Saving Money on Textbooks

College textbooks are a racket. You all know it's true. But they are often vital to successfully move forward towards your career. (My first semester of nursing school I paid over $800 (and that was several years ago) for textbooks from my campus bookstore and I got most of them used. And then I didn't even use about half of them. Murg. Like I said, it's a racket.) Despite what some college bookstores would like you to think, buying online is a FANTASTIC option. This fall my husband is going back to school. He ordered all of his textbooks from Amazon.com. Amazon charged $102 for used textbooks vs. $220 for used textbooks from our local college bookstore, and he got all of them  delivered within one week. When I was in college my campus bookstore really like to push the idea that getting your textbooks online would prevent you from being successful in your classes, you'd get the wrong book, it would be late, or other such problems. Not if you're smart about it. (Then when their scare tactics didn't work, they just wouldn't release the textbook lists until after school had already started, so then you really were more likely to get your books late. :S)  Don't fall for those tactics. College is expensive enough. Here are some helpful tips to make sure you get what you are looking for and save some money too.

1. Shop by the ISBN number! It will be a 13 digit number located above the bar code of the book. Every book has one. Often classes will provide this number in your syllabus or in some correspondence to you before class starts. Remember there are numerous books with the same title, and multiple editions, especially with textbooks. Searching by the ISBN helps you to make sure you are getting the correct book and edition.
2. Give yourself time.-Order your books as soon as you can, to make sure you get what you need by the time you need. Usually you want to give yourself two weeks for delivery.
3. Look at the ratings of the seller. Amazon Marketplace is a great place to purchase used textbooks. But look at the feedback that previous customers give on the seller. They can usually tell you if the seller follows through and ships their items in a timely manner. Happy customers like to tell other people about their good experience. Also take into account that there are people out there who like to complain instead of take responsibility for their own stupidity. 'This seller gets a 1-star rating because this is not the book I wanted.' Even if it was the correct book for the ISBN #.  Angry costumers are even more likely to let people know how they feel. Many good sellers may still have a few 1 or 2 star ratings. Look at their overall ratings over time or their percentage of positive feedback.
4. You can trust Amazon proper. Although they have a smaller selection of used textbooks. I have on rare occasion known people who have had problems with something they ordered from Amazon, wrong item, it was damaged in shipping, etc. But everyone who contacted Amazon had the problem fixed, either Amazon replaced the item or gave the customer a large discount. I have used other textbook websites with mixed results. Amazon takes away so much hassle.
5. And of course, buy used when you can.

  Between my husband's and my own time in college using these tips has saved us thousands of dollars.

And right now Amazon is offering a great deal to college students. If you go to the Amazon Student page, you can get a free membership to Amazon Prime for one year. Amazon Prime gives you free unlimited 2-day shipping with no minimum order size. Amazon is also offering deals on many back to school essentials beyond the books. Check out their savings on clothes, school supplies and stuff for the dorm.

Disclaimer- Yes, Amazon does give me a very small fee for putting their banner on this post. But I wouldn't promote them if what I said weren't true. I love Amazon. I have snagged many great deals there, they sell quality products and they are reliable. Shopping through Amazon makes my life easier.

Smith's Mega Coupon Days

Ok, friends. This is where couponing pays off. All coupons valued at under a dollar are rounded up to a dollar. The event goes from July 28th- 31st. This morning I got 26 items for $11.23 with a total savings of 88% (that included a few nonpromotional items). I also will get a free movie ticket for purchasing my 4 packages of Cache Valley Cheese. :) I referred to the list at Savvy Shopper Deals for some great deal scenarios. There are some very hot deals out there. If you need toiletry items, now is the time to stock up.

