I got my books for school

They set me back $170, just about what I thought they would. I got the econ book used for $70 with shipping. The campus bookstore wanted $92 for a used book and $120 for a new book. I'm not sure if the math book is used or not but it didn't come with the cd they offer so I'm assuming it's used. Anyway it cost $101 with shipping. If I would have gotten it new, it would have cost $151 so I saved $50.

The cost of books is outrageous. The thing that really ticks me off is that they only use the books one semester and then order a new edition so you can't even sell it back.

My neighbor is a speed demon

My neighbor went home this past weekend. He's originally from NJ too, but he lives in Jersey City which is north of where my family lives. He was going to New York to hang out and was driving like a madman and got pulled over. He claims he slowed down just before he got pulled over so he wasn't speeding when they clocked him.

Now he has a ticket and points added to his license. I told him to fight the ticket. Most people don't bother fighting the tickets so the odds may be in his favor. Since he doesn't want to go to NJ to fill out paperwork, I told him to go to the Jersey City Municipal Court online. That way, he can get what he needs done without another trip.

You can find out everything you need to know about the area on this site. For example, Jersey City is the second largest city in the state of NJ. Also, it's a very diverse community with 30% African Americans, 28% Hispanic and 17% Asian. If you're not interested in Jersey City, you can find information about any other city in NJ that you may need.

Meanwhile, I told him to slow down. Maybe his girlfriend needs to confiscate his keys.

Speaking of shopping

I need to buy my books for school. I am not looking forward to this. I've priced them and for 2 books I'm looking at $175 minimum. And that doesn't include the scientific calculator that I need for my math class.

I'm off to find a cheap online book seller. So far I have 2 that I work with. I just hope they have the books that I need.

I'd rather be shopping

Do you like to save money when shopping online? Of course you do, who doesn't like to save money. Well I have a site for you to check out, it's the Rather-Be-Shopping.com Blog. There are coupon codes for over 450 stores on the site. And if you're looking for a particular coupon, you can email the author of the blog, and they will email you back with an answer.

There are all kinds of stores online. Most people know the big stores, but even places like the Gap, American Eagle, and Old Navy have coupon codes. If you shop a lot online like I do, check out the site and save yourself some money.

Keep up with your affiliate links

Are you an online affiliate? Do you have badges or ads on your site? If so, make sure your links are up to date. I know some affiliates are changing the links that you use. The email you get looks like junk mail, so most people don't pay attention to them.

The worse part is that you can see that people are clicking on your links, but you aren't getting credited for it. I know at least 2 companies that I work with have recently made changes. Read all of your email or alerts on the sites carefully.

School is gonna drive me crazy

School starts tomorrow. Actually today. I'm registered at Pitt, but I'm trying to save some money by registering at the community college. There's only 1 class that I can take and it's pre-calculus. It won't count on my transcript at all. I only need it as a refresher course before I take regular calculus. So why not save some money.

I just have to make time to get over to the community college and register. I hope they're open late this week.

Do I really want to buy a car?

Right now may not be the best time to do so. I am slowly rebuilding my credit and I do mean slowly. With large banks tightening up their credit requirements, I'm looking at getting bad credit personal loans. The downside of that is that my interest rate will be through the roof. Interest rates on car loans are generally lower than on personal loans but still.

I really want my car payment to be low. Low to me is under $300. I would prefer a lot cheaper than that but I know that's not realistic. Most of the cars that I've been looking at are between $13k-$15k and I'm looking at cars that are known for being low priced cars.

I'm leaning more towards a sedan to have more room. My last car was a suv so I'm used to having lots of room. I also don't want a 2 door car because I don't want to have to get out of the car to let someone else in.

I guess I need to work on getting my down payment together before I do anything else.

Wedding present dilemma solved

A bunch of us from work chipped in and got the couple a gift card. Since the bridge shops at JC Penney a lot, that's what we got.

They have a house full of people. Between the two of them they have 6 kids, but they're all grown. We figure they can always buy some more stuff for the house. Especially towels. They have a pool and people are always coming over to go swimming. They go through towels like crazy.

Apple IPhone Uh-Oh

A teen from NJ has found a way to unlock the Apple IPhone. So what does that mean? Well, now anyone on any network can get the IPhone. T-Mobile, Nextel, Alltel...no problem now you can use the IPhone too. Even overseas carriers can use the phone.

