Colleges cutting down on tuition
I was on Yahoo yesterday and I was reading an article on some private colleges that are reducing their tuition.
Lord knows they need to reduce thier tution because I had this experience already….
My dumb self went to University of Hartford, had to take out a 17,000 loan at the end of the day and my credits didn’t even transfer. What kind of shit is that?
So now I’m at a local community college and I graduate next semester (yay!) and I going to stay my broke self in state. Trust , I am not taking out anymore loan until after undergrad.
So I just though this article would be helpful for those planning to apply to college or transfer to another college like I did.
Here is the article: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/5-colleges-slashing-tuition-costs-175812974.html
Signing out,
Broke, Black, and in College :)
Conquering overpriced textbooks
So I decided to rent a textbook the other day—a new adventure for me—and here’s why:
- The book was $80 to purchase….USED;
- A new edition is being released in January 2012 (therefore the bookstore would not be buying it back);
- Renting was cheap.
Anyways, I went to the link my professor gave me to order the book from the publisher/manufacturer. Renting was approximately 50 dollars with shipping, etc. So I decided to go for it—gave them my card number, everything. Ordered!
Then the bargain shopper in my decided to wake up from an apparent nap and I found places that were much cheaper thanks to www.textbookRentals.com.
Here, not only do they do a price comparison search for the cheapest book rentals sites, but they also provide a list of discount codes to save you more money.
Even more, after deciding to go with www.BookRenter.com, I Googled “bookrenter.com coupon codes” and found a code that saved me more money than the ones textbookRentals had listed.
All in all, I went from a 50 dollar rental (which I cancelled) to a 35 dollar rental all because I spent an extra minute searching for a good deal.
Ways to Cut Down on Electricity
- Turn your refrigerator down. Refrigerators account for about 20% of Household electricity use. Use a thermometer to set your refrigerator temperature as close to 37 degrees and your freezer as close to 3 degrees as possible. Make sure that its energy saver switch is turned on. Also, check the gaskets around your refrigerator/freezer doors to make sure they are clean and sealed tightly.
- Set your clothes washer to the warm or cold water setting, not hot. Switching from hot to warm for two loads per week can save nearly 500 pounds of CO2 per year if you have an electric water heater, or 150 pounds for a gas heater.
- Turn down your water heater thermostat. Thermostats are often set to 140 degrees F when 120 is usually fine. Each 10 degree reduction saves 600 pounds of CO2 per year for an electric water heater, or 440 pounds for a gas heater. If every household turned its water heater thermostat down 20 degrees, we could prevent more than 45 million tons of annual CO2 emissions - the same amount emitted by the entire nations of Kuwait or Libya.
- Wrap your water heater in an insulating jacket, which costs just $10 to $20. It can save 1100 lbs. of CO2 per year for an electric water heater, or 220 pounds for a gas heater.
- A surprising 75% of the energy used by home electronics is consumed when they’re turned off. These “phantom” users include: televisions, VCRs, stereos, computers and many kitchen appliances—basically anything that holds a time or other settings. A simple solution? Plug all of these items into power strips, and then get in the habit of turning off the strips between uses.
- Line dry your laundry. Set up a clothesline in your back yard, and let Mother Nature dry your laundry. If this isn’t an option, consider hanging clothes on a drying rack or on the shower rod.
- Use small electric pans or toaster ovens for small meals. A toaster oven uses a third to half as much energy as a full-size oven. Another alternative is to use pressure cookers, turbo broilers, and microwave ovens whenever possible. They can save energy by significantly reducing cooking time.
- If you must use a big oven, bake more than one item at a time. If the different recipes call for varied temperatures, say 350°F, 375°F, and 400°F, pick the middle one. And remember, if heated air circulates freely, the oven doesn’t have to work as hard. So don’t let the pans touch each other, the wall, or the door, and don’t place pans directly above each other.
- Employ your kids as “Energy Rangers”: Offer to pay them half of the utility-bill savings they can generate, compared to last year’s bills. Turn them loose on this site, then sit back and watch as they frantically plug every energy leak you can imagine.
- Your local power company probably has a “Time of Use” program. This means you’ll be charged more for electricity during prime times and less during off hours. When you switch to TOU, the power company will install a new meter. You may be able to save as much as $500 a year with this idea. Businesses can participate too.
