Blog has Moved to nicolesnickels.com

Please be advised that my blog, Nicole's Nickels, has moved to nicolesnickels.com. Please update your bookmarks accordingly.

Donate Your Old Coat To Make a Difference!

Lands' End has joined forces with the National Coalition for the Homeless to start the campaign called The Big Warm-up. The Big Warm-up provides an opportunity for people across the nation to donate a gently used coat that will then go on to warm one of more than 3.5 million homeless women, men and children in the United States right now – each facing a cold winter.


Beginning October 29 until November 30, Lands’ End is hosting Big Warm-up coat donation sites at its 252 Lands’ End Shops at Sears and 13 Lands’ End Inlets®. Donated coats will be distributed via the National Coalition for the Homeless in communities nearby. Lands’ End is also giving 20 percent off the purchase of a new coat for each one donated. Please consider going through your closets and donating your gently used coats to help support this wonderful campaign!

Writing this post also entered me into a contest where if I win, Lands' End will donate 100 coats to the charity of my choice!

I'm a DealPro!

I meant to post this earlier but time got away from me. I found out a few weeks ago that I had been selected to be a DealPro for savings.com. Along with 24 other bloggers, I was flown to San Francisco where I attended the Save Up Event last week.

The Save Up Event was a great one-day event where I got to meet like-minded DealPros like myself! I was excited to meet bloggers whose blogs I have been following for a long time and of course to finally meet Coupon Dad, who I felt like I already knew!We had a great time and learned a lot about savings.com, a phenomenal website I will blog more about at a later date. We had a full agenda of panel discussions, roundtable discussions, lots of food and lots of laughs! I came back from the trip exhausted but exhilarated, having met people just like me who also have a passion for deals!

Savings.com pulled out all the stops for us on the trip and we felt like savings royalty! I'm excited to get more involved in their community-based website where users work together to find and share the best deals.

As a DealPro, I received an all-expense paid trip to San Francisco sponsored by savings.com. They did not ask me to write this post or do anything in exchange for the trip. My opinions remain my own.

Reminder: Make Time for Change!

I posted last month about how Frigidaire and Jennifer Garner have teamed up in a great campaign called Make Time For Change where when you pledge to use the extra hour we gained this week to make change for children!

I just wanted to remind everyone to head over to Frigidaire and make your pledge - it's for a great cause!

To make your pledge, just go to the Frigidaire website and raise your hand to make time for a child. In honor of your pledge, Frigidaire will donate $1 to support the CHANGE program to help children in the US. Also, everyone who pledges their time will also be entered to win a Frigidaire Professional Double Wall Oven. Also, for every Frigidaire Professional Wall Oven purchased, Frigidaire will donate $100 to the CHANGE program as part of their $250,000 committment to support this extraordinary program.

Join My Village: Socially Responsible Blogging

I love receiving information about causes such as Join My Village. My blog is read by tens of thousands each month and if even 1 of you joins my village and supports this great cause then I will have done my job.

What is Join My Village? Join My Village is a joint effort between General Mills and CARE. It's an online community that is charged with fighting poverty in Malawi through the empowerment of womena and girls.

Why Malawi? Malawi, an African country, is one of the poorest and densely-populated countries. With an extremely low life expectancy (just 44 years old!) and high infant mortality (89 deaths per 1,000 births), the people of Malawi are in dire need of assistance.How can I help? Visit Join My Village and join 1 of the 10 teams to benefit 75 different villages in Malawi. You'll get to know the Malawi women of your village through photographs and stories. Through simple online activities such as answering a quiz question or telling a friend about Join My Village, $1 will be unlocked by General Mills and will go to CARE's poverty fighting programs in the Malawi villages (limit of 3 activities per person per day, and $15,000 per online village team - or $150,000 in total). General Mills will also match personal contributions made will go to CARE's poverty fighting programs in the Malawi villages (limit of 3 activities per person per day, and $15,000 per online village team - or $150,000 in total)

How do I join? You can either join on your own or email me (nicolesnickels@gmail.com) requesting an invite to be a part of Kaisi, the village I am a part of.

