Vocational colleges get a bit of a bad rep because people think they aren’t “real” learning institutions. These facilities may not have four-year degree programs in them, but that should not detract from their value as learning centers. You can still get a good education at a vocational college. You just won’t end up in a super high paying career after one. Nevertheless, you could go into a steady, reliable job with a simple two-year education. Then you can always pursue a higher degree if you want to expand your career in the future. Here is a look at some of the careers and degrees you could pursue through a vocational school.

Degrees in Vocational Schools
Every tech school is a little different in terms of the degrees offered within it. Some schools have more comprehensive programs than others, and some even offer training online. You just have to think about what you want to do with your life and find a degree that suits your plans. Here is a list of common degree programs in vocational schools:

You may be able to find other degrees in schools around you, so contact the institutions you’re interested in. They should be able to tell you if they have the exact degree program you are interested in.

Life after Vocational School
Once you complete your vocational school education, you will be able to start your actual vocation. Go figure, right? There are tons of careers that can come from a technical college degree, and some of them pay more money than others. If you stick with your career path though, you should be able to make good money no matter what. Here is a list of potential career paths, along with information about what you could make within them:

• Certified Nurse Assistant: $9.50 – $17.90 per hour
• Licensed Practical Nurse: $14.83 – $23.18 per hour
• Registered Dental Hygienist: $22.98 – $27.77 per hour
• Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant: $17.30 – $26.09 per hour
• Automotive Service Technician: $9.50 – $18.57 per hour
• Graphic Artist or Designer: $8.68 – $23.00 per hour
• Registered Nurse: $22.87 – $29.89 per hour

If you discover a career path that works for your future plans, you need to find vocational schools that offer that kind of training. Then all you have to do is pay attention in school, and you will soon be on your way to a rewarding profession.

The spring semester is approaching its bitter end, so I felt the need to remind everyone that your textbook rentals will be due back shortly. You should be able to use them through the remainder of your paralegal courses this semester, but then you need to turn them back in to avoid a charge. If you fail to do this, you could end up paying for the full book when you didn’t even want it. The information below explains how to go about returning your textbooks so you don’t end up with unnecessary charges. Read on to relieve your finances in the future.

How to Return a Textbook Rental

If you got your textbook rental form a local store, you could just take it back to that store to return it. This is the same theory as returning a movie to Blockbuster after you rent it for a day or two. You drop it off, they scan it in, and your commitment is fulfilled. Seeing that most people rent their textbooks online though, I thought it may be more appropriate to provide a guide for that process on here. Here is a quick guide explaining how to return your rented textbooks:

1. Print the shipping label from your textbook rental website. You may have more than one if your books came in separate batches.
2. Put all of the books in a box, and insert any paperwork you need from the website. This will usually print off along with the shipping label, so you don’t have to worry about printing something separate.
3. Tape up the box and attach the shipping label. You don’t have to use the same box that the books came in if you do not want to.
4. Take the package to the shipping site and send it off. You shouldn’t have any out of pocket expenses at this point. The shipper will just scan the box and send it on its way.
5. Check the tracking number online in a day or two, just to make sure the books are on their way. Hopefully everything works out from there.

If you think there is a problem with your shipment, try to contact the book renter early on to explain the situation. That will help you avoid a fine in the future.

Best Places to Find Textbook Rentals

If you haven’t rented textbooks before because you don’t know where to do so, the list below should provide some suggestions for you to keep in mind. You can save a ton of money by renting your textbooks every year, as long as you turn them back in before their due dates. Here are some sites you may be able to use when you need to rent a textbook next semester:

• Chegg
• CampusBooks
• Textbooks
• StudentBookTrades
• TextbookRecycling
• eCampus
• BigWords
• BookRenter
• BookByte
• DirectTextbook

Mistakes happen, no matter how much you may try to avoid them. On the computer, these mistakes can usually be erased with the delete or undo button. We don’t have that kind of luxury in the real world. That is where the use of Wite Out comes into play. This simple device can remove a mistake on a piece of white paper so you can write over it.

While Wite Out may seem really easy to use, it can make a paper look like crap if you do not employ it correctly. If you’re an administrative assistant or a college student that has to use this on a regular basis, you might want to learn how to make it look the best it possibly can. Here are some tips to help you use Wite Out like a pro every time.

Drain the Brush

You don’t need a ton of Wite Out on the brush to cover your mistakes. All you need is enough to cover the brush. Wipe off the excess on the side of the bottle top so you don’t have a bunch of Wite Out dripping all over the place. Think of this like a paintbrush that you need to use on your walls. You wouldn’t have it dripping with paint would you? The same needs to apply to liquid paper. By keeping the brush just barely covered in Wite Out, you improve your chances of getting a good result.

Apply Light Layers

The key to making Wite Out look realistic is to use thin layers of it any time you need to make a correction. Rather than globbing on a whole bunch of this crap, just put on a thin layer of it. Then let the layer dry and apply another layer if you need to. You won’t have to wait as long for it to dry this way, and you will have a much smoother surface to write on. Practice this on your own, and you’ll soon see what I mean.

