I graduated high school not too long ago, so I am very new to college land. That being said, it has been very overwhelming thinking about paying for tuition and all the other associated costs of living on campus. I am fortunate in the fact that my parents are really helping me out with paying, so I took on paying for my own textbooks. Since some textbooks can cost $200 or more...I wanted to save as much money as possible.
It makes me physically uncomfortable to hear about people who pay full price for every single book and end up paying $400 for one semester. That is the last thing I wanted to do! So as silly as this sounds, the way I only payed $80 was by making a spreadsheet!
There were so many websites and options for books that I really needed to organize them to find the best option. To find the lowest price I looked between my college bookstore, Amazon and Chegg. Under each of the websites I found the price of renting new, renting used, buying new, and buying used for each book. I went through and highlighted the book I was purchasing.
I could have saved even more money than I did, but I did purchase some books new from Amazon that I thought might be handy in the future (I also purchased one new book from Amazon before I made the spreadsheet). So many people told me to use Chegg to get my books, but when comparing prices they were actually more expensive than the bookstore. I would have never known this if I didn't make the spreadsheet! However, I cannot say that I will never use them in the future.
There are so many people who don't know what their options are, so they pick one place to get them and that is it. But there are also people like me who feel overwhelmed with everything I could choose and can't make up my mind. Unless you have a fat stack of cash sitting around (no judgement if you do) then I highly suggest doing your research! Everyone's needs are different so it doesn't hurt to look around. I know making a spreadsheet seems like an unnecessary amount of effort, but I am so glad I did it. I saved quite a bit of money and it is so satisfying!
May you never spend too much on textbooks! Happy college-ing my friends!
