You’ve been accepted to college, you (or your parents) have paid the deposit, and now you’re making plans for the Fall. One big expense, other then the tuition bill, will be textbooks. It’s not uncommon to see a bill of $500-600 for one semester’s worth of books! I know, a little outrageous, isn’t it?

Traditionally, a student will wait until they show up two days before classes start, walk into the campus bookstore, and drop hundreds of dollars to buy the textbooks required by the instructor. If you’re a student who would like to save a significant amount of money and don’t mind not owning you’re textbook once your class is over, consider renting your textbooks. Yes, you heard me right, you can rent textbooks!

A few months ago I came across chegg.com - a company that specializes in renting textbooks. They advertise 50-60% savings. The example used on their website is that a Calculus (5th Edition) book is listed at $180.95 new. Instead you can rent it on Chegg for $62.09, a 66% savings! Make sure to check out the website and read the terms and conditions. For example, you can not write in any textbooks, but you can highlight moderately, not excessively. There are a number of other conditions to ensure there books remain in “like new” condition but this might be a way for you to save some money this Fall! As a bonus to saving money, for every book that you rent or buy from Chegg, or sell or donate to Chegg, the company will plant a tree!

For the students who want to own their textbooks after the semester ends, you can still consider Chegg to buy textbooks from, but I would also consider looking at half.com for used textbooks, or Amazon.com for new or used books. All of these options will generally offer a cheaper price on a textbook then the campus bookstore will.

Be book smart,
Rich