Book Review: How Children Learn

How Children Learn by John Holt was recommended to me by my husband, a former school teacher.The author, was originally a math and french teacher, but after spending a lot time studying children and education and writing a couple of books went on contribute a great deal to the home school movement. Between reading this and How Children Fail, homeschooling is something that I am contemplating. And if nothing else I will very closely monitor what and how my children are learning.  I strongly recommend this book to parents teachers and anyone who works with children. It is longer than How Children Fail, slow to get into, and a lot to digest, but it has so many enlightening points. I feel like this quote from the book summarizes Holt's philosophy pretty well:
             The child is curious. He wants to make sense out of things, find out how things work, gain competence and control over himself and his environment, do what he can see other people doing. He is open, receptive, and perceptive. He does not shut himself off from the strange, confused, complicated world around him. He observes it closely and sharply, tries to take it all in. He is experimental. He does not merely observe the world around him, but tastes it, touches it, hefts it, bends it, breaks it. To find out how reality works, he works on it. He is bold. He is not afraid of making mistakes. And he is patient. He can tolerate an extraordinary amount of uncertainty, confusion, ignorance and suspense. He does not have to have instant meaning in any new situation. He is willing and able to wait for meaning to come to him- even if it comes slowly, which it usually does.
 Children are smart. They often know more than we give them credit for. And they can often handle more than we give them credit for too. Imagine the world from the eyes of a child. There is so much that doesn't make sense to one so new to the world, yet despite the confusion they move on mastering one thing at a time. As they do and try they notice their own mistakes and eventually fix them. To learn and to grow children have to trust and they have to feel accepted. They have to know that the mistakes that they make, don't matter. That they are loved and valued regardless, that someone believes that they can grow and learn anyway. And it is important that we play games with them, not because we believe it will develop their mind and get them into college, but because we love them.
  Children have to learn things in an order that is relevant to them if they are going to hold on to it. We can support and encourage this, but not force. If we let them study dinosaurs because that is what interests them, from there they will improve reading skills, learn earth science, biology and history and may very well branch to other fields of study as their interests take them that way. If we force them to learn what we feel is important they will learn and quiz and test them along the way, they will often become defensive. Even if they don't instead of thinking that learning is about how things work they think that learning is about finding answers to please grown-ups. As children learn, we must talk to them like regular people, not stupid midgets or minions. Children can tell the difference. If we think that every time we talk to a child we must teach her something, our talk may become calculated and fake and may lead children to think, like so many of today's young people, that all talk is a lie and a cheat. If we show children sincere love and interest their confidence will grow, as will their love of learning. There is no time in all of a child's growing up, when he will not be seriously hurt if he feels that we adults are not interested in what he is trying to say.
 One slow afternoon, I was reading this book at work. One of the pediatricians asked me "So how do children learn?" "They learn by doing and trying and failing and trying again. They don't learn by being corrected and humiliated, tested and forced." "Funny, that's exactly how God is with us. He lets us grow by trying, failing and trying again. And he doesn't force us to do or be anything." There's a lot of truth in that. Can you imagine that if every time we made a mistake an all-powerful God came down to tell us we were wrong? Would we be afraid to try, afraid to learn? Absolutely. I imagine that to some small children their parents and teachers seem very much like that. Someone very powerful and intimidating telling them that they are wrong. But God doesn't work like that. He's loving and patient and usually lets us learn from our own mistakes.

A Few Thoughts on Coupons and Organizing

I have a love/hate relationship with coupons. I love saving money on my groceries. There's something very satisfying about looking at my grocery receipt and consistently saving between 50-60% on the things that my family uses anyway. However, I hate clipping coupons. There are so many other things that I would rather be doing. It's so tedious and seems like huge waste of time to cut out all of those coupons and use less than half of them.  I've heard people say that clipping coupons at all is a waste of time, that their time is more valuable that the 35 cents that is potentially saved.  To those people I say "You should see all of the stuff I get for free when double coupon days comes around." (A pic of one trip with double coupons is above. Not all of it was free, but I saved about $70.)  And I don't consider myself a hard-core couponer. There are some coupon clippers out there who have some mad saving skills. An hour or two of organizing, searching and clipping generally saves me $50 a week. To me that's worth it. Beyond that there's a point of diminishing returns. Here's the coupon methods I've tried and what has and hasn't worked for me:
Coupon File Folder: Fine for beginners, but if you take more than one newspaper, this quickly becomes insufficient to hold all of your coupons. It is nice to have it all with you in one place and it easily fits in your purse. I used to take 3 newspapers, but I decided that 2 provided more than enough coupons for my family of four. Even with cutting back to 2, that's a large amount of coupons.
Drawer/Box o' Inserts: When my newspapers arrive I write the date on the front of the insert, skimmed through the contents and dropped in my kitchen drawer, which eventually was transferred to a large shoe box. Yes, I wasn't clipping coupons I wouldn't use, but I did spend hours digging through the drawer/box trying to find the inserts that I was looking for. I hated the mess I made every time I was looking for a coupon.
Coupon File Box: I actually didn't do this, but I do like the idea. I bought the box, the index cards and the envelopes and decided that although it would make me very well organized, I just don't want to spend that much time clipping coupons. If you do want to be that organized, go for it. You will probably always be prepared with any coupon that you need.

Coupon Binder: I used to see some women with coupon binders with baseball card page protectors full of coupons and was somewhat in awe. Not enough to do that myself. It seemed like more work than it was worth. Recently on PYP blog, one of the writers demonstrated the method that she uses for organizing coupons. She has a 5" 3-ring zipper binder that she puts all of her inserts in. She staples the multiple sheets together and puts them in plastic page protectors. I bought the 3" zipper binder and a new stapler and then decided I didn't want to do that. If I ever am cooking and shopping for 8, I will probably re-examine that method, but for now I don't need that many coupons. But it is nice to be more organized than the Box o' Inserts method.  I put every dated insert in its own page protector. I also have a small coupon file which holds various coupons from stores and the mail. My binder was $18 on Amazon, has plenty of room for inserts, my coupon file and has a few more files on the left where I store receipts, coupon booklets and restaurant coupons. When I make my grocery list I cut out what I need and put those in an envelope, with my list written on the outside. (I always refer to the grocery lists at PYP when making my own, it saves me a whole lot of time and money. They're fantastic.) I leave the binder in the car, in case I really need it, but frankly juggling my kids in the grocery store is challenging enough without searching for coupons too.