Wait for It to Dry

If you impatiently write over wet Wite Out, you will make a bigger mess than you had to begin with. Wet Wite out. Say that five times fast! Anyway, it is important to wait for the Wite Out to dry completely before you try to write on top of it, even if that means walking away and coming back in five minutes. If you use the light layer method I mentioned above, you won’t have to wait that long. You should be able to write over the mistake soon enough.

Use a Roller

There are several forms of Wite Out to choose from: pen, bottle, and roller. The tips above apply to the bottle option, but you may find better success with the roller. This will allow you to roll the Wite Out on like tape, rather than using a brush that could make your papers messy. The roller is more expensive, but it tends to create better results overall. As long as you use a little force when you roll, you can get a clean line to write on in the future.

Practice some of the suggestions above and see what they can do for you. If you use them in the right way, you should be able to correct your written mistakes without scribbling all over the place. Most people just use the computers nowadays, but there are a few rare times when Wite Out may still be applicable in the modern world. Now you know how to work with it like a pro. Don’t you feel like a smarty pants?

I talk about the power of couponing a lot around here because I have seen positive effects from it in real life. There is nothing wrong with using coupons to help you pay for school supplies, groceries, clothes, vacations, and anything else you need in life. As long as you are getting a positive value from your experiences and your criminologist salary, who cares how you got there? If you’re still not convinced about couponing though, you may want to look at some of the statistics surrounding the process. Here are some fascinating numbers I found on ILoveCouponMonth.com:

1. 88.2 million consumers (47% of Internet users) plan on using online coupons in 2011
2. 92.5 million adult Internet users will use online coupons in 2012
3. 96.8 million adult Internet users will use online coupons in 2013
4. Every hour spent couponing in 2011 is worth an estimated $100
5. The average savings per coupon used was $1.44 in 2010
6. 74% of consumers search multiple coupon sources each week
7. 25% spend up to an hour shopping for the best online discount deals
8. 47% of respondents use more local deals and coupons than in 2010
9. Moms are roughly twice as likely to search for coupons online as other categories of women
10. 52% of coupon users spend more than 15 minutes per week searching for coupons
11. 25% of coupon users spend between 30 minutes and 60 minutes searching for coupons per week
12. $485 billion worth of coupons were distributed in 2010
13. 332 billion coupons were distributed in 2010, the most ever recorded in the U.S.
14. Consumers saved $3.7 billion using coupons in 2010
15. Distribution in 2010 exceeded 2009 by 6.8%, or 21 billion coupons
16. 87.7% of paper coupons were distributed in 2010 via newspaper inserts, for an increase of 19 billion coupons
17. Digital offers increased by 37% in 2010
18. The face value of coupons in 2010 increased 6.6%, to an average of $1.46 per coupon
19. 74% of coupons in 2010 required the purchase of one item and 26% the purchase of two or more items
20. The average coupon expired in 10.1 weeks in 2010, 10 days shorter than in 2009
21. Overall coupon redemption grew 3.1%, to 3.3 billion, in 2010
22. 78.3% of consumers reported using coupons regularly in 2010, up 14.7% from pre-recession levels
23. Consumer coupon use in 2010 added up to $3.7 billion in savings, an increase of $200 million over 2009

What does all of this mean? Well, for one, it shows that there is power in couponing. If you could save $100 for every hour you spent couponing, you could have free school supplies in less than a day. How cool is that? The stats also show that you are not alone in your financial woes. Millions of people use coupons every single day to buy the things they want and need. Who’s to say that you can’t do the same?

Couponing is becoming a worldwide phenomenon for a reason. It is because it works. If you are still struggling to pay for your school supplies every semester, you probably haven’t found the right coupons to use yet. Just give this process a little bit of time, and you should be able to shave off most of the money you devote to binders and books from year to year.

Webcams are fantastic tools to have, no matter who you are. However, they can be especially beneficial if you are attending Everest University online or a similar online university. Most people don’t think about webcams when they start planning to buy school supplies, but having one could make a big difference in your life as a college student. Before you refuse the opportunity to buy a webcam in the future, you may want to think about all of the benefits it could bring to you. Listed below are just a few of the many advantages that come from having a webcam. Read on to see why you may want to invest in one of these in the future.

Communicating with Professors

If you go to school online, you do not have the opportunity to speak with your professors face to face. You can email them and call them on the phone, but you cannot actually talk to them like you would in a traditional classroom setting. That is where a webcam comes into play. It will give you a chance to talk to your professors through video chatting so you can get the same experience you would anywhere else. Not all professors are willing to do this with their students, but there are some that will talk to you through Skype or a similar program online.

Participating in Virtual Classrooms

In some cases, you will have the chance to join in a group video lecture, just like you would a normal lecture in a classroom. In this setup, every student gets on a webcam and signs into this massive chat room. Then the professor goes through his or her lecture like normal, and students have a chance to “raise their hands” to ask questions. If the professor permits your question, he or she will open your webcam feed so that other students can see you and hear what you have to say. The process is just like it would be in a standard college campus, but it all happens over the computer.

