Let’s be honest. That $250 textbook for a class you barely care about is a punch in the gut. Most students assume the campus bookstore is their only option, so they swipe their card and move on. But textbooks are just another consumer product, which means they’re subject to the same rules as everything else you buy. You don’t pay sticker price for a TV, so why would you pay it for a book? With a little research and the right timing, you can cut your course material costs in half.

The first trick is to check whether your professor actually requires the latest edition. Publishers push new versions every couple years with minor tweaks, and many professors don’t care if you use the old one. Look at your syllabus, then search for the previous edition. Those books sell for pocket change. I once bought a chemistry text two editions back for six bucks; the only difference was the order of practice problems. If your professor allows older editions, you’ve just sidestepped the biggest markup in higher education.

But sometimes the course requires online access codes or custom chapters, which makes used copies useless. That’s when you turn to price comparison. A quick search across multiple booksellers often reveals international editions that cost half as much. These are the same content with slightly cheaper paper and binding. Before you buy, double-check that your professor doesn’t care about page differences. If not, you’re looking at serious savings with zero downside. Then consider renting instead of buying. Rental services send you a book for the semester, and you send it back. As long as you don’t highlight or dog-ear it, you’ll pay a fraction of the purchase price. For many courses, that’s the smartest move.

The library is your underrated ally. Most schools keep copies of required texts on reserve. You can’t take them overnight, but you can spend a couple of hours each day grinding through the reading. Pair that with your notes, and you might not need to buy the book at all. For courses where you’re expected to mark up the pages, this strategy won’t work, but for lecture-heavy classes it’s perfect. Here’s another bonus tip: don’t buy anything until after the first week. Students who drop classes often sell their books cheaply on Facebook or your university’s subreddit. Desperate, they’ll take whatever they can get. That’s your opening.

You should also set up price alerts for the textbooks you need. If you’re buying online, tools that track price drops are your best friend. Plug in the book’s ISBN and let the software do the waiting. Prices fluctuate during the first few weeks of the term, and a sudden price cut can be the difference between rent and ramen. This works especially well for books that aren’t in high demand. For popular courses, prices often spike right before the semester, then tumble after add-drop week. Time your purchase a little late and you’ll catch the crash.

When you do buy used, think about resale from day one. Don’t write in the margins if you can help it. Use sticky notes instead. That way, come finals week, you can sell your books online on Amazon or eBay. Campus buyback counters are notorious for paying pennies on the dollar, so skip them. You can often get five times more by listing the book yourself and shipping it to the next student. Even better, if you buy last year’s edition, sell it before the new semester starts, because once the course switches to a new version, your book turns into a paperweight. Time your sale right and you might recoup most of what you paid.

The bottom line is simple. Stop paying full price for anything. Treat textbooks like the consumer products they are. Compare prices, hunt for older editions, use the library, rent when it makes sense, and sell everything you can when the semester ends. A little effort saves you hundreds of dollars per term. That’s real money for food, fun, or an emergency fund. Your GPA doesn’t need a brand-new book to stay high. Your bank account does.