude that there is no such thing as a free lunch. But you know what, I am an eternal optimist and my quest for the freebie shall continue, I will bring you good tiding about it anon!

Tags: Best Deals, freebies, Humor, Money Saving by Nicole Price
10 Comments »

I was thinking about what topic to write on for my next post, and nothing came to mind: I was fresh out of ideas! Then the song that was playing on my computer at the time gave me an idea: the song was the Beatles (anyone who is a regular reader here will know that I am a Beatles nut) song Money, That’s what I want so I thought I would make my own compilation of all the best ‘Money’ songs that were made!

I may be a Beatles nut but my fav money song ever, has to be the iconic Money by Pink Floyd. What a song! Contrary to what a lot of people believe, I think Dark side of the Moon is the best Pink Floyd album.

New Car, Caviar,
Four Star Day Dream
Think I’ll buy me a Football Team

A song that I practically grew up with is the pop classic from Abba, Money, Money, Money. This song is all that’s good about pop music. Good tune, beat, and great vocals.

Money, money, money
Must be funny
In the rich man’s world
Money, money, money
Always sunny
In the rich man’s world

A song that is perhaps my introduction to real rock would be the Dire Straits song from Brothers in Arms, Money for Nothing. Irreverent, humorous and almost self deprecating, this song remains a personal nostalgia piece. Great track!

Look at them yo yos, that’s the way you do it,
Play the guitar on your MTV,
That ain’t working
Money for nothing and chicks for free

Since Beatles are my fav band ever, I picked two of their songs (I didn’t pick Cant buy me love) to include in the list: song Money, That’s what I want and Baby you’re a rich man too. The latter is a bizarre song with random lyrics like:

Baby you’re a rich man,
Baby you’re a rich man,
Baby you’re a rich man too.
You keep all your money in a big brown bag inside a zoo.

Any money songs you can think of which should have made it to the list?

Tags: Entertainment, music by Nicole Price
10 Comments »

In my last post I talked about desktop computers and laptops. Today let’s look at all the things that go with a PC, such as printers, scanners, external storage devices, flash memory cards etc.

Most people now want to go in for an all in one device that will serve as a printer, scanner and copier, negating the need for separate appliances to perform these functions.

I have quite a bit of brand loyalty for Hewlett Packard products, so I would recommend this Printer/Scanner/Copier at Amazon which comes for the discounted price of $112.33. For just over a dollar more, you can combine this purchase with a Startech 6ft Premium USB 2.0 Ab High Speed Certified Device Cable . You can add a 2 year replacement plan for $21.99 ($11.99 for a one year replacement plan) when buying this product. You may not require a printer with so many functions, in which case you can buy a printer that only prints. This HP Printer will cost you $69.00 plus shipping.

For people who store a lot of data on their computer, it is always advisable to back up your hard drive by storing all your data on an external or removable hard drive in case your computer crashes, a virus corrupts data etc. This Samsung 200 GB hard drive will cost you $54.99 and comes with a three year warranty.

A small portable storage device like a pen drive that you can carry everywhere you go can be a very convenient item especially for those people who carry work home. This 16 GB USB Flash Drive costs $61.49 and comes with free ground shipping.

If, like me, you listen to a lot of music on your computer, good speakers are a must have. I invested in some good speakers earlier on. Whenever I am doing other stuff around the house, the music is always on (with the monitor off – don’t forget this energy saving tip). The speakers are good ones, so I can hear the music in every corner of the house. Logitech makes a lot of computer accessories and their speakers produce good quality sound. This three piece speaker set from Logitech costs only $32.99.

I found pricewatch to be a very good one stop site for all your computer related needs. It finds you the best prices on any of many well segmented items and also points you in the direction of the best sellers.

Do let me know what your favorite brands for computer accessories and peripherals are. Any brands that you have had a bad experience with? Do leave me a comment.

Tags: Accessories, Best Deals, Electronics by Nicole Price
2 Comments »

Or perhaps you want to buy a laptop in addition to your PC? In the past few posts I have been talking about other things connected to money, such as advertising (good and bad), currency etc. because it is after all, all about the money, honey! Hope you have enjoyed them, I shall keep them coming interspersed with my usual bargain hunting quests. So this one is about bargains again, because I (and my significant other) have been toying with the idea of either upgrading our computer or buying a new laptop. So I thought let me do a survey before we take a decision.

A one stop shop for all your computing needs is discount PC. This offers an IBM NetVista 8305 – Pentium 4 2.4 GHz – 256MB – 40GB Hdd – CD – Windows XP Pro Installed – Desktop Case for $155. Good deal I thought, but if you do want to go in for a new computer I would go for a bigger hard drive. So this Acer Aspire T180 Athlon 64 3800+ 1GB 160GB DVD±RW preloaded with Windows Vista Home sounded better to me at $299.

