More on Books...

So this has clearly been a coincidental week of books for me, but I was thrilled about my recent savings on textbooks for the next upcoming school year. Both my husband and I are students, he is part-time while I am full-time, and his school comes out with textbook lists much earlier than mine fortunately for the one of us.

After gathering his list for 3 classes, the books would cost roughly $375 with taxes. After searching on Amazon.com (which you probably would think I am working for by now, but no), I began to shop using the feature where you could buy the books new from other sellers. You could also buy used from other sellers for even cheaper, but with used books you never know what you'll get until you see them, so we went for new. From this method I got all of his books for $227. Since these items are not taxed, it also makes it much easier for the wallet. So for the same quality of books delivered to my door, I got them for $150 cheaper, which is something that even Amazon.com as a retailer could not beat.

There are many great textbook sites out there, half.com is another one of my favorites. The issue is, you have to have your list of books ready a great deal ahead of time, otherwise, you won't be able to get them on time. With half.com, all books are generally shipped through Media Mail, which can take up to 3 weeks to get to you. Buying books from independent sellers may also prove a similar route, with standard shipping ranging up to 15 business days.

Keep sending your entries for a free copy of "The Penny Pincher's Club" to frugalgreengirl@gmail.com!

Book Giveaway

After my entry on the Amazon Kindle below, I also realized I have an offer for my loyal readers at Frugal Green Girl!

"The Penny Pincher's Club" by Sarah Strohmeyer, a new chick lit type book was released earlier this month, and I have two copies to give away to readers of Frugal Green Girl. Like "Confessions of a Shopaholic", it follows the story of a woman going through a financial strain and is forced to give up her material possessions to get her life back in order. Along they way, you'll learn some tips yourself on how to save money. I'm happy to trade one of my boring personal finance books for an adventure, and I hope to post more information on this book in the future as I find opportunities for it.

In the mean time, I will give readers until August 15th at midnight (Central time) to enter in the drawing for a copy of "The Penny Pincher's Club". Email me your name and a way to contact you (email address is fine) to frugalgreengirl@gmail.com. Join along with us, even if you don't get a free copy, and share the tips you find helpful.

Paper is so last year

For my husband's birthday this year, I decided to get him a not-so-frugal, but what I would consider a very "green" gift - an Amazon Kindle. They have recently dropped in price, but are still at a quite outrageous $299.

My big thing with gifts is that I want them to be practical. While this gift costs a lot of money, I think it will pay itself off in the long run. I spend a lot of time researching more expensive purchases and finding customer reviews, which is something I would advise to anyone. At first, I didnt think buying a Kindle would be worth it, but after learning more about it, I saw how practical and useful it could be for him. My husband really loves to read classic novels, ones written quite a long time ago. For a while, he was collecting the anthology books by famous classic authors from Barnes & Noble, which tend to take up a lot of space in our apartment (soon-to-be house this weekend). The great part about these books is that the copyright has expired on them for quite some time, and now you can get all of these books for free on an electronic book, like the Kindle. This is also the reason why they are so cheap in stores, you are merely paying for the paper and ink the book was printed with. There are also websites like freekindlebooks.org that have lists and lists of free books to read. So far, he has only really purchased one book (Eragon, for $6.99), which costs half price than buying a hard copy since you aren't paying for the components of the hard copy version of the book.

Additionally, this device provides a form of "free internet". By that, I mean you can search the Amazon.com Kindle store at anytime, anywhere. It utilizes Verizon wireless's "whispernet", but there is no data plan to pay. My husband was out with his parents this weekend driving in a large city and looking for a local store. He pulled out the Kindle to find what they were looking for. Be warned, this is a version of the internet that would look like what you would get on your mobile phone. Basically, it can do the job you are looking for, but is not a computer. You can search google or wikipedia, but don't look for YouTube videos on there.

Plus, and my favorite part, you are saving paper and saving space in your home! The Kindle can hold roughly 1,500 books, which I would think is very hard to fill (But I wouldn't put it past my husband). It also can give you your subscriptions to newspapers or magazines too. Another thing we loved is one of the newest features of the lastest version of the Amazon Kindle, it's text-to-speech function, which will read your newspaper, magazine, or book to you. While it is a somewhat creepy electronic voice, it does its job quite nicely. Publishers are also given the choice to not offer the text-to-speech feature, since this would likely hurt the audiobook sales.

There are other versions of "electronic books" available at other book stores, like Borders sells a version from Sony, however, I don't know if the features would even come close to the Kindle. Amazon.com also carries such great deals on books, that I don't know where you would get a better price.

If you have a special someone in your life who loves to read, a Kindle or similar product might be a more practical purchase than you think, and convenient! Books download to your Kindle in 60 seconds!

For the book lovers out there...

Thanks to Tom who commented on this article about using swaptree.com, which does not involve a point/credit system, and you can trade pretty much any media (books, DVDs, CDs, and video games). I tried it and I loved it, my first book is on the way!

I can't help it. I love books. I would like to say I finish (or have even started) all of the books I currently own, however, that is far from the case. Every trip to the bookstore is very exciting, a new learning opportunity on the horizon. Unfortunately, these trips are quite expensive, and leave me with a load of half-read books on the shelf. What's a frugal girl to do? Obviously, there is a great path I have taken with half.com, but another way which will also leave you just as satisfied, and maybe even more such, is an online book exchange.

I have been trying out Paperbackswap.com, and have also glanced at bookmooch.com, both are venues to search and swap books with others. Both work on a point/credit system, and both are a little bit different in the distribution. Basically, the more books you list to swap, the more points you will get to earn books from others. In otherwords, this is not another place where you can accumulate more crap! If you start an account with paperbookswap.com, after you list 10 books, you will get 2 credits for books (limit one offer per household). Obviously, you would also earn points/credits by the books you give to others, and lose some when you get books from others. Postage is not something you are paid for since someone will return the favor for you when you get a new book. You can also buy credits if you have nothing to give, but I doubt that is a reality for anyone :)

If books aren't your fancy, there is also swapadvd.com and swapacd.com, where you can swap DVDs and CDs you don't use anymore. Don't buy more, swap whats sitting on your bookshelf or closet!

Also, if you try out paperbackswap.com, note that it is not limited to just paperbacks, they have hardcover books available too. :)