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The economy sucks. Saving money is now more important than it was before. A penny saved is a penny earned. Being a student is expensive and buying textbooks is an especially expensive part of being a student. Each year, students everywhere buy textbooks that resell poorly (in most cases—if they're resold at all). We're not just talking about chapter books either here. Compare the size of a novel to a college biology book: there's a huge difference in the amount of materials needed to make a college biology book over a standard novel. So if you're a finance and eco-minded student, you should probably just quit buying books.
We've discussed BookRenter on Planet Green before, but Chegg is getting all of the attention these days.
On Chegg, you can rent books ("and plant trees" so goes their motto) instead of buying them. The rental prices for books on Chegg tend to be around 60&perc; below retail price and it's free to join.
If you're not sold on renting your textbooks, you still don't have to pay for them. I've seen countless ads on Craigslist offering textbooks for free. It's true: some people will give away perfectly good items just to have some space.
Finally, if you'd like to leave the internet out of your not-paying-for-text-books endeavors, just make friends with upperclassmen. Many upperclassmen, if they're in the same program you're in, will be keeping some of the books you need around for their own library. Barter or borrow to avoid buying.
Not only is this a cheaper way to study, but it's a much more environmental way to go about your education. And c'mon, how smart is it to waste your money, any way?
More on being a green student:
Lead A Student Team To Victory in the We Can Change The World Challenge
Reuse Wrapping Paper On Text Books
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