Yes these are all very nice, and I found more PCs (discounted and otherwise) at directron.com, cheap stingy bargains, etc, but I kind of have my heart set on a nice compact sleek laptop, notebook, thinkpad whatever it is that they call it.

Look how pretty this Lenovo Think Pad is, which, after a coupon discount is just $596.70!

Talking of pretty, ever since I saw Oprah generously gifting everyone in the audience a Sony Vaio, I have thought it a very good looking laptop. I thought this deal for a Vaio was fabulous at $679 until I saw the ‘refurbished’ sign below the picture. Ah well, searched some more to find this deal for the Vaio at $862, also great!

Then this Toshiba Laptop from Newegg costs you just $499 which is after a $100 rebate. Discount Laptops has a wide selection as well and a discussion area, which may be useful for you to check out too.

Now I am thinking refurbished may not be a bad idea, simply because these items are not really used and have then been double checked and sanitized (don’t know why a computer would need to be sanitized, but whatever) before being placed in a buyer’s hands. Hmmm now I am reasonably confused so we shall leave accessories, peripherals etc for my next post. Meanwhile my significant other and I shall confer.

Tags: Best Deals, Electronics, Money Saving by Nicole Price
12 Comments »

If, like me you love to read, then e-books are a great idea being supported by people as a green way to read. Simply because this way you decrease the demand for the paper on which books are printed and consequently save trees! Also, with eBooks you don’t have to pay for shipping or wait until the book is shipped to you. It is a good idea, (though I still feel that curling up with an actual book is the best way there is to pass the time) so I wanted to take a dekko at the eBook sites on the internet.

This free eBook site gives you the option of downloading for free, all kinds of eBooks, on subjects as diverse as education, philosophy, fitness, business, fiction and many, many others. I wanted to download and finally read The Doll’s House which was an extremely influential play of its time; it was easy to do, after a relatively painless registration. The fun thing about this site is you can even upload your book on to this site to share with others. You know what they say, there’s a book inside all of us!

This site gives you access not only to books (you can search by title or author) but also gives you access to news and public domain material, features such as celebration of women writers and banned books and more book links.

With the success of eBooks like The Daughters of Freya books by email is a concept that is really catching on. Daily lit is a site that offers to periodically email you books part by part. Classics are usually mailed to you free of charge, while you pay for reading the more current books (The Daughters of Freya is $4.95). You can even gift these books (including the free ones!). Thought this was a great idea.

If, however, you are still convinced that holding a book in your hand and turning the pages is the best way to read, there are of course a lot of sites that offer big discounts on conventional books as well. Book close outs is a site that offers up to 75% discount on books. Swim with the Sharks without being Eaten Alive, for instance is available at a 69% discount. Amazon also has a bargain book section where you can buy bargain books for under $5, $10 and $20 and so on. The All Discount Books site promises to find you the best prices for any book that you want, though this site leans more towards providing access to cheap text books.

I think books can be our best friends, and one of the best habits we can pass on to our children is the habit of reading. What do you think?

Tags: Best Deals, books, Entertainment, Environment, Gifts by Nicole Price
9 Comments »

If you read my last post then you know that this one is a sequel. I did some of the best adverts or commercials then and now I want to see if I can find some really bad ones!

Straightaway we come to this self-explanatory site which claims to bring you the dumbest ads.

This ad is apparently for toilet paper, why it has a dog and cucumber slices could be anyone’s guess.

“I drove a co worker home. To my place” OK so far, but this is an ad for hair color!

These ones here are actually one line classified ads but really funny:

Lost: Small apricot poodle. Reward. Neutered like one of the family.

Dinner Special: Turkey $2.35; Chicken or Beef $2.25; Children $2.00.

For Sale: Antique desk suitable for lady with thick legs and large drawers.

Now is your chance to have your ears pierced and get an extra pair to take home too!

No matter what your topcoat is made of, this miracle spray will make it really repellent.

For Sale: Eight puppies from a German Shepherd and an Alaskan Hussy.

Dog for Sale: Eats anything and is fond of children.

Tired of cleaning yourself? Let me do it!

Man, honest. Will take anything.

Used Cars: Why go elsewhere to be cheated? Come here first!

Our bikinis are exciting. They are simply the tops.

Auto Repair Service: Try us once — you’ll never go anywhere else again.

Wanted: Preparer of food. Must like the food business, be dependable, and be willing to get hands dirty.

Mixing bowl set designed to please a cook with round bottom for efficient beating.

And now, the Superstore — unequaled in size, unmatched in variety, unrivaled inconvenience.

Then here is a really dumb one for Old Spice:

And this one for a Mercedes Benz is actually really funny, not dumb at all but does feature a dumb blonde, so here goes:

Check out these super dumb product warnings on this page. You cannot stop reading till you reach the end.

