Frugality

Bargains for the Bookworm

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This post is brought to you by The Digerati Life, a blog on personal finance, frugal living, financial management and investment.

Are you a bookworm? Whether you’re still in school or already in the work world, books remain as primary sources of learning. Textbooks, novels, self-help books — all of these could be rich sources of great entertainment or information. So whether or not a person is a university student, books may well be a staple in one’s budget (budgeting tools and software can help track various spending categories). Thus, if you’re looking for a way to cut costs in this area, then you may want to get discounts or freebies; doing so can free up more of your budget for more pressing and important things, such as food and rent, for instance.

Textbooks could be had for cheaper rates with the use of cheap textbook coupons. On the other hand, books that one buys mainly for entertainment could be bought from book sales or discounted book stores.

While it would be a dream to buy all of the books you could set your eyes on, let’s face it, they don’t come for free. Even though some books come cheap, at $3.00, even $3.00 per item could add up over time. However, a $3.00 used book is still a bargain compared to an $18.00 price tag on a new release.

So now the question is, where can you find the cheapest versions of your favorite books online?

Well, you can start out by searching for the following terms online:
“cheap books”
“bargain books”
“used books”

When you check out the terms “cheap books online,” “bargain books online,” “used books online,” and so on, you’ll find top results for the best sites that showcase bargain/cheap books. Websites like CheapBooks.com, AbeBooks, and ThriftBooks are some of the better picks on the “cheap books” keyword. Some other entries are price comparison engines, but the information you get from there could be useful. BookCloseOuts, BestBargainBook, and BargainBookStores are the better results for “bargain books.” Alibris, AbeBooks, Powells.com are among the better results for “used books.” The point is, a little bit of research can yield you some good finds.

If you want free content, however, there are other forms and formats of published content that may help you shrink your book budget a little:

  • Free PDFs
  • Free published content online
  • Public domain versions for literary works

PDF or Portable Digital Format, is still the most common digital format used for published content. A lot of free content may still be available via PDF. And if you’re on the lookout for freebies, free PDFs may help you get your reading fix without costing you anything.

There are also still thousands of free ebooks out there. Some people share these on download forums, while other free PDFs are in eBook libraries. All you need to do is a web search on “Free PDF Search Engine” or “Free PDF eBooks” and you may be able to stave off taking trips to the bookstore for a long, long time.

Aside from free PDFs, there are websites that also post free full texts of popular books, and even unpublished writing work. Wattpad.com and Scribd.com are examples. Mixed in with Sheldon, King and Steele are works from amateurs. It delivers content straight to your WAP or 3G-enabled phone, or you could read it straight from your browser. Just wading through your website could keep you away from bookstores, even from the library, for months!

Also, the classics are available at Project Gütenberg, which is an organization dedicated to letting classical/public domain content become available online. Classics and out of print books with no or expired copyrights are available up at Project Gütenberg. While it may not be complete, the website’s collection is still undeniably comprehensive.

Book aficionados need not break the bank nor rack up credit card debt to feed their reading appetites (no, you don’t need to turn to your Citi credit cards for this!). All they really need is the understanding that great books are available for free online, which are easy to track down with a little resourcefulness. For the less tech-savyy, there’s always the local library!

Shower in the Dark

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Lately, I have started taking my daily shower in the dark. Actually, the light is off but I leave the door open and there is plenty of light from the bedroom windows to see. My thinking was that this would save a little bit of money. I haven’t done the exact calculation but after looking at a couple sites it looks like leaving the lights on in the bathroom all day would cost less than a dollar. Considering my shower takes 10 or 15 minutes it looks like I’m saving about one penny a day. I will still keep taking my shower in the dark though because I find that is actually very relaxing and there is no reason to waste even that little bit of electricity.

