Making the Most of Discount Opportunities

As we approach April, there are going to be more articles related to pressing time-sensitive issues—things like completing your taxes, saving for coming months, and getting ready for summer. For now, however, we’re going to continue with the theme of one of the financial resolutions for the New Year: saving more money.

Saving money can be tough when it means cutting down on your purchases, so thankfully there are other ways to save your money as well. Perhaps the easiest is using different discount opportunities available online, either to students or the general public, to buy things that you were going to buy anyway.

Of course, following through on this recommendation is not always simple; that’s where this article comes in handy.

Following Through on Your Finances

It’s been a few weeks since the post about financial resolutions for the New Year. Have you been keeping up on yours? Or has something come up that’s caused you to “take a break,” “focus on something more important,” or just generally leave the pledge behind?

Setting New Year’s resolutions often seems appealing at the time, but by the end of January many people have left theirs behind. Some of the time this abandonment makes sense—you genuinely might not have time or interest in following through on your pledge—but other times this abandonment is an unfortunate loss of willpower that bumps up against our self-image. People don’t like to think of themselves as weak or lacking determination, so we rationalize our behavior with excuses and move on—even if it isn’t what’s best for us in the long-run.

With that said, how can you get back on track after leaving your resolution in the past? And in the future, what tactics can you use to help yourself stick to pledges that you want to uphold?

Textbooks: Buy or Rent?

As the school year approaches, students are faced with a complicated (and costly) question: Should they buy their textbooks, or should they rent them? The College Board estimates that the average student will spend well over $1,000 on textbooks this year, and that number is on the rise since the year 2000.

Of course, students now have much better textbook shopping options than they did in the past. Before the rise of the Internet, students were essentially forced to use their school’s university bookstore. They had little power to turn elsewhere, and they could be gouged for higher prices because they needed the store’s books. The Internet, along with its third-party textbook vendors, sites for resale, and other technologies, changed that.

Financial Resolutions for the New Year

Another year is in the books, and it’s been a wild one—marked most notably for you, I’m sure, by the creation of this website. Pat yourself on the back for a great year, and get ready to gear up for another one.

With a new year, of course, come resolutions for how to improve in the coming months: vows to lose weight, exercise more, be nicer to people, and plenty of other goals. With all that ahead of you, why not take the opportunity to set some financial goals for the upcoming year?

Next week’s article will focus on how you can achieve your goals at a higher success rate. For now, let’s discuss some viable financial resolutions and how they matter to your long-term financial health: