Coupons!!!

Any shopping I do while I’m at school is usually done over the Internet. With the exception of books, I pretty much buy most of what I need online (I think we can all agree the mall in Ithaca is nothing to brag about). I also do not like to pay full price for much of anything. So on a recent online-shopping trip I googled “Forever 21 coupons” and got sent to this site. Wow!

The gist is, people submit coupon codes they’ve gotten via emails and other coupons, then rate how successful they were in an order. My coupon code worked just fine and was from an email I otherwise wouldn’t have known about since I try to avoid store emails like the plague. Now shop away everyone, knowing you’re not paying full price!

Where’d all my money go? And word of the week

A very bad thing happened to me recently involving my debit card, a few slow to process transactions and a very angry bank. A while back I had made a few purchases for the start of school and for whatever reason, they all took a very long time to show up on my account. They started slow — maybe one a day — then suddenly BAM! They all processed, and I had no idea. So I went about my business and bought a coffee for $1.89. Long story short, that coffee actually cost me $31.89. I had overdrafted on my account.

Wonderful.

After a few angry calls with my bank concerning the notifications I’m supposed to get if my account falls below a certain amount, I got some good advice: step up a cash reserve account (money set aside to keep you from going in debt (overdrafting for instance) in the case of an unexpected expense). Sounds like a no-brainer to me. One blog suggested keeping 6 months worth of living expenses in a reserve account, but said the downside of this is you could make interest if you put it elsewhere.

But for those of us in college, a reserve account with a hundred bucks or so should suffice. Needless to say, I set up a reserve account, because I’m never spending $30 for coffee ever again.

I’m moving to Texas

In this economy, everyone is freaking out about what to do after graduation. So, I’m going to break it down for you thanks to some research and this handy chart.

Places Not to Go:

Detriot, MI; Riverside, C; Providence, RI; Charlotte, NC; Portland, OR.

Places to Go:

Oklahoma City, OK; San Antonio, TX; New Orleans, LA; Austin, TX; Washington, TX.

Interestingly enough, Texas was on the good side four times (out of 13 cities). Cities with the lowest unemployment rates are concentrated mostly in the Northeast and Midwest. Looks like I’m not returning to Upstate New York for a while.

Weekend recap

“In the context of a full-blooded recovery, this report is disappointing,” said Alan Ruskin, an economist with the Royal Bank of Scotland in Stamford, Conn. “We’re still clawing our way back.”

Taken from a New York Times article from the weekend after the Labor Department released August’s unemployment numbers. According to the report, unemployment went up to 9.7 percent and the net loss in jobs was 216,000 compared to 9.4 percent unemployment in July with a loss of 276,000 jobs.

Perhaps the most important thing to note was that while this month’s numbers are an improvement from earlier this year, they’re still indicating that while the economy may be expanding again, unemployment is going to continue to be a problem. A “jobless recovery” sounds pretty terrifying to say the least — especially for recent grads and seniors entering the workforce. What’s everyone in this position doing right now? Feel free to leave a comment!

Don’t buy your books…

Rent them on Chegg!

I don’t know why I haven’t heard about this site until now. Or why I dropped $300 on books (13 books on Amazon. Used. Can you believe that?!)

But the gist of it is, you pay a pretty low price to use your books for the semester. From what I can tell too, the savings are pretty hefty. Then at the end of the semeter, you send them back for free. Chegg takes care of the shipping and their site promises to be really fast.

I was curious how much money I could have saved this semester had I found out about Chegg a few weeks ago. My most expensive book, “Law of Public Communication” cost me $100 (including shipping) because I had to buy the 2010 version. But on Chegg, it would have cost me $66.22. I’m guessing that when I try to resell this book on Amazon, I’m probably not going to get more than $50 if I’m lucky.

But for some of my books this semester, renting on Chegg wouldn’t have made that much difference. My “European Politics in Transition” book cost me $50 and on Chegg it would have been about $47 to rent. It’s definitely worth buying and reselling on this one.

Moral of the story: next semester, I’m Chegging.

No apologies

… I was on vacation.

I promise the real blogging will start soon and be better than ever.

From Bear Stearns to Bear Market: A look back

Okay, okay, I know this is a personal finance blog and not an economy recap, but it’s sort of unavoidable these days.

Thanks to Two Cents supporter Aaron, I’ve got for you a sweet interactive timeline from MSNBC. It does a good job of summarizing the 365+ days of havoc that are Wall Street. I’m a little late in posting this so it only goes until mid-September, but all the other juicy details are probably right here in this handy blog. Plus, one Mr. Alan Greenspan makes a guest appearance, and how could you not love that face?

Check out the thing.

Also, isn’t there an uncanny resemblance between Greenspan and long-time Ithaca College professor of economics Frank Musgrave?

yes.

Dropped your camera in the toilet, again?

Here’s a little known perk: your credit card may offer extended warranties on your recent electronics purchases. Talk about beating the system.

Now, I’ll be the first to say that credit cards intimidate me (so you can expect to see plenty of posts in the near future on how to choose one and how to make sure it’s working for you rather than against you) but I’m definitely all about taking my perks where I can get them.

Here’s a video from the CNBC show On The Money about a few credit card perks you might not know about, including the extended warranty bit. Honestly, a lot of these probably don’t apply to you as a student, but the best advice: Call up your credit card company and ask them to send you a one page summary of your perks. Take advantage, they’re working for you, remember?

Click on the image to check out the video, p.s. the guy being interviewed writes the I Will Teach You To Be Rich blog in my blogroll (which works now).

Money in the bank

If you just read the title of this post as if you were a rapper, we’ll get along just fine.

Sure, I’m writing about a serious topic that I feel seriously about, but I’m not really that serious. Everyone wants money, so why doesn’t anyone want to talk about it? I’m here to change that.

I can’t promise I know it all (I can’t promise I know anything, actually). But good news for you is I really want to find out (I’m sort of determined not to live in a box when I graduate in nine months).

In Two Cents, you’ll find posts about daily spending habits, student loans, debt, helpful hints from the experts and a glossary of those econ-type words you see in the news but never understand. Plus, I’m going to try to talk to some major-money making folks about how they got to where they are.

Let me know if you have any questions along the way - I pledge to find a solution to any finance problem that’s posted.

Two Cents: Read, $ave and repeat.