The merchants I visited:
– Vintage Stock ( local used video/dvd/cd store)
– Borders
-Barnes & Noble
– Walmart
– Target
– Best Buy
– Deep Discount.com
– Amazon.com

So if the store even had the product to begin with, who had the best deal?

VINTAGE STOCK: When I walk in, there’s the jingle of bells and the group of guys saying ” HOW YOU DOIN'” before returning to chatting, A+ customer service I say. And the place had that distinct aroma.. But they do have it in stock. It’s actually brand new, sorta going against the “buy used” concept but the
Price: $37.67 including tax

BORDERS: Since Borders was right across the street, I skipped over and went inside. It was freezing but I found the DVD section quickly. Borders has a weird habit of locking in their dvds like it’s some ancient artifact. I look over the Lost dvds and the only ones they had was the Season 4 on Blue Ray probably because it was 59.99.
Price: Not Available.

BARNES & NOBLE: B&N actually did have it and when I saw it it said “ 10%” off. But as I can closer it said on the sticker in teeny print ” for Members Only 10% off. Argh! B&N why! So..since the list price on it was $39.99..
Price: Members = $36.00 plus tax
Non-members= $39.99 plus tax

WALMART: They didn’t have it. Note they did have Walker the Texas Ranger and Secret Life of an American Teenager..
Price: Not Available.

TARGET: Same story as Walmart, same lame Tv DVDs instead of Lost.
Price: Not Available.

BEST BUY: Well to break the little cycle BB did have the product but at the same price as the Vintage Stock place.
Price: $37.67 including tax

AMAZON.COM: If you go to the website here, it says $32.99, so it’s best price. But with shipping… it might not be since you have to pay and wait (time is money too). But on the site it says it qualifies for “Super Saver Discount Free Shipping” which takes 5-9 business days. Tax is $2.52
Price: $35.51 ( Including tax)

DEEP DISCOUNT: This site is where I got my book ” I Will Teach You To Be Rich”..It came about a week after I ordered it and it was accurate in the description. And out of all the stores, Deep Discount is the cheapest. Plus shipping is FREE.
Price: $30.13 (honestly not sure if tax included or not.)

The range for the prices was the cheapest ($30.13 ) and most expensive ($39.99) most a 10 dollar difference.  Makes me wonder,why are bookstores dvds so much more expensive?

Currently I have a checking account with a local bank that gets zero interest . But the thing is it’s quite close-I can sprint over there in maybe five minutes and be all sweaty but basically it’s close. I link the checking account with my ING online savings account, and one in awhile I’ll put money in SmartyPig if I won’t need immediately for a few months.

But last year, in June 2008, I used to have a checking account that I had trouble logging into online from time to time ( which now makes me cringe) but back then it didn’t bother me cause I just knew that I had about a thousand bucks in there-I think….

:sigh:

In addition my ex-checking account was not at a local bank so even though I had my check direct deposited, if I wanted to deposit 20 bucks in there it would be a longer, not-so-fun process. I then decided to switch my checking account to one local and my savings account to one online.This has worked fine for me now.

Also besides having the accounts that work the most conveniently for you, be aware of banks that charge fees, have minimums balances requirements, and also research interest rates of savings accounts. Your bank should work for you and if you’re paying anyone to keep your money or earn a pitiful amount of interest, your money in savings account are simply losing money as time goes by. The site Bankrate.com displays and compares local and national banks. Sometimes when I read “Disadvantages of Online Banking” a disadvantage is that you can’t ” talk to somebody in person “. Big Deal. When I go to my local bank I usually go to the outside ATM because it’s quicker. I only talk to someone if I feel like talking about the weather or something. But if it matters to you, keep it of course.

Also a new website I found is Checking Finder, which displays high-interest rate checking accounts that are closest to you. For example a bank 15 minutes from here called First State Bank pays ( if you meet the requirements ) 5.03% interest rate. That’s insane. But always research, research, research before you move your money to a different bank.  For example before I got too excited about that First State Bank, I saw that another First State Bank was closed down by the FDIC in Sarasota, Florida. That made me think twice about moving to there.

Whether you’re a person that likes online banking or traditional banks, small or national banks, always take a look at how your accounts are working for you and any possible ways you could improve them.