Recording Videos

If you want to record videos to put on the internet, you can use your webcam to do so. You may not get as clear of a picture as you would with a freestanding camera, but you can get enough to get your point across. I used to get paid to create private advice videos for people online, and I would just record my answers on a webcam to give people who paid for help. It was a pretty sweet setup because I got paid $10 or so to answer a two minute question someone had about a personal problem. I paid for my webcam after the first three questions, so the rest of the money was pure pocket change.

Staying in Touch with Family Members

If you no longer live at home, you can use your webcam to talk to your family as if they were right there with you. My husband and I do this every time we move into a new place, and we basically take our families through a virtual tour of our new house with them on the computer. They can ask questions about a certain feature of the home, and then we can answer right there on the spot.

As a whole, you should have no trouble finding some way to use your webcam. You just have to find one that works with your camera and install the software for it. In less than 24 hours, you could have a portal for communication and learning that is well worth the money you may have to spend on it.

Microsoft Office is one of the most popular software programs in the world. It includes Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, and tons of other programs that you are probably familiar with. The problem that most people have with this product is not the program itself, but rather the cost that goes along with it. This can be quite an expensive school supply, so you may want to figure out whether or not you actually need a program like this on your computer. That way you save money if you find something better for a lower price. Here is an overview of what you could get out of Microsoft Office to help you determine if it is right for you.

Microsoft Office Is Everywhere

Most of the professors for your college courses are going to ask you to submit your work in a Word document. That is because they have that program on their computer and they know how to use it. If you do not have MS Office to use on your own, you may have to go to the library every time you type up an essay for a homework assignment. Even though you will have to spend a lot of money on this program, you will likely use it every single time you do something for class. You may even use it for work. That alone should be enough to convince you of its value.

What You Can Get from Cheap Alternatives

Some people try to use Google Docs or something else along those lines in place of MS Office, but that could get you into trouble. Aside from the fact that most professors ask for papers in Word documents, you may not want to use a free program because it will not provide the same level of grammar corrections and overall convenience. Google Docs is great because it saves all of your work on the web, but it sucks when it comes to grammar and spelling. Plus, free programs like this usually lack the AutoCorrect feature that MS Office has, which could force you to spend more time typing than you like. At the end of the day, the cheap stuff just won’t cut it for long term writing projects.

There is a reason why this program costs so much money. It works. Sure, the prices may be a little high, but they can make the process of writing on the computer a lot easier for everyone. No matter who you are or what you need to write on the computer for, you can find some kind of benefit from using Microsoft Office. I would recommend it to anyone.

Possible Alternatives to Buying Microsoft Office

If you are a college student, you may be able to get a copy of MS Office for free. Some colleges offer free downloadable software to students, so you may just have to download a copy from your university. This is not always an option, but it cannot hurt to look into it. Worse comes to worse, you spend five minutes of your time looking for something that you do not find. I think you can spare that.

You could also download a free trial of the program and use it as long as you can. You will have a limited number of times you can open the program, so try to open a new document while you still have one open. Then it will only count as one use, even if you make 50 new documents. You can tweak the system for a little while like that until you finally decide to buy the program on your own.

Coupon codes are fantastic tools that you can use to save money online. If you’re tired of using your entire Bill Gates scholarship on school supplies each semester, you may want to get familiar with coupon codes. The more you use them, the more you will depend on them for savings in the future. My husband and I have probably saved a good $300 or more on school supplies with coupon codes alone, and that is just within the past few semesters. Who knows what we’ll save before he gets out of college. Here are some tips to help you get the best deals possible by using coupon codes for your school supply shopping.

What Are Coupon Codes?

Coupon codes are special numbers, letters, and symbols that represent savings you can receive. You know how every printable coupon has a bar code that cashiers scan at the register? A coupon code functions in the same way. It sends a message to the computer saying that you are supposed to get a specific discount, and then it adjusts your total accordingly. The only difference is that you enter a coupon code into an order form, rather than scanning it at a register. The savings and the overall purpose is the same across the board though.

Where Can I Find Coupon Codes?

The easiest way to find coupon codes online is to just look up “X coupon codes” in a search engine. Then you can find all of the sites that have coupon codes for a certain product or website online. Some of these sites will have ratings for the codes, where you can see the success rate that other people have experienced with the codes. You can use those as references to figure out which ones you should try first. If you can’t find exactly what you are looking for through the search engines, here is a quick list of reference sites you can go to:

• Buxr
• Coupon Cabin
• Coupon Code
• Coupon Divas
• Coupon Mom
• Coupons
• Crazy Coupon Mommy
• Deal Locker
• Freebies 4 Mom
• Hip 2 Save
• Mommy Saves Big
• Retail Me Not
• Shop It To Me
• Shortcuts
• Tech Bargains
• The Krazy Coupon Lady
• Coupon Craze
• Coupon Dudes
• Couponing to Disney
• Coupon Suzy
• Deal Seeking Mom
• Pinching Your Pennies
• Red Plum
• We Use Coupons

How Do I Use Coupon Codes?