What have you found to be the best way to organize your coupons? Do you find coupons to be worth your time?

Wordless Wednesday

This is what happens when the computer is left alone while the 2 year old is awake. I have no idea how he did this.

Happy Birthday to Me! I hate you DMV

I am writing this in hopes that it will save someone else in the state of Utah a lot of wasted time and frustration. This morning my eyes popped open and I thought "Oh blast, it's my birthday and I need to renew my driver's license!" So I got up, got dressed and looked quickly online. Nope, you can't renew online in the state of Utah. (Lame, my husband didn't go through any of this when he renewed a few years ago. He didn't pay or do anything. They just sent him a renewal sticker in the mail. But then he'll have an under 21 license until he's 30. hehe) Now you need to be there in person with positive ID (birth certificate), social security card, and 2 proofs of address. I searched, but couldn't find my birth certificate. My license is positive ID is it not? So I hurried because I wanted to be there before it got busy. I got there and they said I can't even start my application without a birth certificate. The DMV is 40 minutes from my house. At least the scenery is nice on the way there and back.

 Hurricane, UT is gorgeous.

 If you pass this rock you have gone too far.

I went home did some more digging through boxes and found my birth certificate. (I really need to be more organized. :S) Drove back to the DMV, where I  stood in line again. Then they told me that my birth certificate wasn't valid because my name isn't spelled correctly on it. In the area where I was born, English was not the predominant language. So a French spelling does not even compute. Someone at the county clerk's office christened me with a Hispanic name.  My parents filled out the paperwork to get my name changed, but instead of changing the actual document, they stapled a little piece of paper to it saying that the spelling was incorrect. Over time this piece of paper fell off and was lost. When I needed my passport I requested a new copy. Again, official certificate with a post-it stapled to it.  The DMV told me that this was not valid.  My birth certificate is not valid? That's great. What in the free world am I supposed to do about this? It took me three months to get my invalid one last time. I might have gotten really frustrated, except I had brought my passport, RN and marriage licenses as back up. I promise I am who I say I am. I would not spend my birthday at the DMV otherwise. Then I waited for an hour and a half. When they called my number I stood up and said "I won!" like I got a prize or something. A few people around me laughed. The employees probably have heard that a thousand times. Or maybe not. It seems that the only people who even pretend to be happy to be at the DMV are those getting their license for the first time.

So I got up to the desk and my forms of address are not sufficient. One of them is a magazine, and that is not valid.(I was in a hurry.) My vehicle registration perhaps? Nope, old address. Auto insurance? Nope, doesn't have my address printed on it. I went out to my car where I found some junk mail and another magazine. No good. So I have to go back. If I go back today I don't have to wait in line again. I don't know if I can bring myself to go to the DMV for a third time on my birthday. At least they gave me a temporary license that's valid for awhile. The people there are nice, they just have to enforce some stupid rules, and I suppose it's not their fault that the county DMV office is located miles from anything. And on the bright side I think it's the best driver's license picture I've ever taken. And I had a couple of hours going back and forth that I could rock out to the radio instead of to something toddler-oriented. And I have some lemon Cheesecake Factory cheesecake to console me. :) Painful lesson learned: Rushing does not save time.

Book Review: 101 Things to Do With Yogurt

101 Things Things to Do With Yogurt by Geneva Stringham is another fun book that I snagged a deal on recently. I honestly had no idea that there were so many things that you could do with yogurt. This book also teaches you how to make your own yogurt, if you're feeling ambitious. I would say this is a new favorite and I will be using it again. Eating yogurt on a regular basis improves your digestive health and helps to prevent illness. It has a fish taco recipe that doesn't involve frying, so I thought I would give it a try. I had family visiting a few weeks ago and served it to them. It was such a big hit that we made it again the next weekend when the other side of the family came to visit. Even some family members who don't like fish, liked these tacos. And they're so easy to make! (Another helpful hint I've discovered that frozen tilapia fillets are normally cheaper at Smith's than at Costco, and right now they're on sale, so it's an even better deal.)

Fish Tacos Baja Style
Sauce:
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup Miracle Whip
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 Tablespoon lime juice
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 Tablespoon fresh chopped cilantro

Tacos:
1 pound mahimahi or tilapia
lime pepper
12 fresh corn tortillas
1 ripe avocado, chopped
lime wedges
grated Mexican blend cheese
fresh salsa (mango-peach works particularly well)

Combine sauce ingredients and refrigerate. Sprinkle each side of fish fillets with lime pepper and grill until thoroughly cooked. Wrap tortillas in a clean dish towel and steam for 30 seconds in the microwave. For each taco spread a teaspoon of yogurt sauce in a tortilla, add several bite-size pieces of grilled fish and remaining taco toppings as desired. Serves 6

I served this with Baked Chile Relleno and Cafe Rio Style Cilantro Lime Rice.