You may remember that at the beginning of the semester, my college-sophomore stepdaughter called in a panic about the price of her textbooks . She paid close to $600 for a semester's worth of books.

A couple weeks ago, after she'd finished up with her finals, she called again from the bookstore. This time the conversation was much different. She was perusing the shelves for Christmas presents:

Daughter (mulling over the baseball caps): "OK, there's a white hat, a black hat, and a red hat. But doesn't Dad already have a red one?"

Just kidding! I won't bore you with all the details of our gift selection—I'll cut to the chase:

Me (with trepidation): "So, do you need any money for presents?"

Daughter (happily): "Oh, no! I just sold my books. I've got $160!"

Yes, she got $160 back from $600 worth of books-roughly 25%. Needless to say, I had hoped it would be more. But she seemed to feel pretty flush with that much cash in hand. Well, at least it would get her though winter break, right?

Not so much. Between holiday gift-buying and traveling to visit her friends, she's blown through the $160 pretty quickly. It's tough to make money last that long, unless you have a plan .

How much money did you get back for your textbooks? Did you plan to make it last, or is it already spent?