It may still be January, but it is never too early to start thinking about Spring Break.

While visions of sandy beaches and sunny skies are a welcome change from this dreary winter weather, spring break can also be very expensive and requires students to start saving well ahead of time.

The solution?

Save money by getting cheap textbooks.

Some students order their books directly from the bookstore simply because this is convenient.

However, if you’re willing to spend a little bit of time searching, you can save hundreds of dollars.

Questions that may pop into students’ heads when looking for textbooks are whether to buy or to rent their textbooks and where they can get books for the best prices.

An alternative to buying books from the bookstore is ordering your books online from websites such as Amazon, Chegg or eBay.

Amazon allows you to buy books directly from the site for a reasonably discounted price.

You own the book while you use it for the semester and after you are done with it, you have the option to sell it back to Amazon.

The only catch is that they usually will give you about two-thirds of the money you paid for it.

So, you are essentially paying a third of the price to “rent” the book.

You can also buy textbooks from other sellers on Amazon if you do not want to go through the company itself.

Chegg is an online bookstore that has been called the “Netflix of textbooks.”

This company sells and rents books out to students with a specific due date on each book (usually in June or December).

If you rent from Chegg, know that you can highlight the pages — but not write on them.

As a bonus for those of you who are environmentally conscious, Chegg promises to plant one tree for each book order it receives.

The company has planted over 5 million trees worldwide to help restore wildlife habitats and regenerate areas damaged by forest fires and forest clearing.

Lastly, eBay is another good place to find cheaper books.

Like Amazon, you can order textbooks from other individuals or from bookstores.

The advantage of this is that you can get a used or even new textbook for a relatively good price.

The downside is that the seller may or may not be reliable.

You can help protect yourself from unscrupulous sellers by checking the seller ratings and feedback.

Finally, the up-and-coming trend in technology today is tablets and e-readers, which are primarily used to read digital books but have other applications as well.

You can now rent and buy digital editions of textbooks that are identical to the physical books but are available for a fraction of the price.

The e-reader is able to store all of the books on its hard drive.

And, with certain applications, you can even digitally write and highlight on the pages.

The advantage of this is that instead of having to carry a backpack with several books, all you need to do is carry the e-reader.

However, if something happens to your device, you will not have access to any of your textbooks.

By taking advantage of one of these many thrifty options, you can literally save hundreds of dollars each semester on textbooks.

With all of that extra money in your wallet or purse, spring break is looking good already.