Save On Textbooks
At the beginning of the semester probably one of your largest expenses is textbooks. However, there are a number of ways to minimise this cost. Firstly you should consider the three following questions:
1) What books do I really need?
2) Can I loan these books from the library?
3) If I can’t loan all the books, where is the cheapest place to buy books?
Loaning Books
Firstly I will consider whether you need to buy textbooks at all, as loaning books will obviously cost you nothing. Most textbooks can usually be found in small to medium sized quantities in your university library, depending on the size of the library. However, they usually go quickly, so you should act fast. Once you have got out these books you can usually keep renewing them once a week for the length of the semester, unless someone puts a hold on the book. Therefore, if you can find and loan all your textbooks from the library, you may not need to spend anything at all on books-good times.
Buying Books
If you cannot loan the textbooks you want (bad times), then there a number of alternatives to consider:
1) Union Book Shop
Union book shops are usually well stocked with the textbooks that you need and they sometimes offer discounts on large purchases. However, the majority of the time they are the most expensive option to buy from, but you should always compare prices and shop around, because in certain cases they may be the cheapest.
2) Amazon and Amazon Marketplace
Amazon is usually cheaper than your union bookshop, however it is not always. Amazon Marketplace is a brilliant feature (found below the amazon price under “new & used”) in which you can pick up books for even less from lots of different sellers. These may be new or old; however the condition of a textbook usually doesn’t really matter, so it is advisable to pick the cheapest book even if it is used. However, you should also consider where it is being sent from and how long it will take to post if you need the book by a certain time.
3) Alternatives
Other alternatives include high street shops, however these are usually expensive and not well stocked in certain textbooks, but some do offer student discounts. Second-hand book shops however do provide a cheaper alternative, for example you may have an Oxfam bookshop in your student area. Another good place to check is ebay, however usually people use Amazon Marketplace to sell their old textbooks, therefore often their range of textbooks is not as good.
Top Tips
- Loan all your textbooks if you can
- Look around especially at Amazon Marketplace and second-hand book shops if you need to buy
Little Saver Rating
if you loan all of your textbooks
if you look around and buy from the cheapest places
3 Comments... add one below
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April 15, 2008 2:27 pm
Yes I agree. I have not bought from my university bookstore for a long time and instead I buy textbooks from online bookstores. For example, I bought all my textbooks for this semester from Cocomartini.com.
Top Five Student Money Savers
May 4, 2008 8:45 pm
[...] You can save a huge amount of money on textbooks by loaning and finding the cheapest places to buy them. Read more in this post Save On Textbooks. [...]
July 16, 2008 1:29 am
The problem when you order a textbook online is that you don’t receive it straight away.
For some of my classes I need to have my hands on the textbooks immediatly. As a result I have to go to the local library… and pay a premium