Footing the cost of an education is hard. Paying for your textbooks amongst all the other necessary items when you get to school is even harder. With the cost of textbooks rising every year and the need for the newest edition increasing, college students are actually going broke. Yesterday I heard someone say that they would rather get a B- in the class and not have to buy the textbooks than to waste the 500 dollars on books and receive an A.
So what do we do? Well, there are many options for finding a bargain on your college textbooks, but it involves some investigating. The cheapest options aren't going to jump out at you. In fact, you might have to become pretty resourceful. When it comes time to order those textbooks, check out some of these helpful hints to lower the bill.
1. Use the school library
If your school library is anything like mine, it will have a reserve section designated for the textbooks that are used in classes on campus. A lot of the time you are not allowed to leave the library with these textbooks, so many people scan the pages they need and email them to themselves. If your school library doesn't have a scanner, you can download an app called Scanner Pro 7 for iOS devices. The app creates high-quality scans of your document by using your camera.
2. Shop around on different textbook rental websites
Renting is one of the least expensive alternatives to buying your textbooks, and there are tons of different websites where you can get them from. I like to create a spreadsheet in Excel to compare the prices of the different rental websites. In the column heading I will put the different textbook websites and for the rows I will put the textbook I need. Then I put the prices down for each and compare for the cheapest option. Chegg.com, Half.com and CampusBookRentals.com are just a few places where you can start your search.
Note: Make sure to keep track of where each textbook comes from when renting from multiple places to avoid paying a replacement fee.
3. Amazon
Amazon is really good for the types of books that are not anthologies. What I really like about Amazon is the two-day shipping -- especially when you wait until the last minute to get your textbooks and your assignment is quickly approaching. If you don't care about how long it will take for your textbooks then you can select the "More Buying Choices" and choose to purchase them from a third-party seller. By taking this route, I was able to get three textbooks for 12 dollars, including shipping -- however, they won't be here until the middle of September.
4. Join a textbook exchange Facebook group
Textbook exchange Facebook groups are really helpful since you usually don't have to go far to pick up your textbooks because the people with the book likely go to your school. On these Facebook groups, students post their old textbooks in hopes that there are students who need them. You can bargain and barter for these books, which is something you can't do on Amazon and other rental services.
5. Share the textbook with someone in your class
If you have someone in the same class as you who agrees to sharing a textbook, go for it. Don't be cheap and make them foot the cost. The both of you should split the price of the bill and share accordingly. This works since a lot of the time professors don't even use the textbook in class anyway.