Whenever you get to the checkout page of a website, you should see a spot for a “promo code” or something along those lines. This is the area you need to enter the code into. Then the site will either refresh the page on its own or provide you with a button to submit the code. If everything worked out, you should see an adjusted total on the site. If not, you will need to try a different code. I would recommend plugging in a few different codes to see which one gets you the best deal. Then you can finish the purchase from there. If everything works out, you’ll be saving money in no time.

Textbooks can be hellaciously expensive, especially if you choose not to rent your textbooks every semester. Thus if you can find a way to get out of buying your books for the semester, you may be able to save yourself a ton of money in the long run. While it is a good idea to get all of the books for all of your classes, you may not necessarily “need” to do that. My husband and I discovered that a while back, and it has saved us hundreds of dollars in textbooks over the years. Here is a simple guide to help you figure out if you really need your books for a class or not.

Talk to Former Students

One of the easiest ways to figure out if you need a book for a class is to talk to other people who have taken the course in the past. Some professors put textbooks in their class requirements because they have to. The school requires them to at least list one textbook for students to get. If you can find out which professors actually use textbooks and which ones just mention them every once and a while, you will have a better chance of saving money in the long run. Talk to other people that have taken the class in the past and see what sort of experiences they had. If they did not have to use their books, chances are you won’t as well.

Test the Class

If you order your books right before you go to class, you may be able to test the waters for a week and return the books if you don’t use them. Chegg has a 15 day return policy, so you could test the class for a full two weeks before deciding whether or not you needed the books. This may not save you money upfront, but it will save you money over time. My husband has probably returned four or five books this way, and every time it helps us save more for next semester. Test the waters and see what happens. You should be able to know early on if you will need your book or not.

Wait to Order

If you want to test the class without ordering your books, you might be able to do that as well. You could tell your professors that you are waiting for your financial aid money to come in before you get your textbooks. Most professors will cut you a break for a bit that way because they understand how expensive books are. If you find out you don’t actually need the books, then you can just keep the money you would have spent on them otherwise.

Before you do this, note that you may spend more money on your textbooks if you decide to wait to order them. A lot of places will run out of used books at this time, so you will be forced to pay for a new one if you wait too long. It’s a gamble you have to weigh the pros and cons of.

Suck It Up

In some cases, you inevitably have to buy all of your textbooks. That is the harsh reality of the situation. You can try bumming them off your friends if they happen to be in your class, but eventually, you will just have to fork out the money. If you follow the tips above though, you can avoid paying for more than you have to. At least you have that to look forward to in the end.

It’s cold and flu season right now, which means that we all have to start cracking down on germ prevention. Whether you’re a college student, an administrative assistant, or something in between, you are going to come in contact with germs every single day. Computer keyboards, doorknobs, bathroom soap dispensers, and many other commonly used items are full of germs that you have to do your best to stay away from. Believe it or not, there are a lot of school supplies out there that can help you do just that. Here is a look at some great school supplies that you could use in the battle against germs.

• Disinfecting wipes: One of the best tools you can use for getting rid of germs is a disinfecting wipe. You can buy these in tubs or small glove box sized packages, and then you can use them to wipe down surfaces when you are in public. You may look a little bit like Monk when you do this, but you can get rid of a lot of the germs that live on surfaces. I would recommend wiping down anything you are going to come in contact with on your hands, like a shopping cart handle or a desk at school. A simple swipe could potentially keep you from getting sick.
• Roll-up keyboard: A roll-up keyboard functions the same as a standard keyboard, but it has a cloth backing instead of a hard plastic one. That makes it easy to take with you to school. Whenever you get to a place where there are public computers, you can unplug the keyboard there and plug in your own. Then you can type away without having to worry about the germs lurking on the keyboard.
• Travel sized hand sanitizer: This is probably the most important tool you can use to get rid of germs. Buy a small bottle of Germ-X or Purell, and use it a lot throughout the day. This will get rid of 99.9% of the germs on your hands. I use had sanitizer every time I get in my car after being in a public place, just to be on the safe side. If you avoid touching your face before you use the hand sanitizer, you may be safe from germs.
• Water bottle: Try to avoid drinking out of public fountains as much as possible. I usually have bottled water on me at all times, but I know a lot of people don’t want to have to spend money on that every week. Invest in a good water bottle with a filter in it to keep your water as fresh as possible, and then you won’t have to go to public fountains. All you will have to do is remember to wash your water bottle and fill it up before you go out.

The key to staying germ free is to always be aware of your surroundings. Humans touch everything they come across, and then they touch their eyes, noses, and other parts of their face that can absorb germs. If you start paying attention to what is going on in the world around you, you will have a better chance at avoiding sickness around this time of year. You may still get sick, but hopefully the school supplies above will help you avoid that as long as possible. It does not take much money to get the tools you need to stay healthy. Invest in the right school supplies today.

The school supplies you have to use for college are a lot different than the ones you may use in high school. College life requires more extensive studying, and it also requires a greater reliance on technology. Thus you have to adjust your scholastic stockpile to accommodate for the new life you are going to lead. Whether you are currently a college student or you are going to become one on the future, you will most likely need all of the supplies on the list below. Here are 15 school supplies that no college student should go to class without.