If I were to cut back on the length of my shower I could save more money. I found a web site that estimates the cost of a shower. My only cost for a shower is energy cost since water is included in rent. My cost for a ten minute shower is 32 cents and a ten minute shower is 47 cents. Five extra minutes for 15 cents seems like a good deal to me. Just because I’m not paying for the water doesn’t mean I should waste it though so I’m going to try to keep my showers to ten minutes. I don’t think that will really affect the quality of my shower. And I will look for some better ways to cut back on electrical use.

Save on Groceries with Non-Profit Food Networks

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We ordered some food from Angel Food Ministries last month and I thought it was a good deal. For $30 we got about $60 in groceries. It is a frugal way to buy groceries. With shrewd shopping and good use of coupons you could probably match this savings but it is a lot easier to just order a box of food. It was also convenient. We just went to the pickup spot and they loaded the box of food in our car. It was much faster than grocery shopping.

If you are not familiar with Angel Food Ministries they are a non-profit that distributes low cost food to thousands of people every month. Although they are distributing low cost food they make it clear that this is for people of all incomes. They have several packages of food you can buy but we just got the signature box. The menu changes every month but the foods you get are pretty similar every month. Here is this month’s menu. This wasn’t really a good deal for me when I was single since you can’t choose what goes in the signature box and it always included several foods I don’t eat. Now that I am part of a bigger family though there is always someone who likes everything.

Although I have only tried Angel Food there are several other similar programs. Some of them are:
Prairie Land Food
SHARE Colorado
Food For All

If any of you have tried any of these programs I would like to know what you think of them. Are they a good deal or not?

Lacking the Shopping Gene or Naturally Frugal

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It is pretty easy for me to be frugal because there is very little that I want to buy. There is actually very little I want even when it is free. There just are not many things that I think are worth the money they cost and a lot of things that I don’t think are even worth the hassle of owning even if they are free. This natural frugality does save me money but it does have drawbacks. Obviously, there are some things I need to spend money on whether I think they are worth it or not. Sometimes I find myself not wanting to spend money on things such as health care which could end up costing me a lot more money in the future. In instances like that I have to overcome my natural resistance to spending any money. I have gotten much better at doing that in the last few years but it has been a process and it is still ongoing.

An example is the shopping trip at Target my fiancee and I went on yesterday. It actually wasn’t a shopping trip but registering for wedding gifts but it still seemed like shopping to me. Although my fiancee knew I wasn’t enthused about registering for gifts she thought I would come around once we started the process. It may seem strange to most people but even in a big store like Target there just isn’t much I want even if someone else is buying. I don’t want to ask for anything that I wouldn’t purchase myself, it seems like a waste to me. My fiancee took my lack of interest in the wedding registry process to indicate a lack of interest in the wedding and marriage and was rather upset. The marriage is very important to me but I don’t much care about the wedding and reception. However, since they are important to my fiancee I should have made more of an effort to participate. That was another lesson learned and I have to continue to make sure that my natural frugality doesn’t negatively affect my relationships.

Proof of Low Expenses

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In one of my recent posts at U.S. News several comments expressed doubt that the budget I posted as an example used my real expenses.  A $1000 a month budget seems difficult for some to believe even though a little internet searching would show this is quite possible. Since I post my expenses every month my regular readers know what my expenses are but for the skeptics I am posting some proof of my low expenses.

First off is my high-speed internet for $15 a month.  I got this through Link City and you can see that is their basic rate.

Next is my phone bill of $35 a month. This is the SERO plan from Sprint which includes 500 anytime minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited texts, and unlimited data for $30 a month. You can’t get this deal anymore but I am grandfathered in. There are lots of discussions about SERO, the one at Slick Deals has a lot of information on this cheap phone plan.

My rent of $360 a month seemed to be the item people were most skeptical about. It is cheap rent, even for Kansas City but it isn’t hard to find a place for less than $400 a month. Kansas City apartments for less than $400 a month.

Last I have included a copy of one of my electric bills. It is very cheap because I didn’t have to use much A/C. That just left the fridge, lights, and my laptop which don’t add up to much.
electric bill