I'm a Member of the Bumble Bee Foods Bee Squad!

I'm proud to announce that I am a member of the Bumble Bee Foods Bee Squad!I was selected, along with 8 other bloggers, to become brand ambassadors for Bumble Bee Foods. I received a box of Bumble Bee goodies along with some information on the brand and recipes. I don't usually cook with tuna but these recipes look great and I can't wait to share them with you all soon!

Check out the other 8 bloggers who are on the "squad":

Samatha @ As They Grow Up
Karen @ Thrifty Mommy
Emily @ Busy Mommy
Kasey @ A Hook, a Line, and a Girl
Amanda @ Mommy Mandy
Caryn @ Rockin' Mama
Elizabeth @ Table 4 Five
Linda @ Short, Pump, and Preppy

I am part of a 6 month blog program through Bumble Bee Foods. I am not being monetarily compensated but did receive a box of free products. My opinions remain mine and are not influenced by any compensation or products received.

Nicole's Nickels on the Radio, 8/5

Here is my weekly radio segment from August 5, 2009 from the Jennifer & Danny Show on 97.9 WRMF. If you're local to the West Palm Beach, Florida area you can catch me live every Thursday morning between 7:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. If you're not local you can listen live online here or just wait for me to post the podcast!

Nicole's Nickels on the Radio, 7/30

Here is my weekly radio segment from July 30, 2009 from the Jennifer & Danny Show on 97.9 WRMF. If you're local to the West Palm Beach, Florida area you can catch me live every Thursday morning between 7:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. If you're not local you can listen live online here or just wait for me to post the podcast!

How to Leave a Comment

I have acquired many new readers in the past couple of weeks many of whom are now to reading blogs and the blogosphere. I am currently running several giveaways (the current ones are in the top right of my blog under the title "current giveaways") and there seems to be some confusion about how to enter my giveaways.

Emailing me is NOT an entry into a giveaway. I cannot track emails as entries and have been emailing people back advising of this. This happens especially with those of you who subscribe by email - many of you are just clicking "reply" and emailing me your entries.

It's easy to leave a comment. Here's how:

1. If you're reading from an email or a feed, you'll need to click on the title of the post where you want to leave a comment. If you're not reading from an email or a feed, please click on the title of the post where you want to leave a comment.

2. A new window will open and the post where you want to leave a comment will appear with no other posts.

3. At the bottom of the post in that new window, you will see "post a comment" (right above where it says "links to this post").

4. Click "post a comment".

5. A new smaller window will open with all of the comments in that post already.

6. Scroll to the bottom of that window and you will see a white box that says "leave your comment".

7. Type your comment in that box.

8. Select anonymous (make sure to leave your email address inside the comment then) or use your google or blogger id to log in if you have one.

9. Click "publish your comment" when you're done typing it in.

10. Wait for me to approve your comment. It won't show up right away so don't get alarm and enter another one. I post comments as I can throughout the day, and unless you posted something not family-friendly I'll approve it.

I hope this helps you all enter my great giveaways.

Remember, you need to leave a SEPARATE comment for each entry you are able to make. So on the cake giveaway, for example, you need to leave a comment saying which flavor you like. If you also sent an email to 5 friends, leave another comment saying you did that. Each comment counts as one entry.

If you have any questions, leave a comment on this post or send me an email!

Nicole's Nickels on the Radio

Here is my weekly radio segment from July 16, 2009 from the Jennifer & Danny Show on 97.9 WRMF. If you're local to the West Palm Beach, Florida area you can catch me live every Thursday morning between 7:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. If you're not local you can listen live online here or just wait for me to post the podcast!

Nicole's Nickels on the Radio!

Here is my weekly radio segment from July 9, 2009 from the Jennifer & Danny Show on 97.9 WRMF. If you're local to the West Palm Beach, Florida area you can catch me live every Thursday morning (tomorrow!) between 7:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. If you're not local you can listen live online here or just wait for me to post the podcast!

Become a Fan of Nicole's Nickels on Facebook!

I love Facebook and while I have used it personally for over a year now, I just developed a fan page for Nicole's Nickels. My feed will post on the Facebook page so it may be an easy way for some of you to keep up with me and my blog!

