With all the excitement of starting classes again, it’s easy to forget one of the biggest headache for us college students: textbooks. There are hardly any classes offered that do not require, or at least suggest, buying a textbook. And of course, only the most recent (most expensive) edition will do.
So what’s a student on a budget to do? If you’re anything other than a freshman, by now you should know one major rule: The School Bookstore is Your Last Resort!
It’s not that the bookstore is purposely seeking to clean out your wallet, it’s just that you have so many more options. The first step in being a savvy book shopper is to get on the web. Popular sites such as Chegg and Amazon are top players with reputable names and hard to beat prices. They’re not the only sites out there though. Just a simple Google search for “textbook” or “textbook rentals” will pop up a multitude of websites such as ValoreBooks, CampusBookRentals, Ecampus, and many more. There are even whole web pages dedicated simply to compare sites’ prices. Using these sites can save you a lot of time searching and comparing for both buying and renting options.
After doing all the calculations for my own textbook needs this year, it was clear to me that online was the way to go. Personally, this semester if I had rented used books for all six of my classes from my bookstore, I would have spent exactly $357.35. Using Cheapest Textbooks, I was able to find the cheapest online prices for renting used books which came to a total of $194.48. Yes, I will be spending just under $200 for 6 whole books!
Now of course there will be times when you simply cannot find the exact book you need online, and that’s when your on campus bookstore becomes a great option.