Since summer is over and it’s almost time for university, here are a few tips for saving on textbooks that, as a fourth year, I have accumulated. Just remember, you DO NOT need to buy the full price at the bookstore, it’s a scam - your wallet will thank you.
- Older Versions
- A lot of the time, you can get away with using the older version of the textbooks - which is always cheaper. Like I said, buying textbooks at the full price is a SCAM! The difference in textbook editions are usually some editing in wording and pictures… THATS IT! The content is completely the same, so why would you pay more?
- Criaglists/Ebay/Amazon/Kijiji etc.
- There are ALWAYS cheaper alternatives… trust me. Yes, it might be faster to buy it at the bookstore and there might not be a shipping cost but seriously, if you want to save money for rent you might want to consider these options
- Borrow with friends
- Why buy one for yourself and pay the full price when you can share with your best friend and split it? Or even with a group of friends?
- Rent instead of Buy
- Some bookstores allow you to rent the textbook instead of purchasing them. They are much cheaper than actually buying it and lets be real… would you seriously want to keep stacks of textbooks you will never use again?
- PDF online
- Especially for popular first or second year books, you could easily find a PDF copy of it online. Here are some resources curtesy of our fellow Tumblr users :) X X X X X
- The Library
- The library is an amazing resource, they would usually have the textbooks that students would need on hand, ready to borrow, and absolutely free!
- What I would recommend is take your syllabus, borrow the textbook, and take pictures of all the pages that are required for reading assignments. This might be tedious but it’s not hard and saves you a lot of money :)
- If you don’t understand something in class or need more practice problems, do a quick Google search. Everything is on the Internet! If it’s supposed to be in your textbook, it sure will be on the Internet
- Youtube
- Same thing goes for Youtube!
- Don’t Buy Anything
- I have found throughout the years that there are textbooks that I never opened once during the course. Unless the prof explicitly says that there are parts in the textbook that will be on the test that they don’t teach in class, most of the time, the prof will teach everything you need.
- If there is a concept you don’t understand, like I said, Google is your friend. Or you could even meet with your prof to ask them to explain things to you again
Good luck everyone! :)








