10 Tips For Back-To-School Savings
July 25th, 2011 
Carol 
The Government Accountability Office recently found that textbooks can represent up to 25% of the tuition and fees at four-year public institutions, and as much as 75% of the tuition and fees at two-year community colleges. With $306 billion in annual spend for college students, the price of an education is rising. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics quotes that $361 are spent per student, per month. On average, $900 per year on textbooks, and textbook prices have been rising at twice the rate of inflation over the last two decades. These money-saving tips can help parents and their college-bound children:
1. Ignore the little things
Don’t stress out about paper, pens, and the small things. Many parents stock up on a ton of these things, and their kids never use them. While your kids may pay more for these things once they get to school, wait until they find out exactly what they want and need.
2. Timing is Everything
Back to school season is one of the largest retail seasons of the year, and stores will offer huge discounts for common products. Find these discounts and you’ll save big.
3. Student Discounts
Several stores offer discounts specifically for students. Now that you’re kid is a college student, they can capitalize on this. Student discounts are great for computers and electronics.
4. Research Textbook Costs
You can often save 50% or more by buying your textbooks online. Use a price comparison engine to make sure you find the best possible prices – a good one is SwoopThat.com. It integrates directly with your courses and automatically searches the web (Amazon, Half, Abe Books, etc.) to find you the cheapest prices for all your books.
5. Browse Craigslist
You’ll find a ton of cheap and great second hand products.
6. Download some sweet iPhone Apps
There are a ton of great apps for college students. Use rate my professor to sign up for good classes, Evernote for easy notes during class, or Pageonce Personal Finance to manage your money.
7. Search Your Cupboards
Odds are, you’ve already got a lot of what you need somewhere in your house. Take some extra time and go search for it – you’ll be shocked with what pops up!
8. Backpack Attack
There are a ton of super expensive backpacks out there….believe it or not, some of them are actually worth it. Several people go for the cheap backpacks – they not only are uncomfortable, but they must be replaced after 1-2 years. Buy a good backpack and it will last you well beyond college…and you can even juice up your backpack by finding one with a laptop holding area. That way, you don’t have to buy a separate laptop bag.
9. Don’t Overspend on Calculators
Several students spend $100+ on a powerful calculator that solves the equations for them. The fact is that your kid is going to school to learn, and they should be solving those equations themselves. Save $50+ dollars by purchasing a regular calculator and force your kids to learn the right way!
10. Don’t be “Cool”
You don’t need expensive brand names to be cool. Buy a less popular quality brand and you’ll feel cool knowing you just saved a ton.
Jonathan Simkin is CEO of SwoopThat, a service built by students for students with one goal in mind: save current students both time and money when purchasing textbooks. SwoopThat offers a free and proprietary course search technology; students select their courses and SwoopThat finds every book they need to buy as well as every online merchant that sells those books. The site’s proprietary algorithms help students identify the cheapest places to buy all their books collectively, rather than one at a time.
For more information, please visit: www.swoopthat.com.
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