Affording College with CampusBookRentals.com

*This is a sponsored post because both the company and I thought my readers could benefit from the services offered.

Traveling with two of my best friends that I don't get much in-person time with means that we had a lot of catching up to do. We also had a lot of brainstorming about what our futures might hold. We're all at great places in our lives - everything is open to us! We're not tied down, we're free to go where we want and take new paths.

One thing we all have on our minds is returning to school. Julie just graduated and is contemplating med school. Kelly and I met in an MFA program we promptly dropped out of, but are now thinking of finding schools that are better fits for us. One of the biggest concerns for all of us, though, is money. College is expensive, and while some programs offer tuition assistance, there are still tons of expenses you don't really think about until it's time to fork over the cash.

As if reading my mind, CampusBookRentals.com sent me an email outlining the perks of renting textbooks instead of buying. Besides their books being 40-90% off of bookstore prices, they have flexible renting periods. You're even allowed to highlight in the textbooks!

I used to purchase as many of my books as possible from a used book website, but prices weren't guaranteed to be more than 20% off, and once the semester was over, you were either stuck with the book, or had to sell it yourself. A perk of CampusBookRentals.com that blew my mind was that they offer free shipping both ways. Shipping is definitely one of those charges that adds up before you realize how much money you actually paid for a book.

I still have one of my psychology textbooks on my shelf and decided to look it up on CampusBookRentals to see how much I could have saved. I bought my Abnormal Psychology textbook used from the campus bookstore for $125. ("Buy Used, Save Money!" the sticker on the spine says. The list price, for the record, is $152. Didn't save too much…) The same textbook through CampusBookRentals?


I could have saved $100. AND it wouldn't be sitting on my shelf
three years after completing the course.
An added bonus to this company is that they have a "Making a Difference" program. For every textbook you rent, a portion of the fee goes to a humanitarian project fund. If saving money on textbooks wasn't enough incentive to use this company, the fact that they're committed to helping others definitely sealed the deal for me.