For me, even more so than tuition, textbooks are the financial killer. With financial aid, I know I’m generally okay on tuition, but often, financial aid isn’t enough to cover textbooks unless you also have taken out loans. Additionally, (more expensive) new editions are often released annually, upping the fees even more. As a result, I’m always on the lookout for a cheaper way to get them.

Use the library. I know, I know – I already babbled once about the library. But in this instance, it has a more practical function: it saves you money on text books. Some books you can’t get at the library (most of these will be related to the sciences), but for your core literature classes, you can save money on those huge, ridiculously expensive (and heavy!) anthologies by checking out each piece as you need it. Also helpful to me in literature classes was the internet – almost all poems and plays you possibly can read will be on a website, patiently waiting for you to need them. Of great help to me was Arcamax. Arcamax is a site that has huge compilations of the classics, including poetry, plays and other pieces of note. Since very few professors assign literature that falls outside this category, you can save some money this way. For particularly long pieces, I cut and paste them into a Word document and print them. Even on a long piece, the paper and ink are still usually cheaper than buying a book. In instances where Arcamax doesn’t have the piece you’re looking for, a simple Google search will often produce a full version of the text at no cost to you. My only regret is that I realised I could avoid using the textbooks for my lit classes after the first one.

Consider older editions. Generally the pagination changes, and there are sometimes new problems to work or small updates, but in my experience, going 1-2 editions back makes no appreciable change in your ability to keep up with the class and can save a lot of money. The only caveat here is that sometimes in the sciences, the new editions also contain new research. For basic courses, this usually isn’t a big deal, but in more advanced classes it can be problematic. If you’re looking at older editions for the sciences, check with your professor to see if there’s supplementary material you can download to replace what might be missing in the older book.

Of course, we all know about used textbooks. Buying used can save you around 50% on books, and I’ve found that the highlightings and other markings from previous students actually streamline my studying a bit (usually, but not always). It’s important to note that the campus bookstore is not the only place to get used textbooks. Often there are shops just off campus that sell books, and usually their used prices are slightly cheaper than those at the campus bookstore. In addition, it never hurts to write down the ISBN of the textbooks you’ll need and then look in regular used bookshops for them. In instances where they’re available at regular used bookstores, the prices are significantly cheaper than at either the campus bookstore or the off-campus textbook sellers. Like, a lot cheaper. Once I noticed an anthropology book I’d spent $80 on in the campus bookstore lingering on the shelves of a regular bookstore being sold for $12. I was really mad that I hadn’t looked there first.

Using the internet, however, is where I’ve found the best, most consistent savings. A calculus book I had to buy cost around $200 new. The book was for three courses, but $200 is still a big pill to swallow. When I looked on Amazon, I found it for $70, new. It didn’t come with the CD, but we didn’t need the CD in my class anyway. Additionally, check on eBay and also on half.com. Many times you can find used copies for super cheap, because people just want those books out of their houses and are willing to cut you a great deal as a result. There are other sites out there, such as Bookbyte which sell books slightly cheaper than B&M stores. Lastly, since many colleges and universities contract out their bookstores to Barnes and Noble, it doesn’t hurt to look in their online catalog to see if you can find your books there, on sale (they often offer special student deals on their main website, and holders of the B&N card can get additional savings if they buy online).

Consider book rentals as well. Sites such as Chegg, BookRenter and CampusBookRentals offer textbook rentals per quarter, semester or year. Most of these types of sites offer free shipping as well, so you really are only paying for the book for the time period you need it in. In addition, these sites all buy textbooks from people, so you can sell the ones you had to purchase to them. This also generally includes free shipping, so you print a shipping label and mail it in, cost free. Your check will arrive in the mail 2-4 weeks later, usually.

Another thing to do is to look around at the fliers on the walls of your campus. Aside from the tutors hawking their expertise, students often post notices of the books they’re selling. Generally, they sell those books for slightly more than the bookstore will give them but less than you’d pay for a used copy at the campus store. I got a speech book for $30 once, which was being sold used at the bookstore for $50. When I sold the book back to the bookstore, I got $35 for it, leaving me with a $5 profit on the transaction. Though I’m sure I’ll never really make a profit again, I was very proud that I got the book back to the store fast enough to get a better value for it. Anyway, the point was that you can get cheaper books from other students, since students want more than they’ll get from the bookstore, and know they have to sell cheaper than the bookstore’s used price listing. You can also check with friends, relatives and significant others who’re a year or so ahead of you, to see if you can borrow books they didn’t sell back (I am using my boyfriend’s old physics book the next two semesters, which will save me a couple hundred bucks). You just never know what people have laying around the house.

The last thing I want to mention is that in very few instances do you really need to keep your old textbooks. During my first college experience, I was convinced I would need my books to refer back to. Over time, I realised that the opposite was actually true. So now, aside from math books I really will need to refer back to (sometimes I prefer to use the old text books to do practice problems for concepts I’ve forgotten, rather than just looking up the theorem online), I sell everything back. Check with the bookstore to see what kinds of rates they offer. The community college I’m transferring from buys books back at 50% of their new value if you go early during the buy back period. Generally the faster you get your books in, the more money you make on them. If you wait, they already have a pile of the same book and therefore will just offer you a few dollars for them, if anything at all (that’s why the guy who sold me the speech book was getting more from me than from the store, even though I got more later for being quick in my sale). Other schools have different rates, so it doesn’t hurt to check the buy back value on the rental sites, then compare with what your campus bookstore is offering. If the campus store offers less, keep the book and sell online. If it’s more, you’ll have a few more dollars in your pocket for minimal effort.

[Editor’s Note: Reader Trish sent in a message about an additional site to consider for college textbooks called Flat World Knowledge. Apparently, ALL the books they offer are free, with various methods for obtaining them. When I checked it out, the selection wasn’t that great - but it’s an interesting idea. They make money not by restricting access but by selling complementary ways to consume the free book (i.e. print or audio) and study aids. Interesting stuff.]