I bet Steve Jobs is crapping his pants right now!

Would you move for your job?

Now if you're an average person making less than $40k per year, you're probably thinking heck no. But what about those people making significantly higher salaries? I'm talking in the range of $75k-$100k per year. I think a lot of them would consider it.

My uncle definitely falls into the latter category. He's moved several times in the last several years following the money. He's a computer systems coder and his skills are in demand. Right now he lives in FL but they're thinking of taking a job and going back to NC. He's looking into wilmington nc real estate. The thing they like about NC is that they can get a house starting from $150k-$400k for an average house. It's way more expensive where they are now.

As long as they get enough bedrooms for me to visit, I don't care where they move to.

Heck no I don't have a lot of money

I am thinking about opening another bank account. In another country no less. But no, I don't have a lot of money. I'm just an average Jane with average Jane money.

I don't expect to put a lot of money into the account either. Just enough to get me through vacation. I'll put some of my savings money into the account. If I'm on vacation and need it, it'll be there. If not, even better.

If I do use the money while on vacation I'll replace it before the next year. I always keep a few dollars in reserve, so that's what this will be. And if you're a family member, no I don't have no money for you.

Would you consider a career in real estate?

Selling houses isn't as easy as people think it is. Especially with the housing market cooling off. But if you are interested in a career in real estate, you can take Real Estate Classes online. You can take classes dealing with mortgages, appraisals, home inspection, or any other aspect related to a real estate career.

I personally find the real estate market fascinating, but I would not be a good realtor. I mean I can talk to anyone about anything but I am no good at selling. So I wouldn't be able to convince you to see the house or bid on it. I know what my weaknesses are and that's one of them.

The thought of working for myself is very tempting though.

I need to buy a wedding present

I'm going to a wedding on Saturday and I still haven't gotten a wedding present yet. I have no idea what to get. The wedding is very casual, jeans if you would like. I plan on wearing a pair of khaki capris, a blue shirt and a cute pair of black patent leather shoes.

That still doesn't help with the present situation. I'm thinking of going with the old standby of a gift card. That way, they can buy whatever they want.

I might get in a football pool after all

I wrote a post a week or so ago lamenting the fact that nobody at my new job does football pools. Well my friend called me this past weekend and told me that there are still blocks available on their pool.

They play $5 per block and fill less than half of the blocks. That way if no-one hits the money rolls to the next week. So some weeks the pot can be quite large.

Now to just figure out which block I want.

My mom just gave me some insurance papers

I have to say I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I know it's a good idea to have insurance. On the other hand, it seems kind of morbid like I'm just waiting to get my hands on the money.

My mom has several policies. They were cheap and affordable. I'm the primary beneficiary on all 3 of them. I don't know why she has 3 separate policies instead of 1 larger one. Having several smaller policies was not the cheapest option that she had. I do know that her agent is trying to get her to consolidate them. It will save her a little bit of money every month to just have one policy but my mom is so stubborn that I doubt she will do it.

Like I said, I have all of the paperwork here at my house. I should probably put them in my safe deposit box for now. You never know what might happen.

Should I buy a new ipod?

I've been debating this for a while. I have an older shuffle. The newer shuffles are tiny. Mine is still small though. Well I want a bigger ipod with a screen and video playback.

I'm debating though because how often do people really look at the screen. It's also a lot of money to put out right now. I guess I'll continue to sleep on it before I make any decisions.

Would you like to be the next Internet Millionaire?

Are you a reality tv fan? Do you want to learn how to make money online? If so, the internets first reality show The Next Internet Millionaire might be for you.

12 people compete for a $25,000 cash prize. Now I don't know about you, but $25k would be awesome for me right now. I could go to school full-time for 2 years and not have to worry about where tuition money is coming from.

I'm going to keep a close eye on this contest. It might be something to enter in the future. And you never know, I might actually end up being a internet millionaire. How cool would that be?!?!

I hate car commercials

They make you think you're getting this great deal when in reality you're not. If they even have the vehicle that they advertise in stock, it's totally stripped and you have to add everything. Or it's a lease.

I don't know which is worse getting a stripped down car or a lease. If a lease works for you, that's great. I prefer to buy so leases don't work for me. Yeah they have low monthly payments but then they kill you with the fees and charges when you turn the car in.

I can't wait until I'm in the position to buy a car. Then I won't have to worry about these commercials.