As for the stupidest commercial in recent times, I would have to say it is the Absolut vodka commercial, which shows Texas and California (among other US states) as being part of Mexico. Admittedly this was an ad aimed at Mexicans but it has managed to piss of the Americans to the extent that the advert has been recalled, unconditional apologies issued, etc.

Talk about ‘absolutely’ shooting yourself in the foot! Your views? Let me have them!

Tags: Advertising, Entertainment, Humor, Wacky by Nicole Price
8 Comments »

One aspect of making money that I have not covered so far is advertising. And advertising is such an important element of selling any product or service. If there were no advertising or commercials no one would have any information about what is available in the market and the buyer and the consumer would both be the poorer for it! Let’s take a look today at some of the best ads that I could find and then maybe next time we can take a look at the worst ones around (no dearth of those I’m sure)!

Personally I have more admiration for print ads or still commercials because they are able to convey their message with just one image, and therefore have to be more creative to create the maximum impact. Video ads on the other hand have more time and can use different mediums to get across their message. I surveyed quite a few sites and picked some that I really liked to share here with you. Please click on the thumbnail to view a larger image.

Here are some that I really liked from this site:

Very unique use for a post-it, remember the name of the person you slept with last night!

This UNICEF ad says “Everyone needs a family” and that slightly expectant look on the child’s face is a little heartrending!

I am not sure that I really like to see teeth in an ear but it is effective in the message it tries to convey, “Hungry for music?”

This site had the following interesting ones:

This one simply says “It’s sugar free”. Really simple and really clever!

This one is for Western Union Money Transfer and you immediately get the message that you can send the money from here to there really easily and only one word is used! Brilliant.

This site had lots of intelligent ones; some of them I didn’t quite get but I really liked these:

This WWF one is meant to convey that 15 square kilometer of rain forest disappears every minute. Poor ole Tarzan, probably caught short mid-yell there!

Olivia Women’s magazine is for women with attitude so this one tells you “heaven is full, no need to be nice”. You know what they say, Good girls go to heaven, and bad girls go everywhere!

I found this site from Digg, and is in a language that I do not recognize much less read, but the pictures speak for themselves:

As a rule I do not like AXE ads (loser being chased by gorgeous women, like some silly wet dream), but this one is almost subtle so I did.

This one draws attention to the great inequality in the world and tells you that you have the chance to redress it somewhat.

As far as I can tell, this one is for some diet food: Sharon Stone with a twist!

Hope you enjoyed these, I know I did!

Tags: Advertising, Entertainment, Wacky by Nicole Price
1 Comment »

There is a lot of buzz around news circuits about the devaluation of the dollar worldwide, and a lot of trade pundits are predicting more doom and gloom. So does this mean that the position of the US dollar as the most important currency in the world is threatened? Is a recession really impending and will it drive the US dollar from its coveted top spot? I don’t think there is any immediate fear of that happening but that set me thinking, how did currency come into being? How old is the tradition of paper money and when was the barter system replaced by currency?

While the system of barter (trading or swapping an item with someone who requires it, in return for acquiring something that you need), which was used over centuries had its own obvious limitations. For instance, a vegetable farmer may be willing to offer his produce in return for some tools that another individual is making, but the tool-maker may not, at the time have any need for the farmers produce, and by the time he does, the produce of the vegetable farmer would have been spoiled, so the barter becomes untenable to that extent. So what was then required was to have an intermediate commodity that doesn’t perish and is reliably in demand throughout the year. In earlier times, items of intrinsic value such as copper, gold or wine were used as currency. Early settlers in Australia traded with rum as a currency! Grain and cattle were other items used as and by way of currency.

Even in ancient times, coins were minted by the ruler of the land were stamped with an emblem that guaranteed the weight and value of the metal and used as currency. These were usually made from precious and semi precious metal so that they carried intrinsic value and were stamped with the ruler’s seal thereby imbuing it with an intangible value stemming from authority as well.

The reason for the emergence for paper money was twofold; one, the shortage of precious and semiprecious metal and secondly, ease of portability (soon coins became too heavy to carry around). In Europe the first paper money consisted of paper ‘coins’ issued in Protestant Leyden (today, Leiden) in the Netherlands during the Spanish siege of 1574. Later, governments directed citizens to replace precious metals with paper money to hasten the general acceptance of paper as currency.

Usually currency notes are made by adding cotton paper, linen or other textile fibers so as to make them more resistant to wear and tear. There is also a thin layer of varnish to protect them from soiling. In order to make it impossible or at least very difficult to make counterfeit notes, currency is usually enhanced by a water mark, the thread component and several other factors. Over the years, bank notes have also been printed on materials such as polymer, silk, leather etc.!

So fascinating is the subject of currency, that numismatics is the term coined for the scientific study of currency and its history in all its varied forms and I found this very interesting site devoted to numismatics which gives you access to bank notes from around the world and you can also order any that you want!

