Breaking News! *sirens* Cheap textbooks

How to save on textbooks while in school

 

Did someone say cheap textbooks? Where? How? *faints because this cannot be real* Well I can make it a reality only if you follow along!

Tell me, would you rather spend money on a cool pair of shoes, beautiful shirt and an amazing jacket that will make you stand out in the crowd or would you rather spend your money on something boring like textbooks? That is the big question for every college student. Textbooks prices can easily range from $100 to over $300 per book, and having multiple classes, you definitely want to save money. What if I told you that you can find a $300 textbook for free or for half the price? Have fun with the rest of the money!
 

We’ve all been through this, whether you’re a college student or the parent of a college going child. Text books will drain your wallet faster than a speeding bullet that will kill you unless you play the game wisely. Here are a few tips to save you money on textbooks so you can spend it on clothes, movies and a fun time with friends.

1.    The Bain of Textbook Pricing

What is possibly the most expensive way to buy a book you ask? My answer - the bookstore. Yes I agree that the bookstore is convenient, it’s on campus, you can get books the same day, there is no shipment fee, but the premium the bookstore charges is pretty insane. E.g. this semester I went to the bookstore looking for a book and found a new book to be $120; however the exact same book, brand new was available online for $80. That extra $40 can buy you a bunch of cool things and if you combine this amount for various classes, such as five classes, you can save up to $200 in total. Say hello to that new skateboard!

2.    The vast and mysterious search

So now that you know what not to do, you want to know what you should do. Well let me guide you through this quest to save money. The best thing to do is to go on Google. Google is the greatest resource to find anything in the world. We look at it every day, so this time, why not save some money through it. Once you know what book you need for a class, the first step for any student should be to go to Google. It is heaven made on Earth – or Internet – for us students. Type in the name of the book or textbook price comparison and lo and behold opens the world of wonders, with websites like Amazon, Chegg, Slugbooks, Textsurf and so on. Not only do these websites compare prices for your book throughout the internet, they also give you options of renting books. One major thing you can do to save money is rent out a book. I personally saved so much money from renting out books. Rental books are always half price from online sources like Amazon and the best part is, once the semester is over the books go away and you do not have textbooks taking up space in your dorm room and hence you can decorate it with actually cool things.

 

3.    Dollars in the library

One thing that is more boring than a textbook is a library. No one goes there. But what if I told you that your library can save you a few hundred dollars every semester? Interested? You should be. Every semester I borrow a few textbooks from the library for free, for example my first semester in college, instead of buying a book for my math class for $150, I looked up the book at the library and lo and behold it was available for free. I did so much more with the $150 - bought a very cool jacket - than buying a boring book that I knew I would never use again. One of the coolest things with technology today is that you can even get an EBook from the library. This means you do not have to worry about limited supply, all you need is a library card and you would save yourself enough money for a few new things in your room and closet.

4.    Love your seniors!

You love making friends? Make friends with a few seniors. As soon as their classes are done they like to sell their books for a cheap price and if you’re a friend, you get them even cheaper. I’ve even got them for free. Boom! A couple hundred dollars right there. I received a $75 book for free from a senior friend of mine because he was leaving school and just wanted someone to take his book. Even if you don’t like making friends, there are quite a few Facebook groups for every university where students who have already taken a class love to sell their textbooks. I know USC has a few pages such as “Free & for Sale,” “USC Book Sale” and “USC Book Market.” At the beginning of every semester, you can find people selling textbooks for various classes. I have saved money from these pages for the past three years of college and done so much more with my money. So join those pages today!

5.    Thank heavens for various versions!

Now this might not always work but it is certainly worth a try. Ask your professors on the first day of class if they don’t mind you using an earlier version or an international version. Often times these versions are pretty much the same except far cheaper than the most recent edition. The older versions can be bought from students or online resources such as Amazon and EBay. I have bought earlier versions of books before and used the money I saved to buy myself some shoes online at the same time, so do it for the shoes!

6.    Friends (Not to be confused with the TV show)

If you have friends in the same class, you can always share a book. Now it might not work for everyone and I have personally rarely done it myself, but if you and your friend are close, are roommates or like to study together, this is the perfect option for you. You can set up a schedule on who can use the book when, and split the cost in half saving you and your friend quite a few bucks. A few extra bucks for the Friday night might I say.

Textbooks prices are increasing every day and draining our wallets every semester. However following these simple tricks can help you reduce your cost by a large amount, saving you money to redesign your dorm room and wardrobe easily. One final note as you finish your class, consider selling your books. Not only will it bring you some money that you can use to buy books in the next semester, but it will also be a source for other students like you to buy a book cheaper than the market making it a profitable venture for all!

The lie that is "Industrial Organic"

As I discussed last week, in the book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” Michael Pollan is trying to discover where our food comes from. In the first section of the book, he tries to track his food through the industrial food chain, looking at how corn is the basis of most of our food today. In the second part, some of which I will discuss today and some part in the next post, we see Michael Pollan going organic. He goes to Whole Foods, buys organic vegetables and meat. But one day he realizes that he should discover where the organic food comes from and if it really is different from industrially produced food. Where does his journey take him? Follow along!

