by Sapphire Mason-Brown

Created on: July 08, 2011

Going to college or university is probably one of the most costly endeavours many will ever go on. There are tuition fees to pay, clothes to buy, a stomach to keep satisfied, personal essentials that need to be bought, a room that needs to be paid for, a life that needs to be had and on top of this, you need the use of books to pass your course and thus validate why you’re there in the first place. And these books, they don't tend to come cheap. 

One of the best ways to save money? Don't actually buy the books. I know this sounds like I’m immediately contradicting myself after saying the books are necessary to pass, but I’m not suggesting that you don't use them, just don't buy them. Websites such as Google Books allow you to read chapters of thousands of books. These are often limited in relation to how many pages you can view per day, but you can look up the chapters you need and make notes on what you need you.

If you have a sibling or close friend that happens to have previously used the book you need, ask if you can have or borrow it. Simply knowing a person one year above you on your course can be beneficial in this way, they’ll most likely have all of the books you need and not have any use for them anymore.

If you don't know anyone, how about the library? College libraries are stocked with such a selection of books that they put many local libraries to shame, use them. If you’re on a course that doesn't have many students on it (there were 14 people on the 1st year archaeology course at my university), there may be enough books for every single person on the course stocked in the library. To check whether this is the case, ask someone in your department, they’re sure to know, and they may even be willing to order a few more if there aren't enough.

Of course, this only applies to certain courses, not everyone is fortunate enough to be in this situation. If there are five copies of a compulsory book in the library but over 200 people on your course, the wise option would be to actually purchase the books.

When it comes to buying textbooks, I have to say that bookshops are seldom your friends. Even if you use some sort of student discount (a quick note, use your student discount wherever you can), the book prices are usually still very high. It is at this point that you realise just how expensive bookshops are, novels cost nothing in comparison to textbooks.

Online stores such as Amazon, however, are places where

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>