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College of Cash - finding money for college

Sell Books Back or Keep Them?

December 12th 2007 14:13
I wrote at the beginning of this school semester that amazon.com was my best friend because I got most of my books there for cheap, as well as getting some for free.

But what happens at the end of the semester? Is it really worth it to sell the books back to the school bookstore? Yes and no.

In my opinion, it depends on what books you want to sell back, and how much you spent on them to begin with.


books
I'll use myself as an example. I'm an English major so I have lots of novels, but not a lot of textbooks. Most of the "textbook" style were of the norton anthology variety which are basically a bunch of short stories or novels packed into one. (I actually hadn't sold any books back at this school until this semester). I sold three back a few days ago. One was a book from a multicultural class meant mostly for teachers, one was The Scarlet Letter because I already had another version, and the other was this handbook guide to boring stuff like definitions of "plot" and "setting."

I have no intention of selling back the other books, because I'm an English major (soon-to-be- degree holder) and I may want to read some of the stories in those books. If I had had more books about science, or if I had bought the psychology book (from the amazon post) I would have sold those back because those weren't my major.


Basically my rules would be:
Sell it if...
1) it's not your major and you have no intention of taking another class in that subject.
2) you are graduating and have no use for the books anymore

If they are books from your major (esp. if you're an English major) keep them!! You may be able to use those books for another class. And if you sell it back and then have to buy it again you've just wasted a lot of money.

My other thought would be to ask around and swap books with other people in your major. I just gave a copy of The Norton Anthology of Women (which I used for two different classes) to a girl, who was taking one of the classes in which I had used it, for next semester.

I won't lie, campus bookstores are a rip-off. But if you know for sure you won't ever be using the book again, you might as well sell it back. That's just my thought.
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Free is Always in the Budget

September 25th 2007 18:38
"Free is always in the budget" is a quote from a professor I had at my first school. (It was for a stupid class that was a waste of time and money, but that's a whole other story). His point was, if they are giving out free food somewhere on campus, you should be there.

This is a good philosophy for college students, especially if you live on campus. If you live on campus, it doesn't cost you any money in gas to get to the free food. Plus, that's one less meal you'll have to buy for yourself that week.

Most likely your school has it's own website, and posts messages about events like this. The one for my school is actually found after you sign in with your school email address. Always check those messages. If it says "FREE," it is definitely worth clicking on to see what it's all about.

Here, we've recently had free pizza from the Student Alumni Association, free root beer floats (and some other goodies I was too late for) from some religious club on campus, and the library had an extravaganza in which it gave out free hot dogs, a drink, and some other random things (like lanyards)! None of this required me to sign up for anything.

You pay lots of money in tuition every year, so why not take the free stuff they offer? (Although the library thing was probably paid for by my tuition anyway).

It's just a thought.

For a previous post on other free stuff see "Free Stuff??"
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