helpful college tip

when i decided to go back to school, one of my main concerns was costs. i made sure to educate myself on financial aid and take the necessary precautions to avoid financial burden. the end result was qualifying for a fee waiver, meaning i didn't have to pay tuition fees ($24/unit), but i still had to pay for other hard costs such as books, a $17 health fee, parking, and basic school supplies.

it's no secret that books are very expensive. it also doesn't help that the bookstores buy back your books for a quarter of what you originally paid only to sell it again for double the price. it's a cruel, cruel cycle indeed.

upon comparing book prices online, i stumbled on chegg.com, a site that rents out textbooks. at first i was skeptical because the prices were unbelievable but after the first semester of using them, i became a dedicated customer. i have no use for the textbooks after i'm done with the course so why hang on to them? (z kept a few textbooks from his college years and now they are just collecting dust on our bookshelf.) if you do, however, decide that the book is worth hanging on to, have no fear, chegg gives you the option of purchasing it! they also provide you with a prepared UPS shipping label for returning your textbooks at the end of the semester (for free!)

just to give you an idea of how much i saved - my philosophy textbook is $79.50 new and $59.75 used at the campus bookstore. it's $51.91 from amazon (not including shipping). the chegg price was $23.84 plus $4.99 for shipping, totaling $28.83. how great is that?

and here's the topper. are you ready for it? they plant a tree for every book you rent! at checkout, you get to pick from a list of countries and that is where your tree will be planted.

i feel so accomplished at the end of it all and i hope you do too :)