Textbook Shopping: Save a bundle

Sunday: Turkey Dinner
(see recipes and menu posted 7/12)

Reflections from the Backcounter

My children attend a local Catholic High School. A Catholic education has alwayas been my goal as a Catholic mother. Catholic Grade school and middle school were not possible because in our area there are too few slots and too many applicants. Add to that geographic undesirablity and the inability of this working mother to do the drop off and pick up and public school becomes the only option. We have been very happy with our public schools and are grateful for the opportunity for our kids to attend a Catholic High School. Having said that, let me also comment that this is a tremendous financial investment that does NOT stop with the hefty tuition checks that have to be written. Uniforms, books and extracurricular activities add to the bill and one must carefully plan to include these costs in the budget so as to avoid a shortfall.
I have learned a lot and yesterday I saved more that $500.00 when I purchased the textbooks for this year. Patience and know how are all it takes to be frugal and smart with book purchases. Our school directs parents to the school sanctioned on line bookstore where books can be purchased new or used but even the used texts at this site are pricey. I have had tremendous luck using the website: Cheapesttextbooks.com. All you need is the ISBN number of the book and the website searches all of the on line sites to find the cheapest price. Interestingly, I purchased 90% of my books this time from Amazon.com. Last year I had better deals on Half.com. I started by finding the new and used price on our school bookstore site and worked backwards from that to find the deals. It took me about two hours and I began to see double but the effort and tenacity paid off in huge savings..

I hope this helps another family who has to purchase textbooks for their high school or college students. Hard to believe that we are already getting ready for school.

Peace,
Julia