motherdear Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 How much time do you put into it, and how much money do you save? Do you get their IG'S FROM THE COMPANY? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 I'm doing Sonlight 6 for history/geography/literature this year. I already owned the SOTW books and 5-6 of the readers/read-alouds. I ordered the IG & exclusives from Sonlight, and the new rest from Amazon or Rainbow Resource (I bought 3 hard to find books used off this board). I saved $140 by doing it this way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 I got the IG and exclusives from Sonlight, and got the rest from Amazon and a local used bookstore. By doing the 4 for 3, it came out to a substantial savings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 (edited) We've just finished our 5th year with SL and I've never bought a new IG or a core from them. I always get a used IG at a very reasonable price, maybe $20 -$30. Then, as someone else posted, I buy the bulk of the books using the 4 for 3 deal on amazon. I also have an amazon credit card, so I use my reward points for amazon gift cards and use those to make my purchases. Only after I have bought everything available on amazon do I buy the remaining items I need from SL. One or two years, I have hit it lucky at a local homeschool curriculum sale and picked up a bunch of the SL books that way. I also picked up the entire K Core at the Heav convention's used curriculum sale for a great price one year. Lisa Edited June 10, 2010 by LisaTheresa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bee Posted June 10, 2010 Share Posted June 10, 2010 I don't save any money or time. In fact, it usually ends up costing me as much or more than if I'd bought a SL core. I always buy my IGs new from SL. Sometimes I can find books used at a library sale or used bookstore but not enough to make a big difference in the amount of money I end up spending by putting the core together on my own. When I decided I wanted to use Core 300 for the upcoming year, I looked for books in Barnes and Noble but only found a few. I do wish SL would sell some books separate from the cores; things like SOTW (because so many hser's already own them) and the bible portions (because so many people use their own materials and it can really add to the price of the upper level cores). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aoife Posted June 10, 2010 Share Posted June 10, 2010 I got the IG and exclusives from Sonlight, and got the rest from Amazon and a local used bookstore. By doing the 4 for 3, it came out to a substantial savings. this exactly :) I got 3 cores worth of stuff for an awesome price and we are now set for quite some time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted June 10, 2010 Share Posted June 10, 2010 How much time do you put into it, and how much money do you save? Do you get their IG'S FROM THE COMPANY? With SL I bought the IG used, but WP asks you not to, so I bought the IG new. With both I hunt for the books, often starting a year before I need them. I was able to save more than most people, but it also takes time. The time factor didn't bother me because I like book hunting. I use Paper Back Swap, Book Mooch, buy from one seller on Half (usually you get a discount on shipping this way, and take advantage of the Amazon buy 4 for the price of 3 sale. BTW on that sale if you buy 4 qualifying books that are $8 each then you will save $8. If you buy 4 books that are $8 and 4 that are $4 then you will only save $8 because they discount the lower cost books. I arrange my shipments with books that don't qualify for the sale so I can get the higher discount but still qualify for free shipping. Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samiam Posted June 10, 2010 Share Posted June 10, 2010 I'm using WP for the first time this year. The program we are using is over $500 new from WP. I have been piecing it together myself since about Feb. I have two books left to get, and two things I will have to buy new from WP. WP "asks" you not to resell the IG, but many people do. I bought the IG used, and a few other WP components used. Was trying to get as much as possible from other sources besides WP due to the horror stories I have read about WP Customer Service. I bought many books used from here, and WP forums. Got some from PaperbackSwap.com, got a few from Amazon with the 4-for 3 deal.......in the end, I will have spent just under $250 in total. Plus the "hunt" was fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calandalsmom Posted June 10, 2010 Share Posted June 10, 2010 When I buy WP I buy all the books from amazon and the exclusives from WP. When I buy SL I buy used, as complete as possible and fill in the holes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melmichigan Posted June 10, 2010 Share Posted June 10, 2010 In the past two years I have bought one core each year from SL, and the IG's and exclusives for the other/others and then used amazon for the rest. If you are careful it is substantial. I may just purchase the last few IG's I need to finish out my set when my current time payment runs out so I know I have them. Resale isn't as big a deal for me, although I tend to buy new for anything that will go through more than 3 DC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowWhite Posted June 10, 2010 Share Posted June 10, 2010 Siloam taught me how to do this years ago!:) I prefer not to, because my house needs cleaning and my children need attention (which cuts down on my time available for book hunting). If my curriculum addiction raises its ugly head and I feel the need to purchase an extra core or theme, this is my method of making it affordable. betterworldbooks.com tends to have great selection and always has free shipping. I like to buy used, because it saves trees and $$. I bought a HOD program this year (purchased the Teacher Manual and other items I couldn't find elsewhere used at the HOD site), and saved $150 at least ($450 program if you buy all the optional items I wanted). My method was to have the HOD website open in one window, and the betterworldbooks.com website in another, with half.com open behind it. Since betterworldbooks.com has free shipping, that was my preferred provider. