10. Rent textbooks online
Speaking of books, you can save some money on college textbooks by renting them instead of buying them.
Founded in 2006, Bookrenter.com lets students at schools across the country rent textbooks. Bookrenter, which says it has millions of titles to choose from, offers rentals for one to four months. There are no late fees and you can opt to extend a rental period or buy a book. The company also offers free return shipping.
Chegg.com also offers textbook rentals. Chegg says it offers students over a million titles to choose from, and free return shipping. But Chegg goes a step farther than other companies; Chegg says it plants a tree for every textbook rented. Since its inception in August, Chegg says it has planted over 100 acres of trees, equivalent to 100 football fields.
11. Bank online
Most banks offer users the opportunity to conduct their bank business online. Not only is it convenient, but it will also save money because you won't have to drive to your local branch to perform transactions, plus some online banks offer better interest rates than the brick and mortar businesses.
Online banks use a secure Web site set to view your account information and print it out if your want. You can also view and print out copies of canceled checks. In addition, you can transfer money from one account to another, pay bills and order checks. If you opt out of receiving paper statements, you'll even save some trees.
Although most brick and mortar banks offer online services here are a couple links to Internet-only banks. ING Direct provides services online , as well as via telephone and mail. ING Direct offers Electric Orange, a paperless checking account that pays interest and the no-fee or minimum balance Orange savings account.
E Trade Financial also offers banking products and services online, including savings and checking accounts and certificates of deposit.