A smart shopper's guide to purchasing text books.

If you’re like me, then you know what its like to fork over hundreds of dollars just for text books. Although financial aid might be covering some of your book expenses, there is no reason why you should pay so much for books you will have only for a semester. Buying books at book store price and selling them back for flea market price is something that disappoints college students. In order to get a good deal on your text book, as well as sell them back for more than store book price, you have to shop smart.

The first tip is to do your homework early. What I mean by this is find out what textbook you will have to buy.

The next tip is to search for your textbooks. What I suggest doing first is going to your university book store and writing down the ISBN numbers of your book. This is the bar code number on the back of your book. Sometimes the bookstore will cover it up. You can also find the bar code on inside of the first page. Write down the list of isbn numbers and the cost of the books. You will need your isbn numbers when searching for books and comparing prices. This number identifies the exact book. Most numbers have 8 or 10 numbers.

Once you have your barcode, you will need to find the best deals on textbooks. There are several ways to do this.

• Look for textbooks on ebay or half.com. Make a wish list if you have to

• See if other people at your university have the books you need. Many of them will offer a fairer price than the book store. If you’re part of a social networking site, such as facebook and myspace, you can join groups where people are selling their textbooks at your school.

• Contact your professor and ask whether the textbooks are needed. You will be very surprised that you will buy textbooks only to use them a few times during the semester. If that is the case, it might help to borrow from a friend or make a copy of certain pages when needed.

• You might also want to contact your professor and ask if using the previous version of a textbook is o.k. I’ve used previous versions of textbooks for a few classes, and there is no difference between the new version and the old version.

• I highly recommend buying the international editions of your text. International editions are significantly cheaper than the U.S. editions. The abe textbook website has a way to search for textbooks. For general courses like math or science, you'd probably have better luck finding an international edition.

Using these tips will help you immensely. Conversely, selling books through other methods will make you more money. Many times, if you sell your books back at the book store, you’ll make far less than what you paid. I recommend selling books online and with your friends. The following links are a just a few places where you can start your textbook search.

Book Finder

Campus Books

Cheap Text Books (Valore)

Abe Books

Campus Books for Less

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It's peanut butter jelly time!

As I was surfing through blogs on entrecard, an interesting gadget caught my eye. The VAN VACTOR PBJ bagel knife. This was found on the very famous The Peanut Butter Blog. According to the blogger who was skeptical of the product, "
After just one use I was hooked. This knife is amazing! Its wavy blade makes it the perfect tool with runny peanut butter--no more drips all over the outside of the jar or on my plate. It works great with cold, stiff peanut butter from the fridge, too. No need for jelly spoons--it holds the jelly just as well as it holds the runny peanut butter."

Now, this blogger is being given the chance of giving away this amazing PBJ knife for free :) All you have to do is read here

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Winners and Losers (BREAKING NEWS!)

In breaking news, the House has rejected the bill!

The 110 page revised bill issuing a 700 billion dollar bill bail out in three installments will come out with winners, and of course, losers,

Wall Street, financial institutions, CEO’s, Bernakne and Paulson could all benefit from this massive bailout. CEO's of failing companies will be allowed to keep their jobs. If the bailout works as intended, it will enable Americans to get loans for cars, student loans, and the opportunity to open a credit card account. However the confidence that the bill work as hoped is very slim from those on Main Street.

The losers, unfortunately, include those that are facing foreclosure, loosing their homes, or whose homes are less than what they owe. This bill will do little, if anything at all to assist them. According to an article I read on Yahoo, it will also do little to halt the slide in home values. This is said to be one of the root causes of the economic slow down.

This bill will also affect tax payers that will foot the bill. The congress made it clear during their discussions of this bail out those tax payers MUST be protected. The bill will add 700 billion to the national debt. One of the tax payer protections includes that if the bailout fails, tax payers will be compensated in full.

Proponents of the bill claim that the bill could even make the tax payers money. The reality is that very few people believe that the provisions will fix the market. The main criticism is that the bill still does not address or even solve the fundamental problems of why the financial crisis came about in the first place.

The bailout, as mentioned previously, will include 3 installments. The government will be allowed to buy billion of dollars of devalued assets. 250 billion will be available immediately once the bill is passed. The next installment will be released at the authority of the president, and the last installment may be requested by the president if the congress does not act against it.

My thoughts: I hope this bill does not pass because all it does is protect Wall Street and the Bush Administration. If our Founding Fathers were to see the mess we were in, they would be ashamed of us, and all their efforts would have gone in vain. As many protesters have been shouting on Wall Street: "You broke it, you bought it!" It's time these irresponsible companies take responsibility for their actions. Let us hope this bill does NOT pass.

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