Hand Me Down Textbooks

Despite the frequent suspension of classes due to both the weather and discovering cases of swine flu within the student population, the new school year has started, albeit shakily. One of the biggest expenses parents face during this time is the buying of new textbooks. They do get more expensive every year.

If you have more than 1 kid studying in the same school, it would be wise to keep the older sibling's books to hand down to the younger sibling when the latter reaches the same level. Of course this would not apply if (1) it's a workbook and is to be written on (2) the book has a updated edition by the time the younger sibling got to use it (3) the older sibling didn't take care of the book and it's too dog eared already by the time he's through with it. With the last, it might be a good idea to impress upon all your children to take care of their books so that they will last.

I've always used new books when I was studying, mainly because I'm the eldest. My classmates who had older siblings, though, "inherited" a lot of books from their older brothers and sisters in the same school. I think it's a great idea, one that's very practical!