As college students begin packing up their treasured belongings and heading off to start their college education, financial restraints may have them sweating how they will afford the long list of required college textbooks.
The truth is that there are many reasons by they do not need to buy new textbooks. Textbooks, especially when purchased new, are horribly expensive. Given that they will only be used for a semester or two, there is no reason to purchase them new.
With tuition rates rising, Freeload Press, a company out of Minnesota, came up with a unique way to help college students save money. By placing small advertisements before each chapter and in the title pages, the company offers textbooks online that students can download for free. The advertisements pay all of their expenses, ensuring that students have access to the textbooks they need.
Many universities are utilizing this unique service as a means to keep college expenses down. For those who need a print copy, the company offers many of their titles for under $30. Their list of textbooks is extensive and covers everything from Algebra to Trigonometry to Economics to Psychology. It is simple to download the books to a desktop or laptop computer.
Being the largest online learning platform in the world, Udemy has over 30 million students and teaches courses in 60 languages. In addition to saving money in textbooks by using Affordabook.com, you can also save money at Udemy with Udemy coupons.
Another strong option is to purchase used textbooks. Used textbooks often sell for more than 25% off the suggested retail price. Once a student has used the textbook for the year, they can then turn around and sell them to the next student. Ebay, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Ecampus, and Half.com are all excellent sites for selling back textbooks.
For students who have friends attending the same classes or even some of the same classes, sharing textbooks often works well. If you have a morning psychology class and your friend has the same class in the afternoon, you can simply meet up quickly and swap books.
This way, you are splitting the cost of college textbooks. You can still buy them used to save money, but you will save even more money but sharing the required textbooks. At the end of the school year, you simply sell the book back to a bookstore and split the profits. More and more students are finding that sharing books is both affordable and a nice way to socialize throughout the busy day.
When all is said and done, the smart college student is the one who saved the most money by thinking twice about buying new textbooks. There are no advantages to buying your books new. By the end of the year, the books will be marked up and only be worth a fraction of what you paid for them. Buy purchasing used books, you are saving money from the very start.
I know, the thought of life insurance never enters a college student's mind, but there are some important reasons why they should consider it. Especially if the student has large student loans. Read more here.