1. Calendar: Can be in the form of a wall calendar or a day planner. It provides students with a way to easily keep track of their assignments for the week.
2. Flash Drive: Great for taking documents to the library to print off
3. Graphing calculator: A requirement for almost any math class in college.
4. Highlighters: A studying student‘s best friend, most often used to take notes in textbooks.
5. Lap desk: Used to hold a laptop or piece of paper when a table is not available. I use one with a fan built into the bottom to keep my computer cool.
6. Laptop: Portable option to connect to the internet, write reports, take notes, etc.
7. Microwave: The only access most college students have to “home cooking.”
8. Mini fridge: Fun sized for small spaces, with enough storage for a few beers…I mean “sodas.”
9. Notebook paper: Necessary for taking notes in a laptop-free classroom.
10. Refillable water bottle: Great for collecting purified water, since campus water usually sucks. Try to buy one that can act like a thermos or that has a built-in filtration system.
11. Sharpies: Perfect for labeling just about anything, and they happen to be fun to play with. Just make sure you don’t get high on them. I don’t need that weighing in on my conscience
12. Small book light: Best for roommate situations, allowing you to read while your roommate is asleep without disturbing him or her. If you buy a Snuggie, you can get one for free. Just saying.
13. Sticky notes: Ideal for taking quick notes and playing the occasional prack on friends (see this article: Should You Stockpile on School Supplies in College?).
14. Tote bag: Great for carrying laptops, textbooks, calculators, pens, pencils, etc. It’s the perfect alternative to a standard backpack.
15. TV trays: The portable versions of a dining room table, perfect for small dorms and apartments. I live in a three bedroom house, and my husband and I still eat on the TV trays we had in college every single day.

You may come across other school supplies that you feel are must-haves for your degree program. As an architecture student, I had to keep engineering paper around at all times, along with a set of H and B pencils to use while I was drafting. You may need a pocket dictionary for your foreign language degree or a magnifying glass for your forensic science degree. It just depends on what sort of education you want to pursue. If you take the time to figure out which supplies you will and will not need to use, you should be able to get a pretty good supply going for yourself. Then all you will have to do is pull from it whenever you need to.

As a college student at Herzing University online, you will inevitably be asked to read every once and a while. As painful as that may be for you, it is something you just have to get used to. I’m actually not a big fan of reading, but I find that the process goes a lot smoother if I have the right supplies to help me along the way. A few simple devices can allow you to get the most out of your reading if you ever have to come back to it in the future. Here is a look at some of the school supplies you may want to use to help you read better in college.

Highlighters

What college student doesn’t love highlighters? They are bright and colorful, so they can draw emphasis to information you may want to see in the future. They are also really fun to use if you like the feeling of being organized. I have a slight highlighter obsession, so I have to buy them in huge packs to be able to make them last. If you haven’t found the perfect highlighter for you yet, check out the ones made by Sharpie. They are the perfect color and consistency, and I guarantee they will be worth any money you spend on them.

Flags

Flags are great for helping you remember where certain pieces of information are in a book. You may use different colored highlighters to represent different kinds of information, and then you can use flags of the same color for easy reference. Then you can go exactly where you want to go in the book without having to flip around to find the highlighter marks. I did this all the time in college, and it helped me find definitions and pages that I wanted to use for reference in the future. You could test the flags out too and get a similar experience.

Post-Its

Sticky notes are great for reading because they allow you to make comments about something without having to write in the book. I used to write in the book all the time, but some books just didn’t have the space to let me do that. You can buy some miniature Post-Its to use while you read, and then you can make little notes for yourself to refer to in the future. You can use the large ones as well, but those have a tendency to get lost in books. If you use the small ones, you can usually find them easily and still have room to read the rest of the page.

Pens

If you’re anything like me, you like to make comments everywhere as you read. That is where a good set of pens can come in handy. I like using liquid pens in paperback books because their ink is absorbed into the paper. For shiny textbook pages though, I usually used standard ink pens. Ballpoint pens smear too much in textbooks, at least from my experiences. You can test out your options to see what works for you.

Only you know how you like to read and what you like to do during that reading. Thus you have to make an effort to find the school supplies that are going to enhance your reading as much as possible. If you would benefit from a set of book marks, so be it. If you like using a book light, you can get that too. Make an effort to find the school supplies that will best help you succeed, and you’ll get through college with ease.

Savvy shoppers are always looking for ways to stockpile on items that they find at a good price. You may do this with toilet paper, hand soap, socks, bed sheets, and everything in between, but the big question is whether or not you should do this with your school supplies for college. There are a lot of things you will need throughout your degree program, but that does not necessarily mean you need them in large quantities. Before you shell out a ton of money trying to snag the good deals while they last, you may want to look at what your actual needs will be. Here are some tips to help you stockpile effectively in college.

Stocking up on Paper

In order to determine if you should stockpile on paper or not, you need to think about the kind of degree program you are enrolled in. If you attend college online, you may not need a whole lot of paper because all of your assignments and tests will be on the web. You can still use paper to write notes while you watch video lectures, but you could always just print off the PowerPoint presentations or type up your notes if you wanted to. Think about how often you actually use printer or notebook paper before stocking up on either of them. You may not need to do that at all.

