It’s Day 2 of Prime Day. Let’s hear it: Are you snapping up deals, or is the whole thing overhyped? Personally, I think I just love online window-shopping.

In lieu of fun “lightning deals,” let’s talk about how to save money on college textbooks.

Whatever you do, don’t purchase your textbooks from the university bookstore. Be willing to go on deep dives and make scrappy efforts to save money.

MONEY TIPS

Best ways to save money on college textbooks

Let’s jump right in. So, the most obvious and easy way to save money on college textbooks is to just see if someone’s posted it online as a PDF for free. Conveniently enough, there are tons of journal articles and full-length books floating around on Google that you can download and keep forever.

But here are some other ways that might be useful for you try if you’re not able to afford highly-priced books.

1. Form a textbook group and share the content with everyone.

The process is simple: Get together a large group of people in your class who need/want this textbook. Have one person in the group buy the textbook (split the cost of the textbook by having the rest of the group pay this person back). Then, have everyone in the group scan an equal amount of the textbook pages into PDFs. Send the PDFs to one person who merges them into one giant PDF of the entire textbook. Share with the group.

And honestly, you could even return the textbook after doing all of that, and then nobody has to pay anything. The reason this works best as a group is so that one person isn’t stuck having to scan in hundreds of pages by themselves… although, you could do that if you wanted to.

2. Rent your textbook online from a company like Chegg or Amazon.

You can rent a $200 textbook for less than $20/semester. That’s a pretty sweet deal. I’ve rented quite a few textbooks, and trust me, you really don’t need to hang onto them after the class ends. From this standpoint, rentals work perfectly fine, especially when saving money is the priority.

3. Buy a used book and try to resell it after the semester ends.

Technically, there’s a chance that this will allow you to make money off of your textbook if you’re able to mark it up by a few dollars on the flip. You’ll want to sell it immediately after you’re done using it for the semester. Don’t wait, or you run the risk of your book depreciating in value if a new edition rolls out or if your textbook is dropped from the “required books list” for whatever reason.

4. Apply for textbook scholarships.

There are tons out there that you can apply for. Here are a couple that you could check out. Some of the deadlines have passed, but you can bookmark to revisit later and apply next year.

• Free Textbooks for a Year Scholarship

• Quarterly Book Scholarship: $500

• USTA Serves College Textbook Scholarship: $1,000

• APHA Textbook Scholarship: $500

5. Buy an older edition of the textbook you need.

They’re most likely going to be a lot cheaper than the newer edition, and you can usually get some of the updated practice problems or concepts from a classmate’s book. The general content of the textbook, however, doesn’t change all that much between certain editions. Check eBay or Facebook Marketplace to see if someone’s trying to get rid of their outdated book.

6. Don’t buy your textbooks from the university bookstore.

No matter what you end up doing, you’re probably going to end up paying more money on a textbook bought from the university bookstore than anywhere else. Bookstore textbooks are marked up for convenience. Always check around to see if someone else offers you a better deal.

7. Don’t buy textbooks at all.

Before you buy anything, wait until the first day of class and see what the professor says about the textbook(s) they “require.” Then ask yourself: Do you really need the textbook they’re asking you to get?

This is a secret that college professors oftentimes won’t tell you or encourage you to do, because it can be really helpful to have the textbooks. It could maximize what you learn in the class and really give you a boost on exams if the professor pulls questions straight from the book.

But it’s fair to be realistic: If you had the book, do you actually plan to read it? If you do plan to use its content, can you find that content elsewhere for cheaper or even free? How crucial is that textbook to your success in the course?

Good luck 🫡

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‘SUP