The journey starts because of Rosie, the chicken. Who is Rosie you might ask? Well one day while shopping for groceries at Whole Foods, Pollan starts reading the labels on various products, especially the poultry/meat products that made claims about free range, sustainable farmed meat. Among one of these was a farm who’s label even included the name of the chicken you are about to eat, Rosie. Now as awkward as it is to know your food’s name, it did ignite the desire in Pollan’s heart to go see where Rosie came from. And so began the journey of Industrial Organic.

Industrial Organic? What is that? I always thought Organic meant farms, self-sustained, not using chemicals, but with Industrial Organic, is that even possible? Is the term Organic just to make us, the consumers, happy? Turns out, partially the term is just to make us happy. But under all circumstances, organic is certainly better than industrially produced food. Now I’ve told you the fact but let me explain how Pollan got to this fact. Pollan decided to visit various organic farms, including some large farming companies that dominate the organic food industry. What he discovers is that these farming companies are similar to industrial farms in the sense that they own large acres of land that produce a single crop every year. To maintain these crops, even these farmers use pesticides and chemical fertilizers; however, they use chemicals that have been declared “organic” by the government. Many small farmers believe that this is just a play on the word organic by the government but Pollan believes that this is still better than industrially used chemicals.

From here on, he decides to visit Rosie’s home. As he gets to the farm where Rosie came from, he realizes that the use of words such as free range and sustainably raised, are not exactly the perfect description. The chicken in the farm were not allowed to go outside for the first five week because of the fear of them catching a disease. After that they only had two weeks because they were slaughtered the seventh week. In the two weeks these chickens had, they were allowed access to a small area outside the hen house, accessible through a tiny door. What Pollan observed was that none of the chicken went outside because after remaining inside since birth till the fifth week they never understood the outside world and probably did not even know that they could go outside. So much for free range right. These chickens were also given organic corn feed, and as I discussed in the previous blog, corn is certainly not what chickens eat.

Hence we realize that with Industrial Organic, it is safer than industrial farming because the chemicals and the feed aren’t as harmful, but the whole idea of organic is not what we imagine it to be. It is just a big play on words. But that is all about industrial organic produce, what about smaller farm? Farms that are operated by small farmers on a more sustainable level? Well, that’s what you will find out next week in my next blog post, so make sure to come back and read about more of Pollan’s interesting discoveries.

The story of industrial farming

Michael Pollan’s “Omnivore’s Dilemma” is the first book I have read about the food industry and its move from farms to factories, and I can say that it has definitely made me think of either becoming a vegetarian or an avid supporter of organic produce and free range chicken/animals. What in the book made me think that way? To answer that, let us explore the first section of the book called “The Industrial Corn.”

Michael Pollan started his journey to explore where our food comes from and what it is made out of. His question was can he go all the way back to a farm where our food came from? Is it possible to see the farmer who raised the chicken we eat? As we read through the first section we realize it’s not really possible. Food today goes through so many complex stages, specially processed food, that it is impossible to know where it came from and what it is made of. However, Michael Pollan claims that most of our food today is corn based and as I read that sentence I was quite skeptical, no way is our food made of corn. The most corn you and I eat is if we eat corn tortillas and believe me, I eat that only once in 6 months. But as I read through the first section, I realized he was right. Most of our products today include corn byproducts, from different corn based chemicals used for preservation to the biggest corn product, High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). He describes the journey of corn into our food by going all the way back to a corn farm and how it is produced. As I read through this journey, I realized that I never thought of how many chemicals go into growing corn and how dangerous a lot of these chemicals are. A lot of fertilizers are used to enhance the growth of corn, and to increase the productivity of the land. But what we miss is that most of these chemical, even though approved by the Government, aren’t exactly the healthiest for humans, e.g. fertilizers made from fossil fuels to increase the nitrogen content of the soil. According to Pollan, since we cannot drink fossil fuel directly, humans have found a way to make it a part of our produce. And an even worst part is that these fertilizers end up destroying nature, taking away the good soil, and the leftovers of the chemicals ending up in our rivers and oceans leaving the water undrinkable and killing marine life.

Now even though we have a lot of corn byproducts, it doesn’t mean corn is a main part of our everyday meals. I mean, for someone like me who cooks at home and loves eating chicken, I cannot be consuming so much corn. Or so I had thought. As we follow Pollan’s journey, we end up from corn farms to animal farms or animal factories, as I like to call them. Why you may ask. Let me explain. When I think of an animal farm, I think of open meadows, cows grazing, and chicken walking around, animals being happy, eating what they like and being healthy. However, the truth, as I learned from the book is quite different. The true image is cows standing in their own filth, crowded into small spaces where they can’t move and thousands of chicken closed into small spaces with not even enough space to spread their wings. This image is so well hidden by the food manufacturers today that consumers like you and I have no idea of how the animals we are eating are being treated and what impacts it can create on the quality of food. Pollan reveals it all in this section of the book, including animal diets.