Stocking up on Printer Ink

A lot of people try to stockpile printer ink because they know how expensive it can be. You may use a lot of ink to print papers off for your school work, but that does not necessarily mean you need to stock up on ink. Printers break down. That is just something they do. You have to be prepared to replace your printer at some point down the road, and that will leave you with a bunch of extra ink if you aren’t careful. You can buy one or two backup cartridges, but don’t turn your entire closet into an ink storage space. That may cost you a ton of money over time.

Stocking up on Pens

Pens and pencils are items that you could logically stock up on. Some people may say, “Well, you only need so many pens in the house…” Those people have never gone through the frustrations of trying to find a lost pen like I have. There are countless times that I have scoured my house for a pen only to find out that I threw it away on accident or it rolled under the couch. You never know where the pens may go, but they are easy to lose. If you want to have a whole shelf in your closet devoted to pens and pencils, so be it. I don’t think it would be that bad of an idea.

Stocking up on Post-Its

I’m a bit of a Post-It junky, and I am proud to admit it. I use those things for everything, and I do mean everything. I love them so much that I actually requested them as a stocking stuffer this past Christmas. I was pleased to discover that my wishes were granted. If you like to write little notes on Post-Its, then by all means stock up on them. It’s not like they will go to waste. Worse comes to worse, you can use them to play a prank like these guys…

As long as you think about your needs logically, you should be able to figure out exactly what you should stockpile for school.

School supplies can be expensive no matter where you live, and there isn’t a whole lot that you can do about it. One of the only ways to shave off some of the costs for school supplies is to use coupon matchups to save money. This is the process of comparing store ads to coupons in your area and seeing if you could double the savings on your favorite items. Matchups do not work in all parts of the country, but they can save you a lot of money if you happen to live in a matchup-friendly area. Here is a brief guide outlining what coupon matchups are and how you can make them work for you.

What Are Coupon Matchups?

Coupon matchups are combinations of coupons and store sales that you can use to save a lot of money. If you are trying to get the most possible use out of your police officer salary, you need to see if you can get this process to work for you. Let’s say that laundry detergent is on sale at a certain store for $5 a bottle, and you have a coupon from the manufacturer allowing you to save $10 when you buy five bottles of this detergent. If you actually did buy those five bottles, you would spend $25 with the sale price and then save $10 off the total purchase. That means that you’re buying laundry detergent for $3 a bottle. If you can do that with your school supplies, you may be able to get everything you need for an incredibly low price.

How to Find Coupon Matchups

You can try to match up coupons on your own, but you may not have much luck at it. This can be an incredibly time consuming process, and it may take a lot of energy away from your schooling. Luckily, there are several coupon blogs that you can check out to save money and review weekly matchups that are already done for you. KrazyCouponLady.com and CouponDivas.com both have matchup lists that get updated every week. You may not have the exact same prices on items in your store, but at least you can use these lists as a reference for when you go out. You can also check out the CouponingtoDisney.com Walmart under $1 and Target under $1 lists. There you may find tons of school supplies for less than $1 if you match coupons to sale prices.

How to Use Coupon Matchups

To use coupon matchups, you simply need to know when your coupons expire and your sales end so you can catch a time when you can combine the two. If you have a store around you that offers a double value coupon day, you may want to wait for that to come around so you can save as much money possible. A lot of stores will not allow you to do this though because then they lose out on a lot of money. Nevertheless, it can’t hurt to explore your options and see if you can potentially save.

By shopping the right way, you may not have to spend much at all to get everything you need for school. Whether you are buying supplies for your kid or supplies for yourself, you can use coupon matchups to cut down on the costs for your supplies. It may take a little bit of effort to find matchups you can use, but that effort will be worth the savings you get in the end.

The next semester of school is quickly approaching, and for some college students, it is already here. This is a time of utter disarray as people try to get out of relaxed-drunk-in-the-middle-of-the-day-party-going mode and get back into holy-crap-I-still-have-three-years-of-school-left mode. One of the biggest steps in prepping for the new semester is getting ready to buy school supplies as soon as possible. Without the supplies you need, you may miss out on vital information during the first week of school. Before you start panicking because you don’t have a book you need for a test next Monday, you need to try to plan ahead of time. Here are some tips to help you do that.

Check on Your Refund Money

If you are expecting to get money back from your scholarships and grants in school, you need to see when that money is supposed to come in. This money will most likely be released before the semester starts, so you should be able to use it to pay for your school supplies. You should be able to set up a direct deposit for your money that will send it directly to your bank account. That will allow you to get your money a lot faster, and it will save you from having a check in the bank. Some schools will ask you to request your money before they send it out, so check into that before you start waiting for your money. In one way or another though, you should be able to get your money so you can buy your school supplies.

Get a Book List

You should be able to get a list of books you need for your classes before the semester starts. Doing this will allow you to rent your textbooks before everyone else does, and it will let you budget out your money if you can’t pay for the books all at once. If you are getting an education on the internet, you should be able to log into your online classrooms and see what your books are early on. If you are attending a traditional college campus, you should still be able to print out a list from the web. Use that list to get all the reading materials you need for your classes this semester.

