Saving $$$ at the Library

We used to only belong to a little local library. While it is adorable the selection is small, and inter-library-loans are a paid service there.  So, we opted to get a library card in the bigger city library system a little ways away.

I think it was $90 for a year?  I agonized over spending that much on a library card.  In a one-income family with a child requiring $10,000 in medical care monthly and David being self employed, we’re super critical about putting every dollar to work just where we want it to be.

When a gentle mother asked for ways to use the library to save money, I started answering in a comment.  Then I realized my thoughts couldn’t all fit in the comment.  The library AND saving money?  Those are my two favorite things besides chocolate and Norwex.  I mean, besides my husband and kids.  

I decided to do a quick post instead.

 

1. Try before you buy. I don’t buy any books unless I’ve previewed them first from the library. There’s no need to drop cash on the latest cool children’s picture book unless it really is something we want taking up space on the shelf.

 
2. Free movies and music. We don’t have cable, dish, Netflix, or hulu (now that they’ve sold out and become a paid service). I spend $0 on movies and TV, but we still have a decent selection of movies for date night in.

 
3. Toys and Puzzles. Our library just got in some little plastic bins of toy sets. They actually have an assortment of current Melissa and Doug-ish sets. I haven’t been brave enough to try them, though the librarian assured me that they are disinfected when they are returned. Cee’s weak immune system might not be up for it.  Were things different, I’d get rid of our Band-in-a-Box and just check out the library’s occasionally.

 
4. Books for me. I used to save up any money from my birthday or Christmas and carefully pick out and buy a few titles I hoped I’d like.  Not so anymore!  Now I inter-library loan with reckless abandon, and I don’t feel guilty when I don’t finish a book that turns out to be duddy.  I like being able to access parenting books, random fiction, cookbooks- – whatever I’m in the mood for.

 

5.  Fewer curriculum purchases.  I like to supplement our regular curriculum with outside materials.  Before this year, that was a pretty significant amount of money.  Now it’s easy for me to just put a bunch of books on one topic on hold at the library and viola!  Stress free unit study at no cost.

 

6.  Keeping Cee in books.  Since Cee learned how to read, she devours chapter books in a single bite.  The library satisfies her supply needs in a way that I wouldn’t be able to if we were just buying books on our own.

 

7.  Free time for me!  I’m not saying that visiting the library enables me to go out and get a part-time job because it creates so much free time…but sort of.  When we bring a load of books home from the library, I can get a good 15 minutes of uninterrupted time as they look everything over.

 

8.  Free classes.  Since we’re out of town, we haven’t used the classes as much as I’d like, but it’s great to know they are out there.  From crafts with the kids to tax prep information, our library offers lots of in-person and online classes.  In order to renew my teaching license I’m taking a class from a university right now.  It’s a big investment.  But after those credits are earned, the rest of my continuing ed doesn’t need to be transcripted.  In the past I just paid for more classes, but with our current library situation, I’m going to just take some classes online for free.

 

9.  Room rental.  You can reserve a room at our library for free!  So if you have a book club, homeschool speaker, or meeting you can go someplace quiet that seats more than 6 people and doesn’t require you to put away all your couch laundry first.  We used this once when we had a speaker from Kenya talk to our family.

 

10.  Book sales.  Our local library has a book sale every summer.  They have to weed their collection every year, and unfortunately for them (and fortunately for us), we don’t have similar patterns of discernment.  Our library has gotten rid of books we were elated to scoop up at the price of $2 a bag.  They’ve chosen to keep some pretty drivelly titles, so I’m not sure about their reasoning.

I guess Ninja Horse Robot Detective stories have their place, but in a head-to-head match against something by Tomie DePaola, how can Tomie lose?!?!  Why are we discarding Tomie DePaola people!?!?!  I digress.  We’ve gotten a few classic and older gems from the yearly library sale for next to nothing.  I’m not shy about tucking those titles away to give my kids as gifts later, which saves even more.

 

BONUS:  Avoiding fines.  The only way the library saves us money is that we don’t pay any fines.  That sounds bad.  We don’t ACCRUE any fines.  I renew books that have gone missing and make sure to return all books by their due date.  The big library offers all this management online, so I’m checking every few days to make sure we’re in the clear.  We did have to replace one movie at our local library, and it about killed me when we found it a few months later.  It can be a struggle to keep track of our materials, but it’s worth it to avoid fines.

 

I could go on and on about my BFF the library.  If you have any tips for saving money with the library, please pass them along.  🙂

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