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michelle l Posted June 13, 2010 Share Posted June 13, 2010 Can you help me understand Amazon?:blushing: There are used books that are less expensive, but they all list a $3+ shipping price. But then there is also something that talks about free shipping at the top, but that's for more expensive books, right? Then there is the 4 for 3. That looks good, but is it only for the new books, or is it also for the lower priced used books? Ugh -- can't believe I need help with this!:001_rolleyes: I really don't want to pay almost $500 though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kanagnostos Posted June 13, 2010 Share Posted June 13, 2010 I used SL3 with WP AS1 this year. I bought the WP IG new and the SL IG used. I found almost all the books for both programs at our library and only purchased the ones that were used throughout the year (such as WP's American Story and Sonlight's Landmark), any workbook-style books (such as Sonlight's Story of the USA), and books I could not find at the library or substitute. All in all, I would say that I only ended up actually purchasing fewer than 10 books, and most of those I got from Amazon and a couple used off the WTM boards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted June 13, 2010 Share Posted June 13, 2010 Can you help me understand Amazon?:blushing: There are used books that are less expensive, but they all list a $3+ shipping price. But then there is also something that talks about free shipping at the top, but that's for more expensive books, right? Then there is the 4 for 3. That looks good, but is it only for the new books, or is it also for the lower priced used books? Ugh -- can't believe I need help with this!:001_rolleyes: I really don't want to pay almost $500 though! Almost all new books coming from Amazon qualify for free shipping if you purchase $25 of stuff. When you click on the item, it will say whether it qualifies for the free shipping deal. The 4 for 3 deal is only for certain new books, but there are a lot of them that qualify. You have to scroll down a little, but I think it usually says "qualifies for 4 for 3" a little bit above where the full description of the book is. Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 (edited) Can you help me understand Amazon?:blushing: There are used books that are less expensive, but they all list a $3+ shipping price. But then there is also something that talks about free shipping at the top, but that's for more expensive books, right? Then there is the 4 for 3. That looks good, but is it only for the new books, or is it also for the lower priced used books? Ugh -- can't believe I need help with this!:001_rolleyes: I really don't want to pay almost $500 though! I can try. Here is an example of free shipping. Note that next the price it expressly states that if you buy more than $25 you get the free shipping. Also when you do a search on a title, over on the left hand side it has different categories you can refine your search for, and one is that it has free shipping. (See here on the left in brown/tan it says shipping option.) The vast majority of stuff on Amazon has free shipping unless it is being sold by a 2nd party. With 2nd party merchandise it may or may not include free shipping. Here is an example of a 2nd party who actually stores their stuff at an Amazon warehouse, so it then can be combined with other Amazon merchandise. This isn't super common, but you do see it. Another things some 2nd party people will do is price the item higher, but make the shipping free, as on this page. For the buy 4 for the price of 1 sale you have to look under the picture to find out if it qualifies. Here is an example of a qualifying book. Note the Special Offers and Product Promotions section, under it it states that it is part of the buy 4 for the price of 3 sale. Here is an example of a book that doesn't qualify. General rule of thumb when you are looking down a page of books like this. Any book that has the price crossed out and a lower price next to it in red will NOT be part of the buy 4 for the price of 3 sale. Only full priced books are part of that sale. If you look towards the bottom of that page you will see the Latin Prep I book listed at $7.28 and the price is not crossed out. If you click on it you will see that it is part of the 4 for 3 sale. Though not every full priced book is on the sale. If it is going oop or is new it is often full price and not on the sale, here is an example of a new paperback that is full price and not on the sale. If you are looking to buy used Half is actually the better deal. They give discounts on books that ship from the same person, so the first book costs you full price, about $3.99 then the books after that are discounted, around $2.35 for shipping. Half also has a couple different levels of shipping, so it is more complicated than that, but it shows up in your cart as soon as you add them, so it isn't rocket science. For example if I wanted a Kingfisher history book here is one. I chose this one because I order a lot from both betterworldbooks and thrift_books, but I also buy from universalathenaeum, atlantabooks and others. Say I also wanted this reader. Betterworldbooks carries both so I would order from them with the Usborne book costing me $3.49 shipping and $0.84 for the book and the Kingfisher costing $0.95 for the book and $1.89 on shipping. I just saved $1.60 on shipping. Now place an order for $30-40 of books from one place and you really start to see the savings. I do occasionally not receive one of the books when I order this way, but each of the companies has always refunded me my cost and shipping when I brought it to their attention. I only had once that thrift_books asked me to wait till after Christmas because of the shipping rush then, so I waited 60 days total, and then they decided to just refund the whole order and not just the one title. Let me know if you have questions. Heather Edited June 14, 2010 by siloam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michelle l Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 Oh my heavens, thank you!! That was just what I needed!:thumbup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teresa in MO Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 I used SL3 with WP AS1 this year. I bought the WP IG new and the SL IG used. I found almost all the books for both programs at our library and only purchased the ones that were used throughout the year (such as WP's American Story and Sonlight's Landmark), any workbook-style books (such as Sonlight's Story of the USA), and books I could not find at the library or substitute. All in all, I would say that I only ended up actually purchasing fewer than 10 books, and most of those I got from Amazon and a couple used off the WTM boards. Can you tell me how you combined them? Did you pick and choose what you wanted from each weekly schedule? Did you line up the subject matter? I am very interested in how you did this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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