Why I would open a bank account in another country

I talked about this a little in my last post. I spend a good bit of time in another country. Only once or twice a year, but I always need money when I'm there. Paying those fees to get money from the atm is ridiculous. On my cruise, I was charged $5.50 just from the atm owner. That doesn't count what my bank will charge me.

There are two different banks where I travel to that I can open an account with. I just have to decide which one I want to go with.

The internet is changing the face of banking

But will it make traditional brick and mortar banks obsolete? I don't think so. Not in the near future anyway. However, in 10-15 years, I could see traditional banking going by the wayside.

The younger generation seems more likely to do internet banking than most older folks. As a matter of fact, I've been contemplating opening a bank account from a overseas bank since I spend a lot of time there. Needless to say, I would do almost all of my banking online. Then when I go to that country, I would have access to my money without having to pay fees.

So what do you think? Would you bank online only?

Football pools

I miss football pools. Yes I know we shouldn’t have done them at work but we did and it was fun. No it doesn’t enhance the game in any way. But for gamblers, it’s a blast. We used to play 2 bucks a block and fill the whole pool. But my favorite was the 5 buck pool where we only filled 20 or so blocks so the money could roll over from week to week. We had the pot up to over a grand once. Needless to say we were extremely jealous of the winner.

I wish we had those at my job now.

I'm ready to buy a condo

Buying a condo is a scary proposition. I've been looking at prices and my head starts spinning. I can't believe some of the asking prices that people are asking. The asking prices aren't out of the norm, they're just expensive. I'm only looking for 2-3 bedrooms and 1 to 1 1/2 bathrooms. I don't expect to pay anything less than $100K. I think I should point out that I don't live in a pricey area.

$100K for a condo has me shaking my head. I don't want the maintenance issue with a house which is why I'm looking for condos. I've already starting researching properties as well as mortgages. I spend a lot of time reading a blog that offers mortgage tips. There's a lot of great information available on the site.

One of the things I learned is that subprime lenders are running scared. They're not offering mortgages to just anyone anymore. They've tighten up their standards once again. Piggyback loans are also on their way out. Mortgage lending companies are taking a hit and losing money left and right. They want to weed out the potential problems.

My lease for my apartment is up in March which is a horrible time to move. My management company has agreed to let me sign a 6 month lease instead of 1 year so I would be moving in September which is a much better time of the year. It'll be hot, but a lot easier to get around and recruit people to help me move furniture. Hey, if I'm paying all of this money for the condo, I sure want to save on the moving expenses.

I won another $25!

I wrote this post a little over a month ago about winning $25 from Pepsi. I said I had hoped that lightning could strike twice. Well, it did. Even though I was talking about winning a trip, I'll sure as hell take the cash. I'm really happy about this.

Now I'm bummed that the contest officially ended yesterday. I would love some more opportunities to enter. But I'm not mad, I've won twice which is a lot more than a lot of other people can say. Besides, I'm sure I can find something to spend my winnings on!

Other uses for gold

In my previous post I talked about investing in gold. I had a old coworker who used to collect gold. He would go to estate sales, yard sales or flea markets and buy cheap scrap gold. Then he would take it to a jeweller and sell it. Then he could spend the money any way he wanted to.

And what's better than having cash?

How did I forget I was owed money?

I just realized that one of the get paid to try sites that I used to frequent still owes me money. I haven't visited the site in several months but I found a piece of paper that I had wrote on estimating how much money I was owed and what I planned on doing with it. I went to the site and logged in and sure enough I have enough to cash out.

I just missed the deadline, but I put my request in for the end of the month payout. At least I know I'll have a little bit of extra money in September.

Diversify your portfolio with gold

I've been investigating buying gold to put in my portfolio. The problem is that I don't have a lot of money to do it with. The price of gold keeps going up, so I need to make a move soon. I don't want to rush out and go buying anything willy-nilly. I want to do my research into the company I'm working with. Well, I've been looking at Monex for a while and they seem to be a worthwhile company to work with.

I'm thinking of buying gold coins. They're small and portable if I need to move them. Since they're portable, I can keep them at my house and if I want to sell them I'll have them on hand. They're available in multiples of 10, so I can buy a few at a time.

Now all I have to do is put them in special packaging, so I don't go trying to spend them.

Work wasn't much better

I'll be glad when I get over this. There's just a lot going on in my life right now and I'm not dealing with it very well. At least I didn't almost cry at my desk again.