College textbooks are notoriously expensive! Parents might be able to save money on the clothing and computer that their college student brings to school. Textbooks, though, aren’t as easy to save money on. Here are a few frugal tips that can help you save a little bit on the cost of textbooks.
Barnes & Noble has a deal that they seem to be calling “nook study”. There is a free app that you can download to your PC, Mac, or iPad. Well, the iPad version is “coming soon”.
The app will allow you to save up to 60% on eTextbooks. It lets you access 2.5 million eBooks and eTextbooks instantly. It also has the capability to help a student organize everything they need to study into one place. The app lets you rent eTextbooks and save up to 40% on them.
Barnes & Noble is also allowing people to rent physical textbooks. It says that you can save up to 70% off when you rent a textbook. Keep the book you rent in good conditions, because if you damage it you will be charged with the replacement of the book. This means you can’t use a highlighter in it, or write in the margins.
Powell’s sells a wide variety of new and used books. There is potential that you might be able to purchase a used copy of the textbook that you need from Powell’s. Make sure that you search by ISBN number, for best results. To do that, you need to click on the link that says “advanced search”.
Amazon has a sale on e-Textbooks for Kindle. You can save up to 60% off when you buy an e-Textbook, or up to 80% off when you rent an e-Textbook. Kindle e-Textbooks can be read on Kindle Fire, iPad, PC, or Mac. To do that, just download the free Kindle app.
Amazon also allowing students to rent physical textbooks. You can save up to 70% off when you rent a physical copy of your textbook. Amazon will send you a reminder as your return date for the book approaches.
You can also extend the rental period for an additional fee. Again, you really don’t want to highlight in the rented textbook, or write in it, (because that could lead to you being charged for the entire purchase price of the book).
It has been said that the worst place to purchase a college textbook is at the university’s book store, because they tend sell textbooks at a higher price than other places will. Fortunately, you have plenty of other, much less expensive, options.
Image by Alberto G. on Flickr