Saving Money With The Library

Being a one income family who home educates, I have had to learn ways to save money in our school. Saving money with the library is our biggest means of not over spending. We are not one of those families with book shelves that line the walls full of books any more. We were in the past and many of the books either found themselves on Ebay, in a yard sale, or in the backdoor of a local thrift store. We do have a few non-fiction books that are reread and Jamie has a collection of out of print William O. Steele books he is collecting. Other than that, we borrow books from the library.

Saving Money with the Library

I have a Kindle full of free books that I hate to read, because I love REAL books. I love the smell, the feel, and the sound of the pages as they are being turned. When I come across free books that we will need to read for school, I download them but I don’t like them. I’ll use them if I can’t borrow a book from the library at the needed time or it can’t be renewed.

You can see this year’s reading LIST for ninth grade. I have several of the classics on the Kindle, but I’m hoping we will have a real book in hand when it is time to read them. Preparing my list in advance helped me decide which books to read but it also helped me to know when to request the books from the library.

The one thing about living in a small town, our library doesn’t have many of the books we will need. So I had to go on a book hunt early on and mark which books our library doesn’t own. This helps me know I’m going to have to ask for certain books several weeks in advance. Before we moved, we lived in a county that had 15 library branches, and if the branch we visited didn’t have a book, I could have it within two days. A BIG difference to where we live now.

There are a couple of books, I will be buying for this year and of course the books that have movies we will more than likely be watching them. Using the library for all of our books is saving me around $240.

I’m going to tell you a secret... Uncle Tom’s Cabin was due last Tuesday. I completely forgot about it since my parents were in town. I remembered it was overdue last night and called this morning to renew the book and find out what my late fees were so I could send the money with my husband to pay them. LOW AND BEHOLD our library DOESN'T charge late fees!  I’ll gladly give up 14 other library branches for no late fees.

Saving money with the library for your school year
is going to take some work on your part.

• Plan ahead – have your list ready and mark the books that your library does not own, so you can request them in time to have them.
• Don’t wait until the last minute to check availability.
• Renew your books before the day they are due so you'll know if there is a hold on them.
• Plan for extra books so just in case you can't get a certain book.