Every semester, there’s a familiar scene on college campuses: students strolling into the bookstore with optimism… and walking out a little lighter—emotionally and financially. Why? The cost of textbooks is enough to make anyone feel like they just paid for VIP tickets to a one-semester show.

Let’s talk numbers. Imagine you’re an economics major (perfectly appropriate, since this whole ordeal feels like an exercise in applied economics). You head to the campus bookstore to pick up your trusty macroeconomics book, only to find it’s priced at a cool $170. Even if you think, “Hey, I’ll just rent it,” you’re still dropping $150 to borrow it temporarily! Who knew renting knowledge was practically as expensive as owning it?

For students already juggling tuition, housing and meal plans, it can feel like an endless series of “hidden fees.” Tuition? Sure, they expected that. Dorm costs? Got it. But forking over triple digits for a few hundred pages that may or may not be useful again? That one stings. And it doesn’t help that the next semester, a “new edition” of that same book will come out with minor updates, making the version they just paid for practically prehistoric in textbook years.

Imagine this from the bookstore’s point of view. It’s like they’re running an exclusive club called “The Book Edition of the Month” where each book is available for just long enough to be overpriced, and then replaced with a “new and improved” edition that’s only slightly different. If the bookstore were a character, it would probably say something like, “Hey, we’re just here to serve you! Sure, we’re the only place in town where you can get this exact version… but that’s just lucky for you!”

Even though we all understand it’s not Barnes and Nobles’ fault directly—they’re following the publisher’s pricing—students can’t help but feel they’re caught in a never-ending cycle of supply, demand and wallet depletion. And majors across campus feel the pinch.

So what’s the solution? Some professors are stepping up by assigning open-source materials or ebooks, making life a little easier on students’ wallets. Others suggest waiting until after the first week to see if the textbook is really necessary. And some students have perfected the art of the library hunt, racing to get a reference copy before they’re all checked out for the semester.

Ultimately, the textbook tango might be here to stay for a while, but there’s hope that with a little creative thinking, the next generation of students won’t have to spend a fortune on books they’ll only need for a short stint. Until then, we’ll just have to keep laughing (and budgeting) our way through the semester, thankful for every used, rented and borrowed copy that gets us one step closer to graduation—without breaking the bank.