Miss Moneypennypincher | Free ebooks

I have a bookshelf of dusty books in my home.  I have no idea how much I spent to acquire this collection of books I have either never read, read but would never read again, or books I lend out to friends and reread from time to time.  I don't mind the latter, but looking at that shelf of books reminds me of how much money I wasted on some books that I could have read for free from the library.

I feel the same way about ebooks. Yes, there are some ebooks that can be lent out. Really though, most of the time the ebooks just sit on my ereader account and remind me of the $9.99 I spent that I will never see again.  Many of my friends extol the awesomeness of ebooks and say they will never go back to the actual copies that we lend out at the library.  That's fine, but come to the library to RENT ebooks too!  FREE!  

courtesy of ebookfriendly.com

Look at it this way: If you buy two ebooks a month (let's say an average price of $10), you are spending $240 a year on books sitting in a device.  In fact, you probably deleted half of them and they are waiting in a "Cloud" on your ebook provider's database. There are some subscription services coming around the bend as well.  Amazon has already started a lending library (included with the $79 Prime subscription), but it still can't beat free.

SSJCPL has two ebook services: Axis 360 and Overdrive. The apps and software are free and the books are free to download.  You check them out for between 1 and 3 weeks and there are NO LATE FEES. EVER!  Okay so, no late fees, free book, free checkout, no clutter on your device or computer. That, to me, my friends, is awesomeness!  Also, a helpful tip, if you commute or go out of town, check out the town's library, they might have an ebook service as well.  Many places are happy to sign up out-of-town folks for library cards.  Then you can have access to our ebooks, and theirs as well.

In addition, check out Project Gutenberg, a database with over 43000 free ebooks.  All of the books are available because they have an expired copyright. You have no idea how crazy it makes me when I see someone has paid to download Jane Eyre. 

 Knock Knock

---Who's there?

 Bee

---Bee Who?

 Bee super smart and save money by getting free ebooks at the library!

 I am getting worse at the jokes, I know.

Miss Moneypennypincher | Libraries Like Freeloaders

I'm back!!! Okay, so it's been longer than ever now since I have done a "short attention span challenge".  I've already thrown in the towel as far as completing the challenge on a weekly basis, but that doesn't mean I can't put a random blog post up every week about this and that (and maybe do a challenge occasionally as well).  For now, I have decided to focus my weekly blog posts about all things free!  Free? Yes! Free. See folks, you may have already deduced this from some of my previous posts, but I am sort of a cheapskate.  I drive my cars until they are good and dead. I was probably the only Millennial (I think I am one of those, right?)  that did not carry a smart phone (for a very long time).  In fact, my parents both had the iPhone before I did.  That was sort of humiliating, actually.  Signing up for a cable contract makes me feel sick. I love getting free samples. Hello, Costco! It's just how I am.  It doesn't mean I don't like nice things.  I do!  But, isn't it always better to get stuff on the cheap?  I think so!

What's wrong?  I still run! (photo courtesy of cartocars.com)

And that is one of the things that is so flippin' awesome about the library.  As long as you don't bring your materials back late, everything is FREE!  We even have stuff that is free without a possibility of late fees.  I will get into that in the next post!  It's amazing how many resources the library offers that many people don't even know about.  So I'm going to SPREAD THE WORD! I'm not always going to talk about the library in this blog, but let's talk about economics and more importantly, how to get stuff cheaper (or free).  I don't care how much money you have...it's always fun to save some--or  spend it on something else.  

And to conclude the post today..a Knock-Knock Joke!

Person 1: Knock-Knock!

Person 2: Who's There?

Person 1: Austere!

Person 2: Austere who?

Person 1: Austere you in the right direction!  To the library! To save some cash!

Okay give me a break, most of the knock-knock jokes I make up are for my 5-year-old and she thinks they are ALL hilarious.