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Textbooks are ridiculously expensive. I’m talking in the thousands for one semester.

No, really. My first semester, I paid $978 for five textbooks because I didn’t know where to get them.

I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I did, so I’ve compiled a list of the best places to find cheap textbooks.

I just graduated from graduate school, so I’ve had plenty of semesters to figure out where the best places to get textbooks are.

10 Places to Find Cheap Textbooks

Amazon

Amazon is the first place I look for my books. You can usually find used books on Amazon really cheap. You can even rent books from Amazon.

Amazon also offers free Prime for students for 6 months.

After I’m done with my books, I also like to sell my books back through Amazon.

Chegg

Chegg– On Chegg, you can save up to 90% on textbooks. You can also rent.

ThriftBooks

ThriftBooks– An online used bookstore. They have all genres of books, but they also have textbooks.

Directtextbook

Directtextbook– Directtextbook is an online price comparison website that shows you where you can find the cheapest price for your book.

This is my favorite resource that I’ve used over the years. You type in the book you need and it shows you all of the websites you can get it from.

It even compares the prices for you so you don’t have to go to each website and search for the book to see the cheapest prices.

Half Price Books

Half Price Books is a great place to get cheap textbooks. They also have actual stores that you can go check out to see if they have what you need.

Ebay

Ebay– Like Amazon, you can find used textbooks very cheap.

Abebooks

Abebooks– A website where you can find used and new books for low prices.

Although most of the time, your books will be more expensive at on-campus bookstores, make sure to check anyway. Sometimes you can rent a book there cheaper than buying one used or they can price-match.

Also, if you’re waiting for your book to be delivered to you after you need it, don’t forget to check out your campus library.

Valore Books

Valore Books offers great prices. You can rent, buy, or sell your textbooks here. This is one of the top places to find cheap textbooks.

Alibris

Alibris is another website that you can sell or buy your college textbooks from. You can also buy things like music here.

eCampusMarketplace

ECampus is made specifically for selling and buying textbooks for college students. This makes it super easy to find what you need.

These have all been my favorite places to find cheap textbooks.

Still stressing about how expensive college is? Check out how to save money for college students and how to make money on the side.

How to Make Money as a College Student

If you’re tired of living on Ramen noodles (like I did at first) I have some tips to make money as a college student.

Even though I had a little part-time job, I was still broke.

Buying textbooks are barely a fraction of what you’ll have to pay for during college.

I found some ways to make extra money on the side that paid for things like groceries and gas.

Side Hustles to for Extra Money

Now let’s get into some of the best side hustles for extra money during college! Want the quick version? Sign up below to get the E-book and other resources in my free resource library!

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Proofread

One of my favorite side hustles to talk about is proofreading. If you enjoy spotting errors in writing and fixing them, this side hustle is for you!

Proofreading entails looking for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. You can also be an editor, which is a little different. As an editor, you actually go in and change the content to make it more readable.

There are several ways you can get started with proofreading.

The first way is through freelancing, which I’ll get into more later. You can find freelancing sites where you can add your service and people will pay you for it. You can do this through sites like Upwork or Fivver.

You can also create your own website and market your services on there.

Caitlin Pyle put together an amazing course on proofreading. She not only teaches you about the skills needed to proofread, but also how to start your own proofreading business!

Starting your proofreading business is how you’re really going to get the biggest bang for your buck.

Caitlin’s put together a free online workshop that answers all of the most common
questions about becoming a proofreader, and she even shows you how to use the most popular tools used by proofreaders around the world.

Take a look here: Proofread Anywhere

Freelance

This is the side hustle that I hear about most often, and there’s a reason for that. You may have heard of freelance writing, but that’s not all there is.

Two of the most common freelance websites are Fivver and Upwork.
All you do is set up a profile, set up a gig, and then people can search for and find your service.

If you think you don’t have the skills for freelance work, think again. You can write, take pictures, edit photos, write captions, proofread, make graphics, and anything else someone might need.

Blogging

If you look up side hustles, blogging is guaranteed to come up.

I’ll come right out and say that you’re not going to make money immediately. It takes time to build traffic.

But once you do, you can make crazy amounts of money straight from your home.
Here are some of the blog income reports I’ve read:

• Cassie Scroggins broke $3,000/month
• Fit Mommy in Heels made $11,562 in one month
• Caroline Vencil made over $25,000 in one month
• Ell from Boss Girl Bloggers made $80,000
• It’s a Lovely Life made $2,233,236 in 2019

You can learn more here, but the general steps to starting a blog are:

• Pick a niche and name
• Buy hosting (preferably Bluehost because they’re the cheapest)
• Design you blog
• Optimize for SEO
• Start writing blog posts
• Promote your blog

How to Make Money Blogging

There are a few different ways you can make money blogging.

The first way that comes to mind is through ad revenue. You can place ads on your website through places like Adsense and Mediavine.

Another way you can make money blogging is through sponsored posts. You can reach out to companies or sometimes they will reach out to you to talk about a product or service on your blog.

The most common way to make money on a blog is through affiliate marketing, which I’ll talk about next.

You can read more about how I made money as a college student here.

As a college student, these are the best places to get cheap textbooks.