How to Save Hundreds of Dollars on Your College Textbooks

College is expensive. Really expensive. As the cost of a higher education continues to increase, students around the country are struggling to make ends meet. The unfortunate fact of the matter, however, is that there are only so many places that students can cut costs. Sure, ramen noodles are considerably cheaper than most other dinner options, but what if someone is already eating ramen for every meal? Then what? The price of tuition is set in stone, as is the cost of student’s fees. There is one category of spending that can be greatly reduced, though; college textbooks.

So what is the best strategy for saving a lot of money of your textbooks? Brace yourself, because this might blow your mind; SHOP AROUND. How crazy is it that students are always on the hunt for cheap food and cheap apartments, but they will walk into their campus bookstore, without thinking, and repeatedly overpay for their textbooks? The internet has made comparison shopping easier than ever, and this means that a little effort can pay off in a big way.

There are some a few specific websites that allow you to enter to title or ISBN of a textbook you are looking for, and immediately see a list of all the websites that offer that book, and for what price. These comparison websites can greatly reduce the amount of time that it takes to find the cheapest price, and most of these websites feature the most prominent and reliable textbook websites. Some websites, such as TextbookStop.com (among others), offer several different textbook options on a single website. TextbookStop.com offers both the option to rent textbooks as well as buy used textbooks, making the choice to buy or rent easier than ever. When the semester is over, you can even sell your textbooks online. Pretty sweet huh?

So the next time you need some textbooks, don’t just accept the first high price you see.  Spending a little bit of time shopping around for the best textbook deals can really pay off, to the tune of hundreds of dollars. That’s worth quite a few non-ramen means.