Tags: General, Government by Nicole Price
3 Comments »

A lot of the time, what is good for you and your finances is also good for Mother Earth. Since Earth Hour is just behind us, I was inspired to do a post about small saving we can make in our everyday lives. Restricting your use of electrical appliances also means lower electric bills. When you walk out of a room, switch off all the electric appliances behind you. When not using the computer, don’t leave it on standby mode, switch it off. Take the stairs and eschew the elevator.

When you have an errand to run take out your bicycle or simply walk, give the gas guzzler a rest. If you must use the car, combine several errands in one and make one slightly longer trip rather than several short ones. Drive steadily, avoiding sudden acceleration and braking, it is less stressful for you and it will improve your vehicle’s fuel efficiency and therefore lower emissions. Tune the engine and the tires inflated to improve mileage. If you are planning to buy a vehicle, buy a hybrid or better still an electric vehicle. Save a bunch and make a style statement all at the same time!

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 rewards you for installing certain energy efficient products, such as solar heaters and photovoltaic equipment. Also properly insulating your home reduces the need for heating and air conditioning, so a onetime expense of insulation can save you a lot in terms of recurrent bills. In fact if you are inclined to wade through pages and pages of energy saving tips, go to Department of Energy site where specific tips for automobiles, appliances and electronics, heating and cooling, insulation, landscaping, lighting and daylighting, summer and winter tips and water heating tips are to be found aplenty!

Use CFLs! They use only about ¼ the energy as traditional bulbs and last up to 10 times as long! I held out against using them for a long time simply because I prefer yellow to white light, but apparently now CFLs are available in yellow tints as well!

If you can, work from home. Cut the commute, both time and money is saved. You have flexible timings and you don’t have to spend on child care!

As for saving water (after all we pay for water too), I am a little fanatical about this and have been known to stop and shut a neighbors’ tap that was gushing water. Fix leaks promptly, take a shower instead of a bath. Don’t leave the tap on when you brush or wash. Wash the car yourself, don’t take it to the car wash and use the bucket, not a hose, so you get a nice stretch and you don’t end up wasting gallons and gallons of water!

There are many more energy saving tips, but these are the ones I have incorporated into my own day to day life, and believe you me, they make a difference. So if reading this has made any of you change your ways, then mine is a job well done! Do let me know through your comments.

Tags: Environment, Money Saving by Nicole Price
2 Comments »

A close friend is celebrating his birthday soon, and he’s a real wise guy where gifts are concerned. He once gave me an ashtray in the shape of a toilet bowl, and I don’t even smoke! Like I said, wise-guy, so I thought why not pay him back in his own coin now that it’s his birthday. I wanted to give him something so unusual as to be bizarre. Are there a lot of strange gift ideas on the net? You bet there are! Take a look at some of these:

This is the Hillary Nutcracker (this one cracked me up, pun unintended), which is the Primary Special if you please! You place the walnut or whatever other nut between her legs to crack it open! I wonder if the Senator is planning to sue. You can get this one for $12.95 Oh! And there are some Hillary nuts to go with that; but hang on a sec, shouldn’t that be Clinton nuts? And don’t miss this Hillary chew toy for your pet. And here’s an Obama one: Obama air freshner for $2.99. This site has other nice politically inspired items.

This site has so much craziness, I was completely distracted, because some of the stuff is really hilarious. How about this joke doormat that says ‘Nice Underwear’. I think its steep for $14.95, but just wanted to mention it. Then here’s an instant beer belly and beer for the game at the same time: this item can help you save money at the game by letting you carry your own beer! Sheer ingeniousness! For $34.95 you can carry more than a six pack to the game. This is just the thing for couple with a sense of humor: the Control Your Man and Control your Woman talking remotes. The Control your woman one says things like: “Zip it!” and “Hand over the credit cards” and the control your man remote offers some gems like “The queen speaketh!” and “Whoa, ever hear of foreplay?” This site also offers risqué items like this soap and the sculpta sutra! How on earth do they think these up!

I can’t see as I type this, I am wiping my eyes from laughing so much! This self confessed stupid site has so much stupidity I am still chuckling! They have unbelievable stuff like toilet bowl lip gloss ($1.99) instant gay accent spray ($4.99), the Tiki tissue box holder (tissues come out of the nose) and endless other wackiness!

Then this item is meant to discreetly drown out any din you make in the bathroom. For $29.95 no one need know what you are up to in the loo!

Then there is the 24 Carat gold lollipop and yes it is edible and champagne flavored to boot! Why would you eat one or even want one? I can’t answer that one. If you are interested it will cost you £3.75.

Which one is your favorite from among all of these? I really cannot decide what to gift him! Please help me choose through your comments.

Tags: Gifts, Wacky by Nicole Price
2 Comments »