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Visit CampusBookRentals and RentBack.com to save on college text book costs

January 28, 2013 by · Leave a Comment

It’s been a long time since I was in college. No comments from the peanut gallery, thanks. But I do remember how expensive textbooks were then, and they still are now. Back then (and now I’m leaning on my cane and wagging my finger) we didn’t have computers or the internet, so your only method of getting any money back was to have the campus bookstore buy them back, or you did a handwritten sign and posted it all over campus. Seems laughable now, huh? And you know that one commercial where the guys buy a video game, then they take it back to the store to have it purchased back, and the guy offers them about 10% of the original cost–that’s what selling textbooks used to be like. The campus bookstore, on a good day, would give you 10-20% of what you paid for it. But it was always at the end of the semester, and we were all broke, so we took it.

Thankfully technology and the internet has made some of this better for today’s students. First, there is CampusBookRentals, where you can lease/loan your textbooks rather than purchasing them. “Oh, but then I can’t highlight in them……” You can! Here are just some of the program options:

-save 40-90% off of bookstore prices
-free shipping both ways
-can highlight in the textbooks
-flexible renting periods
-we donate to Operation Smile with each textbook rented

There also is an option called RentBack, where you actually rent out the text books you own. Depending on what you paid for the books, you could actually make more money than what you paid for it! And at the end of it all, you still have the text for your resource library if you want.
You can watch this to learn more about what they do.

And, after all that, the folks at CampusBookRental take the time to help out at Operation Smile! How cool is that? You save money, they help a great cause, sounds win-win to me!

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need money in a hurry?

January 27, 2013 by · Leave a Comment

Many years ago, when hubby and I were first married, we lived in Kansas City. Overall I didn’t like it there. My job was long tedious hours and very low pay (I was salaried at $15,000 a year) and KC was just not our style. Nothing against the area, but people are usually just comfortable where they grew up, and for me that’s Pennsylvania. I just wasn’t meant to be a midwesterner. Anyway, we were renting an apartment and we stupidly thought that buying a house would make us like KC more. This was before the real housing boom and all those sketchy loan practices, so we still had to come up with a down payment and all that. We basically took all of our savings, all of our wedding money, and used it so that we could buy this house. And it was a nice house.

But 6 months later, I still hated KC. It wasn’t the house, it was that we wanted to move back east. So we did. I moved back first and I stayed with relatives. I had already found a job, hubby hadn’t. He stayed in KC, tried to sell our house and tried to find a job here. It was about 3-4 months and then he came here and we rented a house here, since we still owned the house in KC. Hey, when you know better, you do better. But we didn’t know any better. That ended up being our biggest financial mistake ever. Not only did we lose whatever money we had coughed up at closing, we actually HAD TO PAY $1500 at the new closing, with the new owners, to sell the house. Yeah.

Anyway, my point is, we had to come up with $1500 to actually sell our house and we didn’t have it. So we had to take out a short term loan. So I don’t judge when people need a loan in a hurry or a payday loan. Hey, stuff happens.

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car model comparison app

January 5, 2013 by · Leave a Comment

There really is an app for anything these days, isn’t there? My one friend posted the other day that there actually is an app that helps you teach kids how to use “their inside voice.” That seems like a bit much, but here’s an app that is actually useful. It’s a car model comparison app. It’s great if you’re in the market for a car, specifically a Toyota. It allows you to compare and contrast all the features for the different models of Toyota. My first car was a 1975 Toyota. It’s amazing what our parents let us drive around in back then, huh? That care barely passed inspection each year, the doors didn’t lock and often the reverse didn’t work. But hey, I was a teen and it got me where I needed to go.

Today when comparing car options, safety is a real concern and this app helps you look at that. My dad is a Toyota guy. He’s had a few Highlanders, Camrys and a Forerunner or two. I don’t think he compares specs as much as most shoppers–he just likes how they look and how they handle. He is at his Toyota dealership all the time. He doesn’t have a smartphone, or I’d tell him to get this app. Then maybe he would just poke around and look at pictures and specs instead of going for a test drive!

 

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Option for those that don’t have credit cards

January 5, 2013 by · Leave a Comment

We shop online all the time which of course requires some type of credit card or sometimes Paypal. Yesterday while I was out, I heard two women say “Oh, I don’t have a credit card.” I’m always surprised when I hear people say this. I have had a MAC card ever since they came out in the 80s, and I’ve had a credit or debit card (with a Visa or MC logo) for as long as I can remember. Then again, I’m still surprised when I see people at the grocery store pay with a check…….but I digress.

There are options to get a prepaid debit card. They have a lot of great features–no credit checks, reloadable, and no fees if you keep a certain balance. They are all pre-pay. Make sure you read the fine print about fees and terms of use.

Prepaid debit and credit cards are one of the fastest growing parts of our economy. Consumers are tired of credit cards, with their interest rates and fees. And don’t want to be tempted to spend money they don’t have.  NPR recently did a piece on this. Make sure you weigh all the pros and cons, and are aware of all fees and policies before you get one.

And the next time you see an offer for prepaid debit cards at your local store, don’t brush it off! It might be something you find useful. Think about it for college students or even teens living at home, when you’re teaching them how to budget and spend within their means. A small service fee is a much better option than the overdraft fees that will happen if they overdraw an account. Good luck & keep us posted of any great offers you find.

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