Some images of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO)

And guess what the animals are being fed, Corn! Why did I not think of corn? I know why, because chicken and cows don’t eat corn. The animals are biologically not made to eat corn. However because corn is cheap, gets animals fat faster and ready for slaughter, all the animal factories feed these poor animals with corn. And since this doesn’t work with animal bodies and they get sick, most of this feed includes chemicals and antibiotics so the animals can somehow digest the food. What we don’t realize is that this whole process not only increases the chances of diseases in these animals but also chances of transmission to human beings. Pollan claims that there are more food related problems today because of the way we are making our food, such as modified feed for the animals that is full of chemicals, corn and sometimes even proteins from other animals, none of which are suitable for these animals.

The next few stops of Pollan's journey take us away from the farm and to the processed food industry. What he realizes is that a lot of food that we are eating today is enhanced quite a bit, providing us with high calories even in small portions, and hence the American obesity problem. Pollan realizes that in a lot of other countries, people eat similar food, foods that we claim unhealthy, yet they stay healthy and fit. He says that the reason behind them staying healthy is that their food is not as much modified as ours and not so rich in calories. These modified/processed products lead to far more diseases and health issues than we think of. We blame our diets, we move form meat to no meat, bread to no bread and so on in our meals. But what we don’t realize is that it is not the meat or the bread that is unhealthy; it is the way it’s processed that makes it unhealthy. And no matter what we switch to, as long as what we eat is processed or modified, it will never be healthy.

Now all this combined made me realize that perhaps I should move to organic food. It is healthier not only for me but also for the environment. All the fertilizers and chemicals not only cause diseases but also increase global warming by polluting our lands, air and water. This chemically created food is also fed to the animals that we eat today, harming their lives and the eco system. I understand that the next section of the book goes through organic farms and how they work and I cannot wait to understand the organic farm system and I certainly hope it is better than the industrial farm system.

The Not So Ordinary Accountant

Key Point: This article provides the reader a description of my job as an accountant and some of its aspects

I am an accountant, but I am no ordinary accountant. When most people think of accountants, they imagine someone who does the taxes, which some accountants do but not me. Do you want to know what I do? I am an auditor. What is an auditor you ask? Well read on and you will know.

If you know what audit is, you are either part of the financial industry or are somehow involved in the financial industry. For the rest of the world, we probably don’t exist. An Auditor is a person who tests company financial statements for their accuracy, completeness and tests for fraud in companies. We spend our time tearing apart financial statements to learn about the company and then reconstructing them before an investor looks at them and makes his/her decision about potential investments in a company.

If I had to use three descriptions to sum up the duties of an accountant, I would use the following:

1. Detective
2. Lawyer
3. Knight

I’ll describe each of these using examples from my everyday schedule:

Detective:

Just like a detective, one of my biggest tasks every day is to dig deeper into financial statements and test various financial accounts to find clues as to whether there is any fraud happening in the company. For example, if I were to test the inventory account of Company A, assuming that there might be fraud, I dig deeper into the financial statements to figure out what constitutes inventory in Company A. Once I know what makes up the inventory, I will go test that by going to company storage, sales centers and shipping docks to make sure the reported inventory not only exists but is reported correctly. If there is a problem we take it back to the company to resolve and fix the financial statements or we report it to the public and investors who hire us to find fraud in a company.

Lawyer:

In this role, an auditor studies the laws of financial reporting and consults companies about corrections to their financial statements. Not only that but like a lawyer, we also defend our clients’ use of certain accounting policies in courts, to investors and to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a government entity that oversees all public companies. We work for investors to look into specific accounting policies of a company before they make an investment. E.g. we work on debt offering, which is when a company decides to take on debt but needs investors to give them money as a debt. We would look into the accounting policies associated to the debt offering, making sure whether everything looks good, and if there is a problem, we consult the company on how they should change their policies. If policies are according to the law and provide an accurate financial picture of the company, we explain these policies to investors and defend them.

Knight:

This is the most dramatic role of an auditor. We are the knights of the financial world because we look for frauds such as Enron and WorldCom and warn the world about them. If we however miss these frauds, it can lead to major financial issues such as company bankruptcies and loss of investor money and more importantly investor faith in the financial market. We protect the people from financial harm, not just people who work in finance, but also employees of companies. E.g. a lot of employees invest their retirement money in company stocks, bonds or pension plans. All this money can be used for fraudulent purposes but as knights of the financial world, we keep a check on what a company is doing and stop it if a fraud occurs. We care about the financial well-being of the country and its people, and that I believe makes us Knights.

So that is what I am, an auditor, a special kind of accountant that looks for fraud and inaccuracy of the Financial Statements. I make sure that the world is aware of a company’s financial health. I believe we are like detectives, lawyers and knights of the financial industry, finding fraud, defending clients and protecting the people. So the next time you see me or any other accountant, remember we are more than we appear.

Readability Statistics:

Passive Sentences: 6%
Flesch Reading Ease: 53.8
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 11.1