To become a fan of Nicole's Nickels on facebook, click here.

Looking for other ways to stay connected to Nicole's Nickels? You can also follow me on Twitter, subscribe to my blog via email, subscribe in a RSS reader, or just access my site the old-fashioned way!

Issues with Blogger!

I have been getting many emails from frustrated readers over the past few days that they are getting repeated error messages when they access my blog. I'm aware of the problems and unfortunately Blogger's (the blogging platform I use) issues with Internet Explorer have been a problem for me for almost a month! I previously posted about it here.

Today I changed my comments so instead of being in the post at the bottom as a white box, you'll now have to click "post a comment" within a post and a pop-up window will open for you to leave a comment there. I have been reading online and for some this has fixed their problem.

What I can recommend for sure that will fix it is to download and use Firefox as your browser instead of Internet Explorer. Firefox is FREE to download and there are no compatibility issues between it and Blogger. If you continue to use Internet Explorer and get the "operation aborted" message, click ok and then the"back" button on your browser, sometimes that has helped.

WPTV News Video

I have a "stickied" post welcoming the viewers from the Channel 5 WPTV (NBC) that saw me on the news last night. I'm going to keep that stickied post up for a few days as the segment will re-air. Several of you have asked me to post the video. Here it is!

Has Nicole's Nickels Helped You?

If Nicole's Nickels has helped you, then USA Weekend wants to know about it! USA Weekend (the magazine in your Sunday papers) is looking for money-saving tips and a "terrific blog or website that's loaded with great money-saving ideas".

Since my goal is to share Nicole's Nickels with as many people as possible (I think everyone can find a way to save or make money on my site!) I would appreciate if you took the time to fill this short USA Weekend form out. Make sure to put in your favorite money-saving tip as well as information about Nicole's Nickels if I've helped you!

Feel free to also leave a comment here or send me an email with the money-saving tip you included, if you included one!

Nicole's Nickels on the Radio

Here are my weekly radio segment from June 18, 2009 from the Jennifer & Danny Show on 97.9 WRMF. If you're local to the West Palm Beach, Florida area you can catch me live every Thursday morning between 7:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. If you're not local you can listen live online here or just wait for me to post the podcast!

Internet Explorer and Blogger

Blogger has been having some issues with Internet Explorer in the past month and many of you have emailed me with your frustration at not being able to open my blog (and other blogs) at times. We were first told it had to do with the followers widget but I don't even have that on my blog. I often get the error message (operation aborted) when I access other blogs off their feed in my google reader.

Unfortunately, I don't have a solution to the problem though hitting the "back" button after getting the error message often corrects the issue for me. A more practical solution is to download and use Firefox as your default browser. I am definitely an IE girl but in the past month have been using Firefox (because of the issues with IE) and am thrilled with it. I don't get the error messages and am impressed with its features. Best of all? It's FREE to download.

Nicole's Nickels on the Radio

Here are my weekly radio segments from June 4, 2009 and June 11, 2009 from the Jennifer & Danny Show on 97.9 WRMF. If you're local to the West Palm Beach, Florida area you can catch me live every Thursday morning between 7:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. If you're not local you can listen live online here or just wait for me to post the podcast!

June 4, 2009


June 11, 2009

Nicole's Nickels on the Radio 5/28

Here is my weekly radio segment from May 28, 2009 from the Jennifer & Danny Show on 97.9 WRMF. If you're local to the West Palm Beach, Florida area you can catch me live every Thursday morning (tomorrow!) between 7:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. If you're not local you can listen live online here or just wait for me to post the podcast!

Juice Box Jungle

I don't usually talk about blog logistics on here but I wanted to alert my fellow bloggers to a new ad network called Juice Box Jungle. I love this site because you (and your readers) don't have to do anything - you just install the small widget (mine is on my left sidebar) and it's up to your readers to click it. Right now it pays per page view - no need to sign up or do a single thing but load your blog.

The widget is a player but only plays when clicked. Juice Box Jungle is invite only right now so email me if you'd like an invite.