Category — Money Saving Resources

If you are trying to save money while going to Grad School one area of savings that can be focussed on is Textbooks. Textbooks are expensive so finding used textbooks online will net you some significant savings. One great website is CollegeSwapShop.com.

This allows you to search for College Textbooks that other students have already used and are looking to sell. Think of this as the ebay for college textbooks. Imagine being able to save 50% on your textbooks that is a massive savings that can be used for food and other commodities.

Trust me on this–when you’re a student who is constantly on the go. You desperately need a dependable laptop. Thus I have scoured the internets to find you the best and most affordable portable laptop for your classroom needs. It needed to be powerful enough to take notes, and browse the web. Since most of my work is done on the web instead of the desktop I found it pretty easy to find a laptop that was both affordable and web friendly.

The Asus 901pc is roughly 500 dollars but comes fully equipped with XP which will run great on this portable laptop.

Its affordable which rocks my world. And its lightweight. I can pretty much do anything I want on this lightweight and yet affordable machine and it handily fits into my backpack without feeling like I am carrying around a 10 lb brick.

If you are looking to pick up some free education in order to improve your mind skills. Look no further than the online education databases massive collection of 100 free podcasts from some of the leading universities in the nation.

If you are looking to find cheap books dont worry there are a handful of sites you can navigate to help curb your reading and research dollar issues.

BookSwim.com
BookSwim remedies the high cost of purchasing books with a Book Rental Service that allows unlimited rentals each month on a monthly subscription plan. Like a revolving door of books, subscribers send back a few at a time and are promptly mailed more from their online Rental Pool .

Amazon.com
Amazon has a huge collection of used books that will curb your monthly Barnes and Noble spending habits.

Half.com
Half.com an ebay affiliate often has a bundle of cheap books just waiting to get snatched up.

A recent Newsweek article asks an important question. How much longer will we live off our parents beef?

As you begin to exit grad school you may have assumed all your daily living costs, or your parents may still be footing the bill. Either way you should take a look at how to trim your finances and curb your debt. Especially if you are headed to rent heavy areas like the east coast where Rent Costs can eat up 80% of your salary. Ouch.

One thing I’m always looking for is some extra money to supplement what I am making, and Dawn at Frugal for Life highlights a few of the legit online survey sites. I always had good luck with Greenfield Online, but am not familiar with the other ones she listed. But who can turn an extra $5-10? Not me! Check out the website here. It could pay for your bluebook!

JD, from Get Rich Slowly, recently wrote about the effect of money on friendships. A grad student is generally on a budget, while sometimes their friends have started their careers and are making enough to go out for fun.

Here are a few of JD’s suggestions:

Suggest low- or no-cost alternatives. Bike or run together. Go hiking. Kick a soccer ball around. Organize a picnic or a mother-daughter tea party. Play hearts or bridge or Settlers of Catan. A one-time investment in a board game or a deck of cards can be a cost-effective source of entertainment. If your friends want to go to a movie, suggest a matinee. If they want to dine out, name a restaurant you know you can afford. (Better yet, suggest a potluck.)

Budget for social spending. If your circle of friends makes a regular habit of a specific activity, consider building the expense into your budget so it won’t catch you by surprise. If your girlfriends go out for happy hour on the first Thursday of every month, for example, set aside $20 for the occasion. This may, of course, require sacrifices to other parts of your budget.

Check out the rest of the article here. He also includes links on the same topic.

Personal finance blog The Simple Dollar is one of my favorites, and Trent delivered a great article on how to save money in college. The amount of income you get in grad school is very similar in college, so I thought I would share the main points:

1. Take studies seriously–you are paying so much for school, that screwing around will be wasting your education.
2. Take advantage of other opportunities–join in on activities that will help build your resume.
3. Live as poor as you can–the less you spend, the less money you will owe later.
4. Use a credit card only for buying books, and pay the bill immediately–then you get the benefit of using a card, but not the debt.
5. Seek a job related to your major, even if they pay is low–my unpaid internship is what got me a job at a newspaper, which is what got me the job at the publishing company. Never underestimate the experience you will get!
6. Minimize your debt–debt will only hurt your future instead of help it.

Read the full article here.

If you are just about to graduate from grad school, or are looking for a job during grad school that might be in your field, blogger Penelope Trunk has some great advice about negotiating your salary. I am currently waiting for an offer, and have been reading up on the subject anyway. The monetary side of an interview is almost always awkward, and she says that

“The person who gives the first number sets the starting point. But if that’s you, you lose. If you request a salary higher than the range for the job, the interviewer will tell you you’re high, and you’ve just lost money. If you request a salary lower than the range, the interviewer will say nothing, and you’ve just lost money.”

I ended up having to give a range for the position I am going for, but next time I’ll try to avoid it. Make sure to check out the comments too, people have a lot of good advice.

Source: The Brazen Careerist

I have to think that some of the richest people on the planet are own bookstores that sell University text books.

There is one thing that is a thorn in my side–you go into the book store and pay lots of dough for a used text book that has been highlighted, chewed and is almost falling apart, and then after the quarter is finished you go back to said bookstore and re-sell your text books getting only pennies on the dollar for a book that is basically the same shape they were sold to you. Argh!

That’s how they get ya!

Thankfully web savvy students may have found a way to put some cash back in their wallets by getting some of their text books from The Public Domain Books Reprints Service , which is an unofficial go-between for free copyright sites like Google Books’ public works and Project Gutenberg, and also for inexpensive self-publishing services like Lulu.com.

This is not free guys, but it sure is a heck of a lot cheaper than the University bookstore!

Source: Lifehacker
Photo: Old School