College students are often broke, which is why it’s ironic that textbooks are so expensive. Between your crappy job, financial aid and maybe your parents, you may not be able to afford all your books. Fortunately for you the internet has made it so much easier to find cheap textbooks.
Years before, students have to pay for everything when they purchase their books from shipping to handling and this will make it even more expensive. However today, you can find several places where you can buy textbooks online at a cheaper price. You can even rent the books at your convenience.
Years ago, choices were limited. You could buy from your campus bookstore and maybe from another bookstore in town. Used books were from other students and you were relegated to looking on bulleting boards for ads. Now, it’s just a quick search.
First you should always check your official bookstore. If your school gives you a textbook list online, that’s even better. But it’s always best to check with the bookstore and get the book title, author, edition, ISBN, description of the front cover and price. Take a photo with your phone if you want.
Then take that information and start your search. Campus Books is the best place to start looking for cheap textbooks. You can search by title, author, ISBN or keyword and narrow it to purchase or rental or compare them. They even include e-books, which are gaining in popularity because they are much cheaper than most new books.
The key to textbook shopping is to compare prices. If your bookstore only charges $10 more and you need it that day, spend the extra money. If not, wait a few days. Make sure to take shipping and taxes into consideration – online purchases often mean no tax and you can usually find coupons for free shipping.
There is a Campus Books textbook search in the sidebar of this blog.
As soon as you stumble back from winter holidays, spring break is all you look forward to. You think about saving money so you can afford to go to Florida or South Padre, but you know you’ll probably blow most of it on beer. I’ve been there and what I discovered is that you can have a great spring break with almost no money. Read the rest of this entry »
BookByte is hosting another contest – this time to win FREE textbooks for the rest of your college career!
Who is BookByte?
BookByte, the company that offers textbook sales and rentals at a cheap price with FREE shipping just launched a great program that you’ll love. The Guaranteed Buyback program offers books at a low price, while also providing students with a 10% rebate if you sell you book back at the end of the semester. Read the rest of this entry »
1. Sell on ebay. This requires some research, but what I do is scour Best Buy and Circuit City (and other such electronics retailers) for great sales, then buy the product and put it on ebay. Best Buy has some great sales where you can get $100 off retail value, sell it on ebay and get a $50-75 profit easily.
2. Join websites that pay you to fill out surveys and do free trials. The ones with high payout are usually trial offers that require a credit card to join, and if you cancel within the trial, you won’t be billed. I’ve made $80 in two months with Cash Crate. You’ll also need an extra email address for all the spam you will get from the surveys.
3. Do laundry for your friends. It costs me $2 to wash and dry one load of clothes, so charge $4 and you make easy money with a few minutes of work.
4. Bring energy drinks and snacks to all-night study sessions in the university center or library and sell them to the different study groups. This works best during finals week.
5. If you’re decent with computers, start a computer maintenance “business”. Post flyers advertising your services around campus. Offer to backup hard drives, clean up and optimize computers, install new memory…Charge half of what it costs to take it to Best Buy.
Surviving College Life has created a list of 50 Ways to Save Money in College. The list is broken down into eight categories that basically covers everything. Here are what I think are the top five tips (with my comments):
19. Use student discounts when you travel. Check with the bus, train, or airline you are using, or use a student travel site like StudentUniverse.com. Don’t limit this to just travel. Most places in a college town have discounts for students. Use them!
22. Reduce your electricity bills: turn off your computer when you’re not using it, turn off lights when you leave the room, unplug appliances you aren’t using. Electricity is my second-highest bill, which I thought was due to my air conditioning. After doing some experimentation, I realized it’s my huge entertainment stations – TV/Playstation and my computer desk. Turning off electrical items is a tip which you will frequently encounter at money-saving sites such as lovemoney.com, and it’s one which can have a big impact on the size of your bills. Getting into the habit of turning off electrical appliances is also something which will benefit you later in life, not just during your time at college. When I turned these things off for a week, my bill was CUT IN HALF.
35. Understand what your credit score is, and keep it healthy! It will help you save money later when you’re looking for low interest rates on car or home loans. Credit is very important for later in life and if you start building it (smartly) now, you will be ahead of your classmates by a long shot. Need help with this? Try Get Rich Slowly.
39. Don’t eat out. It adds up quickly, and if you’re not getting fast food, you have to add a tip. Eating out is one of my vices and I’m working on that. Restaurants are expensive and can be just as unhealthy as McDonald’s. You’re much better off (budget-wise and health-wise) if you cook healthy(-ish) meals on your own.
48. Sign up for freebies with your favorite restaurants. By signing up with Hollywood Video’s newsletter, they send you free movie rental coupons on a regular basis. I use these to supplement my Netflix addiction.
Visit Surviving College Life to read the full article, 50 Ways to Save Money in College.
When in debt, people often think of weird debt help solutions. Usually they resort to loans, and in some cases, mortgages. This issue is frequently faced by individuals who do not use their credit card well and have never believed in investment of any sort. Researching online savings accounts information and talking with your financial coordinators can help avoid these situations when planning for larger expenses in the future.
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Their website also has helpful calculators and tips.
Click here to get free tax advice with H&R Block. And remember, with H&R Block, you’ve got people.
Before investing in any property, appropriate home work is essential on real estate investing. Not everyone is apt for this. This is why people should learn with reading and interpreting free insurance quotes and work about their home insurance before getting stuck into complicated mortgages matters. Generating mortgage leads should not be their priority.