Read the Syllabus

Try to read over the syllabus for each of your courses as soon as you get it because that will outline the materials you need for class. If you can get out the first day and buy everything you need, you won’t have to worry about getting stuck with the leftover supplies at the end of the week. You can usually save time, money, and stress by simply buying your supplies early on, so you need to make an effort to do that. This will keep you ahead of the game every single semester.

Contact the Professor

If you know you are going to be a little late in getting your school supplies, you need to contact your professor to let him or her know. Most professors will allow slight extensions if you are having trouble getting your supplies, but you won’t know if your instructors will do that unless you contact them. You can email the professors or call them during office hours, depending on how you like to communicate with people. Just tell them the reason for the delay and see what your options are. In a worst case scenario, you find out you’re totally screwed. Hmmm, that didn’t sound as reassuring as it did in my head…

The spring semester is getting ready to start, which means it’s time for you to do another round of textbook rentals. If you have to wait until the money comes in from your academic scholarships, that is perfectly understandable. If not though, you need to do everything you can to rent your textbooks right away. Rental companies aren’t going to have an endless supply of the books you need, so you have to get in now to snag the deals while they last. Otherwise you may end up having to…dare I say…pay for one of your textbooks. The horror! Let’s take you through a process to help you avoid that.

Step 1 – Get a Book List

You can get a list for the books you need directly in your student account for your school. If you are having trouble finding that, you can ask someone at the university if he or she can help you find the books you need for class. Once you have a list of the books you need, you need to look over it to make sure you don’t already have some of the books from former classes. Also make sure you don’t have the same book for two of your classes, as that would be money wasted on your part. My husband had that happen to him once, and it took us a week to figure that out. You can avoid this problem easily with a quick review of your book list.

Step 2 – Find Your Books

Once you know which books to look for, you need to try to find them at your favorite rental supplier. I like using Chegg, mainly because they seem to have the largest selection of books and the lowest prices. You can use whatever company you like though. You may want to compare prices from different companies to see where you can get the best deal possible on your books. Some places offer better prices than others based on their supply and demand. If you find everything you need, all you will have to do is pay for your books.

Step 3 – Get Additional Discounts

When you go to check out for your rental books, you may want to try using a coupon or a coupon code to save as much money as possible. I know there is a coupon code out there for Chegg that offers 10%-15% off the cost of an order over a certain amount of money. If your books suit the criteria for a certain coupon, you may be able to save a ton of money while you shop. You just have to remember to look for extra savings before you pay for something.

Step 4 – Check Out

The only thing you have left to do is pay for your books at this point. Hopefully you don’t have to pay a ton of money this semester to cover your books. At least this way, you don’t have to worry about paying for books in full. You can just pay a small rental fee to save yourself some money. With the right deals at the right times, you can always find what you need at a low price. It just so happens that “right time” is right now.

Don’t miss out on your opportunity to rent your textbooks because now is the best time to do that. With a full stock of books to choose from, you should be able to find all the ones you wanted at an incredibly affordable price. You will be on your way to class in no time.

Whether you’re graduating from college or switching college majors, there will probably come a time in your life when you need to get rid of your old school supplies. You’ve spent a ton of money buying them though, so you may not want to just throw them in the trash. There are plenty of other ways that you could put your old supplies to good use, depending on what they are. Here are a few ideas that may help you figure out what to do with your former school supplies.

Reuse Your School Supplies

The most ideal thing to do with your old school supplies is to just reuse them. Most supplies can be converted into office supplies, so you can use them even after you graduate from Ashford University online. I’m not in college anymore, and I still use some of the pens and paper I had when I was in school. I even use some of my old architecture supplies for little projects around the house. If you can find a way to repurpose your supplies, do so. Otherwise you will have to figure out some other way to get them out of the house.

Sell Your School Supplies

If you have supplies of value, you could try to sell them. This mainly applies to graphing calculators or specific tools that you had to buy for a class. Chances are people won’t want to buy your old pens and notebook paper when they could spend $.10 more in a store to get everything new. If you have something valuable to sell though, throw it up on Craigslist and see what happens. Try to do this at the beginning of a semester because that is when most people will be looking for school supplies. That will give you the best chance of getting rid of what you have.

Donate Your School Supplies

If you can’t sell your supplies, you may want to donate them to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. Only do this if the supplies are in good condition because those organizations will throw them away otherwise. You could also consider donating them to a school in your area for students who can’t afford them. Elementary schools in low income neighborhoods can always use donations like this. Look for some place or someone in your area that could benefit from what you no longer need. Then you can pass on the education to someone else.

Recycle Your School Supplies

In a worst case scenario, try to recycle the school supplies you have left over. If you have a stack of paper that got damaged by water or folding, you can still recycle it to put it to good use. You could also recycle pens, ink cartridges, plastic binders, and more. If you don’t have a recycling pickup program in your neighborhood, you may have to take the supplies to the recycling center. By doing this though, you will allow more supplies to be created for the future.

