4 Ways to Save on College Textbooks
By Kendall Bitonte, GalTime Associate Producer
As a rising college senior, I've had my share of textbook and school supply shopping experiences. In elementary school, I scouted for the best marker sets, middle school was all about the Disney spiral notebooks and high school required high tech calculators and more efficient assignment planners. However, all those hours in the School Supply aisles of Target, Office Max and the like did not prepare me for the pre-semester school supply shopping in the college bookstore.
The College Board reports that the national average of students at 4-year universities spent $1,137 on books in the 2010-2011 school year. With already soaring tuition costs, not to mention room & board, entertainment and food expenses, paying for materials for class can become a difficult burden to bear.
Consumer Saving Expert Andrea Woroch says not to fear and has plenty of ideas to lessen the blow of the cost of books and supplies to the bank account.
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Do the budget research beforehand to find the best deals.
"Setting a budget all depends on the types of classes and number of classes you are preparing for. Price out products, supplies and books online before making any purchases. Then search for any deals with coupons and search craigslist or eBay for used supplies like a pre-owned financial calculator, etc." Woroch says.
Rent. Share. Download. Don't buy new.
Rent. Woroch claims that renting textbooks is the most cost effective option for college students since textbook publishers reissue new versions of the text very often. She suggests checking out chegg.com for rental deals on text books.
Share. Beyond renting, sharing textbooks with classmates is another smart idea. Woroch says-work out a cooperative study and reading schedule and not only do you split the cost of the books but you have a study buddy!
Download. Many textbooks have CDROM and Internet versions of their text books. Woroch also mentions that sites like Project Gutenberg have an extensive library of classic texts available for free download.
Buy Used. If you can't find the text you in the virtual or rental version, look for a website that offers buying used versions of texts or go to a used bookstore. Woroch says students will often sell books for a fair price. Check out craigslist.com, amazon.com or ecampus.com.
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Coupons! Coupons!
She specifically recommends using couponsherpa.com, which allows you to browse, select and print out coupons before heading out shopping. Woroch says coupons are especially useful when looking for school supplies like notebooks and other bulk-like purchases. Talk about efficient!
Sell Back.
When the semester is over, don't let all your pre-shopping budgeting go to waste, Woroch says, "When you are selling your books, look for the biggest return." She says the college bookstore offers a small fraction of the worth of the book and students would be better off selling books back." Plus, by selling your books back at a fair, low cost, you're helping out the next semester's students. Good karma never hurts a budget!
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