In some cases, mostly popular STEM books I believe, you can find international editions on amazon. In one case the US edition was like $180 while the international edition was $10. I know it says on the book, only legal for sale in certain, typically south asian countries, but the supreme court has ruled that it is perfectly legal.
Renting books can be the cheapest option, but my D likes to highlight and write notes in the book, so we stick to used, primarily on Amazon. Having the orders all in the same place for the year helps at tax time or when taking money from a 529. Generally she spends about $150-$200 a semester, far less than the $500 the school suggests to budget for books.
A lot of my son’s professors don’t use the books - they post sections of text, articles etc… to the web that can be viewed/printed, saving a bunch of money! I’ve found renting to be best, as well as Abe Books. Lucky me - I also have a friend who is a professor and can get us some of our books for free, depending on publisher!
I can remember clearly when I was a student at 4 or 5 classes. I made a simple bag using book paper. And keep their simple amount of money. That day was really amazing.
My daughter studies at the library most of the time, which has all the required text books. She just uses them in the library, and pays nothing. Those she has bought, she gets second hand. She’s a sophomore, and I guess since she started college, we have maybe paid less than $100 for books. A lot of people use Chegg for second hand books.
My son finds most of his textbooks have online versions available for free. His school has free printing in certain areas so he prints up chapters at a time if he feels he needs a physical copy of some material…
We haven’t found a way around paying for those access codes though- son has bought unused access codes online without buying the book there are websites for that and they are on Amazon too…
@Schadret google around, they pop up in all the textbook searches (if they exist for that book).
Good for @Lindagaf 's D! My D finally caught on to studying in the library sophomore year. She paid more for textbooks that first semester than any since.
Online free textbooks have also popped up for her - sometimes helpfully linked right in the course description.
As with @runswimyoga my son has most of his textbooks online for free. We bought one text from Amazon for his first year and he said he never uses it because he likes the online version better. We have had no access codes to buy but have had to pay a $40 fee for a “clicker” that they use for quizzes in class. Last semester the total fee for books was about $120 including the $60 book he didn’t have to have. This semester the fee was about $100. Definitely see if some of the books are online.
I got off easy first semester - got all of my dd’s books used on Amazon or rented them for a minimal amount. This semester, I only paid about $60 for books for three of her classes. However, for her Spanish class and her math class. she was required to have some sort of e-textbook with an access code. The Spanish book alone was nearly $300. The math was around $150. At least the Spanish book she will continue to use for the next course, but yikes! I did find the Spanish book online for cheaper but it didn’t include the access code. Without knowing whether that was necessary, I opted not to risk it. Most of her classes require a ton of reading so she has a lot of books to buy, but usually they are just paperbacks so not too expensive.
Where do you find textbooks online for free? I’ve always googled the name and ISBN to find the cheapest prices, which has typically been Amazon, but have never seen any that popped up as a free online book.
If it is a novel or book in general circulation, you can borrow it from your hometown library, either in hard copy or ebook. The school library should also have interlibrary loan and can get you a copy too.
My daughter has a class where a friend bought the books but is lending them to my daughter who has promised to read them and tutor the friend on the material. Both of my kids have found they learn the material a lot better when they teach it to a classmate.