Conclusion

Getting rid of your school supplies shouldn’t imply the need to throw them away. There are plenty of other places your supplies can go, so don’t jump to the trash just yet. Try to make good use of the supplies yourself, and then pass them onto someone else if you can’t do that. When all else fails, recycle them so they can be used in future supplies for other students. I’m writing this article during the holiday season, which seems like a perfect time to ask you to give back to the community. The landfill already has enough supplies in it. Trust me.

If you want to get the most out of your school supplies, you need to make sure you invest in some that are made to be durable. The $1 bin at Office Depot may seem tempting at the first of the year, but the supplies in that bin only last for a couple of weeks. Then you have to shell out the money for a whole new set of supplies. Rather than going through that process every year, you need to think about buying good supplies now that are going to last you well into the future. You could get through your entire paralegal degree with one set of supplies if you buy the right supplies from the start. Listed below are some of the supplies you may want to spend good money on for the future.

Hard Plastic Binders

Most of the binders you may see on shelves are made of that thin, pliable plastic that tears up after a semester of use. While you can use binders like that for a few years, you will most likely have them covered in duct tape by that time. Assuming you don’t want to be rocking the duct tape binder look, you need to think about investing in a good, thick binder that you can use time and time again. My husband and I have a set of binders from when he was in high school, and they’re probably seven or eight years old now. You would never guess that when you look at them though because they are so darn durable. Spend the extra buck or two on a good binder and you will be much better off in the end.

Refillable Pens

Refillable pens are good investments if you like to have a good pen for your work. Once the ink runs out on one of them, all you have to do is buy replacement ink. That could potentially save you money over time. I’m usually happy with a 20 pack of cheap Bics, but that is because I type for most of my work. If you have to write out a lot for your classes, you may want to think about investing in something a little more expensive for now.

Quality Staplers

Cheap staplers have a tendency to jam up, but heavy duty ones will last forever. My favorite stapler is actually an old metal one that my grandmother had, and that thing is probably 40 years old. Nevertheless, it staples all the papers I need it to every time. It has outlasted a good dozen staplers I bought from Walmart over the years, so now I’ve just stopped buying those. They may look cool and they may be light weight, but at the end of the day, they are as cheaply made as their prices indicate.

Scientific Calculators

A good scientific calculator can last for decades if you take care of it. My husband has an old Casio that he found in junior high, and it is actually my favorite calculator to use at the moment. It may not have the fancy components of a graphing calculator, but it does more than a basic calculator. I use it a lot to calculate totals for my work invoices, but you may use yours for one of your classes in college. If you invest in a good calculator from the start, it could last well into your kid’s college degree.

Get over the sticker shock and start investing in good school supplies that are going to last. In the long run, this will help you make the most out of your investment.

With Christmas just a few weeks away, it’s time to start decorating your Christmas tree. Ornaments can get expensive really quickly, but there may be a way for you to dazzle your tree without breaking the budget. How? By using school supplies. Rather than paying $5 for one glass ornament this year, you could spend than $5 on a 20 pack of Bic pens and get a ton of ornaments to hang on the tree. This may seem like a corny idea, but it has the potential to look really cool if you execute it properly. Here are some tips to help you do just that.

School Supply Ornament Ideas

There are tons of different ornaments you could make out of school supplies. The list below shows just some of the ones you could potentially put on your tree.

• Pen Danglers: Have you ever seen those little swirly sticks that people hang like icicles in their tree? You could make those out of pens this year. Tie a string around the body of the pen so that it gets caught under the cap. Then you can hang colorful pens all over the try just like icicles.
• Notebook Paper Balls: Who says that wadded paper balls can’t turn into art. Crush a piece of notebook paper into the shape of a ball ornament, and make sure to leave a hole somewhere on the outside for a hook. You can bend a paper clip into a hook then by pulling the small loop away from the large one. Put the small loop in the hole and the large loop on a branch of the tree. Then you’ll have your own little ornament.
• Post-It Garland: You could turn a set of Post-Its into your garland if you mess with it in the right way. Take the top sticky not and stick it to the table. Then stick another one on top with the sticky part on the bottom of the first piece. Go back and forth like this to create a zigzag effect. If you have enough Post-Its in a chain, you should eventually be able to wrap around the tree. Use a glue stick to hold pieces together if the paper doesn’t stay stuck.
• Printer Paper Snowflakes: Did you ever make snowflakes out of paper when you were a kid? If not, here’s a crash course in how to do so. Fold up a piece of paper until it is in a small square. Then cut out triangles along the edges. When you have a fairly cool pattern, open the paper up to reveal a snowflake. You can put that on your tree from there. Make as many of them as you want. They will all end up being unique.

Putting It All Together

When you have all of your school supply decorations in place, you can start putting them on the tree. Decorate just like you normally would, keeping a good balance of school supplies all throughout the tree. You could incorporate themed Christmas ornaments as well if you happen to find some. Perhaps you’ll find a set of apples for careers in education or a pencil ornament with a Santa hat. You can look around for these on your own, but the ideas above should give you a fun foundation to follow.

Decorating a Christmas tree with school supplies may seem a little unconventional, but it could lead to a really cool piece if you put it together well. Give this a try this year, and I guarantee people will be talking about it for years to come.