College “Bound”

Today my daughter and I worked on one of the preparatory steps of her final college year. Purchasing those ‘big ticket’ items as I like to call them. The items I will forever watch being used as a door stop, a window proper, or bed leveler. No matter where she ends up in the world, I will watch for these uses until the day I die!

We ordered her college textbooks. Without going into the boring details of it all, after reviewing her upcoming schedule, noting the book ISBN numbers we began the on-line search for books.

Here is a scary fact:

If we purchased her four books from her school’s book store it would cost approximately: $600-700.00. All brand new and in shiny shrink-wrap.

In the three years she been attending college we have learned some really important lessons. These lessons were not passed down from the school to the parents or from parents to other cash strapped parents. No one will tell you because THEY were duped into doing the same thing – buying NEW books.

A little trip down memory lane… Freshman year, college book store, cash register rings $840.00! Yes, $840.00. Thank goodness her sister was with us who promptly handed over the extra $300.00 to the cashier.

Sophomore year… hmm a little better, her and her friends started borrowing books, copying sections they needed to study with, studied together. In total, we spent approximately 250.00 – 300.00.

Junior year – this is when we became very smart! Used books from Amazon. Approx 200.00-250.00.

And this year!? We are even smarter! College book RENTALS! Yes, there are quite a few websites out there who will rent college textbooks for a semester. Then you ship them back. Are you ready for this?...we are so proud of ourselves…FOUR books… $145.00! Wow! Mind you this is our first attempt at book rentals. I’ll let you know how this works out. We are hoping they will all arrive in English.

So my friends, take comfort in the fact that as you grow older you DO grow wiser!