10 Tricks to Get Textbooks For Less Money

Making School A Bit More Affordable

While it may be thrilling to have gotten into your favorite college or university, it often comes with a steep price tag. Students may have prepared for the tuition costs, but there are also often additional costs that weren’t factored into the original budget. One of these costs is textbooks. Unlike primary school, universities don’t equip you with the required textbooks for the class. This is because Professors choose what textbook they intend to teach from. It can change year-by-year in order for them to always teach from the most up-to-date information.

For many students, the cost of textbooks can be significantly high. Prices can easily start at $100 and grow from there. In order to help yourself save a bit of money, you need a few ideas on how to save on your books. This article will go over 10 tricks that you can use to help reduce the cost of books.

1. Rent Online

Thanks to the Internet, there are many online bookstores that offer the ability to rent books. These rental prices are usually a lot cheaper than buying the book. Considering that you likely only ever need the book for a year or a few years, it makes a lot more sense to rent rather than buy your books. You can find quite a few sites that rent books, however, you should be careful and only rent through reputable sites. Otherwise, you might find yourself with the wrong edition of the book or find yourself the victim of a scam without any book at all.

2. Rent At School

In some cases, you may also be able to rent the book at your local library or at a campus bookstore. These are usually limited in quantity, so you need to act quickly. As soon as your teacher posts the required books for the semester, hit up your library or the local stores to see if any of them allow you to rent the book. Their prices may still run a little steeper than those you might for online rental stores, however.

3. Use Library Edition

If you’re lucky, your library may have a copy of the book that they don’t let people check out. Whenever you need to refer to the book, you can just go to the local library and give it a read. This is an excellent choice for those whose Professors only teach loosely from the book. It can help to reinforce some information without requiring you to buy it outright. Once you receive your list of books, check your library to see if they have a copy.

4. Earn Money By Selling Books

If you’re already at college and have some books on hand, you can make some extra cash by selling them. You can easily sell textbooks online or even by posting notices within the buildings. A lot of students taking the class that you finished are likely going to want the book. However, you shouldn’t want too long to sell textbooks as the Professors do like to change them out quickly. By selling them, you can make yourself enough money to buy your new books with ease.

5. Buy Pre-Owned

Unless you have an absolute need to buy a book fresh from the publisher, you should always consider buying pre-owned copies first. While they may be a little worn and have notes written within them, you can easily save money. You may even find the scribbled notes to be helpful.

6. E-Books

In some cases, you may find that your book is available in an electronic format. These formats are usually significantly cheaper than their physical clones. It’s also a lot easier to access the ebook when you need it rather than tote along a heavy book from class to class.

7. Hand-Me-Downs

If you have an older brother or sister or even friends who took the class before, then you should see if they have still had their books. If so, you can just borrow them or take them off of their hands free-of-charge. Utilize those connections for maximum benefit.

8. Share Costs And Book

For those who have a friend in the class, you may want to talk to them about sharing the cost of the book. By splitting it in half, or even into thirds, you will find that the price is far more affordable. The only possible downside is that you also need to share that book with other people. This shouldn’t be too difficult to do provided you’re dormmates or hang out together a lot. You can easily both benefit financially and by having a study buddy.

9. Go One Edition Earlier

In some cases, you can actually use an edition earlier than the one your Professor requires. This is because the information doesn’t always significantly change from one year to the next. However, it would be a good idea to double check with your Professor to ensure that it’s alright. Older editions are often cheaper.

10. Look Online

Sometimes you can also find your book online. Not necessarily in e-book format, but because someone was kind enough to upload it on a website. You may even get by without it by using other sources like OpenStax.