Save a Little Money with PaperBack Swap

One of the sure fire ways to save money that is touted here and everywhere is to cancel cable service.  Whether you cancel the whole thing or just pare down to the smallest package for network stations, you’re left with a fair chunk of time to do something else.  Again, another suggestion to take up that time is to read a book.  I completely agree.  Depending on the book, it can be entertaining or educational or both.

One of the downsides to taking up reading is that even a paperback book can cost almost $10 at most of the bookstores.  Amazon is slightly better, but not by much.  The all time cheapest way to read a book is from your local library.  The downfall there, of course, is that you have to return the book in a set amount of time.  That puts the pressure on to read the book or to remember to go in and re-check-out the book.  I don’t like to be rushed and I have a horrible memory for errands like that, so I prefer to buy the books that I read.

With our current situation, I am unable to buy as many books as I once did and now depend largely on gifts for my new book purchases.  Yay Amazon gift cards!  Another way that I’ve found to get my hands on a book cheaply is to swap it.  I think there are a few places to swap books, but the one that I’ve been using is PaperBack Swap.  It works on a credit system, so each book that you list and send to someone else gets you a credit to request a book from someone else.  All you have to do is pay for the shipping to get it where it’s going.  You get a new book for about $2.38.  That’s  quite the deal if you ask me.

So far, I’ve only gotten a few books, but I’m picking up steam and I may start looking at my local thrift store for books to swap for books that I want to read.  If there are any of you who are using a different service, please let me know what they are.  I’d like to check them all out.  They’re just another way to become a Frugaler!