January’s Best Money Hacks
At the end of each month, I plan to share my favorite post from the Money Hacks sister site, Get Rich Slowly. This month I liked 10 ways to save money on books:
- Avoid new releases
- Screen books by reading reviews
- Read the classics online
- Search for bargains at thrift stores, etc.
- Make Amazon an all-purpose research tool
- Make frequent use of your public library
- Explore used book stores
- Use internet tools to find cheap books
- Buy only what you intend to read
- Share your books with others
Read the entire article for more detailed information.
Other personal finance bloggers have been writing about how to save on books, too. Free Money Finance recently wrote about Consumer Reports choice for the best place to save on books. The Simple Dollar went further, describing a method to leverage the free Borders rewards program to get greatly reduced prices on books (and other media).
Previous: Grocist
![[tips [-at-] moneyhacks [-dot-] org]](http://www.moneyhacks.org/images/tips.jpg "Please include any credit information you'd like posted, too"){kind=small}
.
Madame X said,
February 2, 2007 @ 5:15 pm
11. Get a job in publishing. The pay may be terrible but you’ll get lots of free books!
ryan said,
February 3, 2007 @ 2:02 pm
I visited a local used book shop last weekend. It was amazing, spent 10 bucks and got some great books/magazines (5 I think). Millionaire next door, some gardening books, and an old How to make stuff book. Also hit Good will, they had a good selection too, though only one book struck my fancy, cost a dollar.
Should be enough to keep me occupied for a couple weeks, Even longer if I decide to build stuff or make a garden.
Good one Madame X, Very true on both accounts.
Credit Card Rewards Enthusiast said,
February 3, 2007 @ 4:03 pm
I’d also suggest using this best-price search engine devoted to books: http://www.bestbookbuys.com/ . I’ve been using it for years to good effect. Oh, and if you end up buying through B&N and other big online bookstores, don’t forget to get your percentage discount through FatWallet (www.fatwallet.com).
Frame Hacker said,
February 4, 2007 @ 8:46 pm
Used book stores are great, but for technical books they’re often not really an option, because the content goes stale frequently…
I would like to plug BookPool (http://www.bookpool.com/) as a great discount source for technical books– cheaper than Amazon, often by a lot, though the shipping is slower. I haven’t used them in a few years but when I was buying a lot of programming books they were great!
Ruby said,
March 8, 2007 @ 11:12 am
I’ve been having great luck at bookmooch.com, a site that lets you list books that you have and are willing to give away as well as make a wishlist of books you’re looking for. It simply facilitates book trading. I give person A a copy of book A, and earn a point I can use to get book B, C, D, or Z from any other user of the site. So far all of my transactions have been great, prompt and honest. It also helps me stick to my goal of one book in, one book out, to help keep me from hoarding.