2006 08 29 My Mother's Daughter

My mom has always been a bargain hunter. Once I left home, nearly every visit to where I grew up started with hello's and kisses and followed with "you'll never guess the deal I got on..." As a result, I've become a habitual sale hunter, garage saler, and coupon user! LOL But, while my mom and I still struggle to come to some level of comfortable understanding of each other, I still smile and think of her when I find a deal like I did today. Can't wait to tell her when the kids and I go to the other side of the state to visit her when Da Hubby is out of town from this Thursday until next Friday.

I needed to check on the cost of the two books for my fall class. So, while Viking #1 was with Grandma and Papa today, VIking #2 and I loaded up the stroller and headed to the local campus. We jogged through the rain and into the main building which holds the bookstore, winded through some back hallways to avoid the crowds, and eventually found ourselves in the correct section and aisle of the bookstore.

The two books for my class brand new would be over $170! *gasp* Yikes! And, even the used ones would still cost nearly $120! *sigh* So, I copied down the full titles, which edition they were, and their ISBN numbers and headed home.

Once Viking #2 was down for his nap, I headed out on the Internet to see what I could find. Withing a few minutes, I found one of my texts for $50! Wa-hoo! Then, I thought "I wonder if anyone has these books on Ebay?" Hmmm... So as I picked through the listings there, I saw an auction that ended in under 2 minutes! And, it was MY edition! So, I quickly clicked and checked out the listing...it was BOTH of my books for a current bid of $58. But, I only had about 1 minute left! Yikes! I quickly decided how much I could bid and just put in the highest I was willing to go....and less than one minute later, I was the happy owner of both used but unmarked textbooks for $75 including shipping!!!! WA-HOO! A total savings of nearly $100!! Praise God!! Let's hope the first orientation class goes as well on Thursday night...