Trying To Be More Frugal

February 7, 2009

This economy stinks. Everyone feels the pinch these days. So in an effort to save money, I’m learning new ways to have fun for less.

I am so excited about my first step. In our house, we love books. Books are everywhere. We read everyday and the girls take books to bed with them each night. I think the girls would pick to ditch the tv and all toys over getting rid of books around here.

I’m proud to say that we have instilled a deep love of reading in our children at such an early age. Just the other night Jon and were talking about how we hope they always love to read. We will always encourage it.

Watching K learn to read this year has been so much fun too. I get all giddy when she wants to read to me. When we find a new book that she can read, she asks if she can read the bedtime story to her sisters that night. It’s so sweet to see her reading to them. I am constantly on the lookout for early reader books for her and fun picture books for all of us.

Reading is a wonderful hobby, but like most hobbies, it’s can be quite costly. We have a great Goodwill bookstore, but even there, the books are several dollars a piece and sometimes the condition of the book isn’t worth the cost.

On Thursday, I decided to head to Starbucks for a Venti White Mocha and head home to read a bit more in the latest book I’m reading. I had a gift card from a friend of mine and it was burning a hole in my pocket. I’ve had it since Dec and not used it. This was also going to be my first cup of coffee in over two weeks since I couldn’t drink it after surgery.

So after dropping E at school, M and I headed over. I first thought about going to Barnes and Noble and looking at books and getting a drink. I also found a B and N gift card in my wallet last week with about a $7 balance on it. In fact, I had cards to various places totaling over $100 in there! I need to check there more often. I think gift cards are starting to reproduce in my purse. Now I’m way off subject.

I thought more about going to the bookstore instead of just heading off for a free coffee. If I entered the store, I would definitely find a book we just had to have and spend money I shouldn’t. Then I remembered that there is a library branch just behind the free standing Starbucks. We headed there instead.

We tried to go to the library multiple times before when the girls were younger. Each trip ended with me vowing that I would never take them there again. I was also afraid to bring any books home for fear that the girls would destroy one. The girls have gotten older and now respect books. I had not been to the branch library since before we had kids, so I wasn’t sure what to expect with the children’s book area.

Turns out it was wonderful! I did not know how many books we were allowed to check out so we took4 of them up to the desk. I had to get my library card updated since it had been so long since it’s last use. We can check out 50 books on each library card! Wow! So we checked out the four we had and went back for more.

We ended up getting 16 books that day. We get to keep them for 2 weeks. I’m so stoked about all of the books we got. New stories are so much fun and you can’t beat free! Here are some of the books we got on our first trip.

The girls are loving 16 new books at one time. I have bag that is just for the library books so we can keep them in one place and not have them scattered all over the house. We are looking forward to our next trip.

Free coffee and free books…can’t ask for a better morning!