Reading is a good hobby that doesn’t have to be expensive, but books are expensive and we cannot deny that. For us book-lovers, who are constantly in-need of a book, we need to find ways to do that effectively without having to use that last penny and end up being broke. Thus, I decided to compile a few tips we can implement to help us save money on books.
SAVE
I think saving money for books separately is a good idea, because you don’t end up taking money that was meant for something else and buy books. This works perfectly for me. Make sure to be on a look out for books sales, once you have the money saved up.
OPT. FOR ONLINE SHOPPING
This one is linked to the one above, once you have your money saved, make a list of the books you need and check them online. Make sure you compare the prices and you’ll probably find ones cheaper. I think books online are way cheaper than at bookstores. Another advantage is that you wont end up buying books because you see them, I know this can also work online, but what I do is to add the books I need on the shopping cart and once i have the money saved up for them I can check them out. In that way I don’t get the chance of adding other books on the list. These are the online stores I use mostly; takealot, loot and raru.
USED BOOKSTORES
Used bookstores sell books at a cheaper price and usually you’d find books in good condition; which is a bargain. So if you have one next to you, use that and save money.
THE LIBRARY
I wasn’t really sure about including this one because personally I’m not a huge fan of libraries. Also, libraries tend to have old books and not the newer releases, but one can still find a few choices to pick from. This one also works perfectly, you can borrow a book and return it once you’re done (do not forget to return the books LOL).
BOOK EXCHANGE
I’ve only just identified one bookstore around where I stay, where you can exchange books for the ones you’d like to read. I am yet to explore this option further, so I do not have any information about it (if you do please share in the comments).
SELL UNUSED BOOKS
I am all about collecting books, I’m constantly looking for ways to do that. If you just love reading and you dont want to collect books, you can sell the ones you know you’d never re-read and use that cash to buy other books.
BORROW FROM FRIENDS
Take time to check which books your friends have that you’d love to read and the other way around and exchange those. Note; please take good care of someones book so that they might be happy to borrow you in the future. Seek out the book-lovers around your office or even your friends and coordinate on which books you buy each season to help each other save on new titles. This is to help everyone get to buy something, so that not only one person gets to buy and the others just borrow and read.
RESEARCH BEFORE BUYING BOOKS
Check out book reviews before buying books so that you know if you’d like that particular book or not. This prevents situations where you buy books and you end up not reading them for years.
Those were my tips, I hope they were useful, and if you have any tips, please share them in the comments section. Let us help each other save more money.
Until next time,
God bless you.
Sthembile M. 