Soo…who has been your best bank to date?

But still I saved a lot by buying my comp book online and renting my stats book.  This is the website I used to search for my books.
Campus books also helped with comparing the different merchants by showing the real total when it came to the price + shipping.

Now to the main title. Since I was only going to be using my stat textbook for 2 months, instead of paying $149.35 (New) or slightly cheaper used, I rented it at Chegg’s for $50.92 (including tax+shipping) for the Summer Semester slot.

LIST PRICE $149.35 – HOW MUCH I PAID $50.92= $98.43 SAVED.

There’s a date that you have to postmark and ship back to Chegg’s when you’re heading to the end of the semester. You just print a return slip, go to a local UPS store, and drop it book. The person there will give you a receipt that you did bring it and that’s it! No hassles with selling it back online or anything. Also another tip for potential Chegg customers..when you get a textbook in the mail :keep the box for when you return it.

Steps for Getting Textbooks for Your Classes

1. Go to class and find out whether you really need to have the book.
2. If you do, go online to Campus Books and compare the books there
3. Check if it might be better to rent the book instead.
4. You could even borrow  the book from the library or a person.
5. Whatever you do, Avoid buy the books from your college book stores. It’s like buying candy from the movie theaters. (Fairly important note: Still check the prices at your school’s bookstore since there’s always a chance it might be cheaper)

I don’t know how or why I came across swoopo but it did look intriguing.  But after I tried it. I concluded this: AVOID AVOID AVOID.

Okay maybe I’m being a lil bit dramatic but it’s basically eBay but you have to pay for your bids PLUS the amount you win it at ( BIG if you even win) PLUS the shipping which is quite expensive! Now swoopo did make some changes from the first time I went there and the second .

First time I visited. I go to the site and notice how Swoopo constantly shows how much you could be “saving” if you actually won the item. But seriously does anyone really win anything? At the bottom they do have all the “Finished Auctions”..
Wow some person won a laptop for 5 dollars? and another random unknown dude won that camera for $17.89? They make it seem so easy…wait..what they sell gold? I take a look at buying bids. Hmm.. every time you bid it costs 60 cents. So if you make 20 bids that’s already 12 dollars gone, simply bidding for nothing if you don‘t win.. After reading that I logged off and dismissed it as a waste of money.

Second time I visited. Since I dismissed Swoopo as a legit scam and forgot about it, a few months later I got an email from them saying “ WE MISS YOU, HERE’S 40 FREE BIDS.” 40 free bids? Wow I guess I’ll try it this once. So I get back on the site and the strange thing is…I don’t really see anything on there I would want to have. Sure there’s the computers, flat screens, and other weird stuff like tweezers but nothing really looked appealing even if I did have to pay 2 cents for it. So I wasted some bids on a bar of gold and something else forgettable when I saw the Flip HD camcorder. Now that was the only thing I wanted to win and willing to pay the ridiculous $12 on shipping.  With about 37 bids left, and the auction ending at 9 am the next morning, (it was 12 at night currently) I decided I could snooze a bit and wake up at 6 am to bid since no one would be bidding then right?

Wrong. Turns out with that stupid Bid Butler, I lost to some Lord of the highest bids who was probably a master at pre-setting bids and destroying dreams by snatching up items everywhere.

I did notice three new features and changes on the site though:
1.) Auctions can randomly be closed at any time and only the people that put at least one bid in, can continue to stay and waste their time bid .

2.) Some auctions are called “ Nail Biters” which means that no BidButlers are allowed. So the person with the fastest mouse/ internet connections/ lack of need for sleep will win.

3.) There’s a thing on the bottom of an auction that says “ Swoop it now” which basically gives you the item your bidded for at a discount of the cost of bids you made. So if the camera’s list price is $200 and you did 75 bids at .60 cents each you would have a discount of  $45. So the camera’s yours for $155. They probably added this after a large amount of people stabbed their eyes out when they came in second and spent $98.60 on bids for a return of nothing.

My verdict? It’s the same as going to Vegas, and gambling.  Save your money and buy it at a store.

Any money making sites that seem a little weird that you’ve tried?
Does anyone still want to use Swoopo after I’ve given it such a great review?

Next on Thank You for Saving: How I saved more than 100 bucks from Chegg.com.