Obscanity: You'll know it when you see it

If you’re a student like me, odds are you’re spending obscene, insane (ha, obscane!) amounts on textbooks. I’m in law school, so you can imagine what my textbook bills are like!

Luckily, I figured out early that there are ways to get your books at low prices without having to buy a torn-apart used copy – not that used books in good shape aren’t great! Sometimes, though, you just can’t find one in decent shape, and you have to buy new. Do what I did – get a Barnes & Noble membership!

For $25/year, you’ll get in-store and online member prices ranging from 10%-40% off the list price, but the real paydirt comes around the various holidays, when you check your email and find online coupons offering 15-25% off a single item in addition to your member discount. Friends, fellow students, THIS is what you really signed up for. Use those big chunky coupons to buy your big chunky textbooks. It’s SO WORTH IT. You’ll get them particularly often around the holiday season, but they still show up throughout the year. I was able to get all new books this semester, for LESS money than it would have cost me to get used books. Granted, you won’t always get one JUST when you need to order books, but especially for the winter/spring term, you’re generally in pretty good shape.

Want to cash in on these awesome discounts?

Sign up for a Barnes & Noble membership now!

P.S. Did I mention that you can usually use these coupons on used textbooks as well???

Behind the cut!

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If you’re here, I’m sure you already know that before you make ANY Internet purchase, you should Google (or BLINGO!) to see if there are any active coupons! Before you start searching, though, xpbargains.com is the site to visit; they have a wide range of online merchants, and they’ve got great deals. For example, you should never, EVER purchase a DELL computer without first checking xpbargains.com for coupons sometimes exceeding 25% off your order! SERIOUSLY. This could save you hundreds of dollars, and not just on tech purchases. No, I get no referral fee for telling you about this. I just think everybody should know about it!

(Of course, the next think you’ll want to do is figure out whether you can get cash back for the purchase on eBates…

My partner and I absolutely ADORE ING Direct. ING is a bank that deals primarily with savings and investments, but they finally, FINALLY have a checking account, and I’m so excited. Seriously. This is how I know I’m getting old – I get excited about a new bank service.

So yes – Electric Orange Checking! You can get paper checks if you need them, on a check by check basis, but most transactions are completed entirely online, which is how many of us already do our banking. Better still, you get a little over 3% interest on it, and overdraft fees are charged more like finance charges on credit cards, so you don’t get an obscenely high bank fee for a $3 overdraft!

ING has some of the highest interest rates around on savings accounts, especially savings accounts with no minimum balance. Right now I think it’s at about 4.5%. If you use the link I send to you and make an initial deposit of $250, you get $25 extra deposited into your account (and I get a referral bonus, yay). If you make less then $250 initial deposit I get no referral and you get no bonus, but you still get the way nifty interest rate and a great no-minimum-balance savings account. It’s all up to you! They also have great CD accounts with no minimum balances.

Blingo is a site that seems too good to be true — but people really do win. I know, because I won a $100 Visa card, and have both received and spent it. 🙂 I also won a movie ticket, which I used to see Pride and Prejudice, and several iTunes gift cards. It’s basically Google’s search engine, through Blingo’s servers. Or something like that. Just set your default search engine to Blingo instead of Google and you’re all set. I don’t get anything when you sign up, but please be sure to use my link to sign up, and more importantly, be logged in when you search, because if you win something, I win the same thing! Same with the people you refer — if they win something, so do you! (the down-line is only one level; if your referral wins something, I don’t get it too). Again, please be sure to be logged in when you search, and don’t forget to refer people because sometimes that’s a great way to win things. The girl who referred me won the $100 too, because I won it. In fact, the reason I signed up to begin with is that she mentioned having won $250 when somebody she referred won it (lucky girl!)! So it’s pretty neat. 😀