After paying several thousand dollars for tuition, the last thing you want to do is have to pay more money towards your college education. (Not for another year, anyway.) Sadly you'll probably have at least one more set of expenses to go through, and they're hefty ones at that: textbooks. Depending on your course of study, textbooks can cost upwards of $1,000 cumulatively. Toss in the fact that some of the books might not end up being used and you've got a lot of annoyed, cash-strapped students.

Don't fear, however. There are alternatives to paying those exorbitant college book store prices. Textbooks can be found in more places than just what's suggested on your syllabi, and in some cases you might end up saving a lot of money. Here are a few tips for saving money on those hefty texts so you can spend it elsewhere.

- Buy books from old students. Check the halls of your college. Chances are good you'll see at least one or two advertisements for used text books. Keep an eye on the walls near your classes - they often take place in the same rooms over the years - and you may just get lucky with some student offering to sell their old books. Keep in mind, too, that most schools have web forums which offer the same services, and at the very least you can post a request for a used book and see what happens.

- Buy used copies from book stores. Most of the time you'll see only new copies in campus stories, but every now and then they'll cart out used versions that were sold back at the end of the previous year. Still expensive, but not nearly as much so.

- Ask your teacher if they have any used copies. Not likely, but you never know.

- Ask your teacher if older editions are fine. Chances are good you can get by just fine with the edition before the one your teacher is asking for. If so, go hunting and save a bit of money in the process.

- Check normal bookstores like Chapters, Coles and whatnot. They may offer the book, used or new, in their stores or for order on their websites.

- Check eBay or Amazon. Both offer a wide selection of old books and will probably have what you're looking for. The only problem is timeliness; chances are good you won't get the book very fast.

- Check the library for a copy. If you only need the book for a week or two you might be able to get away with borrowing it when you need to read a chapter.

- Share a new or used copy with someone else. I don't necessarily recommend this path, as it creates complications during test time (and over normal homework, for that matter). If you can manage to successfully navigate such obstacles, however, you'll end up saving a fair amount.

Don't jump right into the pit of overly expensive textbooks. It's not necessary and will drain your already depleted cash reserves - and trust me, you'll probably need that money somewhere along the road.

Learn more about this author, Matt Bird.
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