“For the assignment that I just gave you, I want you to use several library sources to support your opinion”, said the professor. I must confess libraries used to terrify me, seriously! The outside of my college library seemed inviting. Beautiful fountain in front of the building just lures you in and the gorgeous structure of the front doors lets you know that any book you want can be found here. You become brave and make the decision to step inside just to find giant size walls swallow you whole. Step by step you make it to the front desk to ask for help with locating a book. “Honey, just go up to the third floor, take a right, pass 5 book shelves and then make a left and the book that you are looking for should be right in front of you”, whispers the librarian. Because I do not have any sense of direction, I go up to the third floor, take a left, pass several shelves and then wonder if I should go back down and ask the librarian for directions again. This time I will actually have to write them down on a piece of paper.
Writing down directions would probably not help me either, because simply said big building field with millions of books just intimidated me until now. After my husband and I got married and moved to the mountains, our local library became my best friend in helping us save money. Here is what I found the library offered.
Books
Although our local library is pretty small, I know that I can reserve any book that I want. In fact, several weeks ago I went to the library to see if they had “Made from Scratch” book that I have heard about and wanted to read was available. Unfortunately for me our local library did not have it. I asked if they can buy it or borrow it from another library and without any problems the librarian filled out a form and I should have my book in two weeks. The best part I did not have to go to the book store and buy the book, because I will able to read it for free utilizing our library’s services.
Coupons
The red basket placed on the book shelf is always filled with Sunday paper’s coupons. Because our library gets several copies of Sunday paper there are a variety of coupons available for couponers. If you want to cut a coupon, it is free; you just have to be one of the first people in the library on Sunday to get it. Coupons usually go by fast.
Book Sale
“Friends of the library” have a book sale once a month and since I could never make to one, I had my first experience this month. There were a lot of books to choose from but I mainly wanted to find books filled with money saving tips and cooking books. After digging through several shelves of books on finance, I finally found what I was looking for. Guess how much I paid for the book? I only paid $1 dollar. I then moved to the cooking books section and the only book that grabbed my attention was a book about baking different kinds of breads. I paid $3 dollars for it. All in all the books were a little bit outdated, but you can’t beat the price.
DVDs
Since our library is small (I believe I have shared this fact quite a few times with you already…ooops), it does not have a big variety of latest and greatest DVDs. However if you want free entertainment, library is a place to go. Filled with several shelves of DVDs, I am sure you can find something of interest. The best part about the library is renting a DVD is free.
Magazines
When I am relaxing, I like to open a magazine and flip through it reading articles that interest me. Because I receive quite a few free subscriptions each months, from time to time I like to go to the library and pick up magazines that otherwise I would never buy. Our library allows you to borrow up to 10 magazines at one time free of charge.
Internet
Because we do not have internet at home, library is my source of free internet service. Where we live, the only option for internet is satellite service. This also means that we would have to pay $60 dollars for the service each month and one time $200 dollars for equipment and installation. It may not seem like much, but when converting to yearly spending that’s $920 dollar the first year and $720 dollars there after. Since my husband and I are both in school we can easily justify this expenditure, however we feel that we would rather pay our school debt with this money. So, on Saturday morning, I drive 15 minutes to our library and use our laptop to access internet for free. This allows me to schedule post for my blog and check my personal e-mail.
I hope you can find your local library useful to you in helping you save money!
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