Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

Saving Money with PaperBackSwap

By 6 Comments

I like to read.  A lot.  Not as much as some people, but I still manage to read somewhere between 30 and 40 books a year.  As you can imagine, that gets a little bit expensive if you’re paying full price for all of them.  Swapping and borrowing books only gets you so far if you limit it to the people you know directly.  But, that’s where a fun site called PaperBackSwap comes into play.

Here’s how it works.  You post the books that you want to trade away.  Other users request those books and you ship them off.  You can either print the postage directly through the site, or buy it anyway you like.  Personally, I use paypal shipping because it’s slightly cheaper, and, I already have the account at paypal to do that.  Once you’ve shipped the book, or books, off, you merely wait for them to be received.  Once received, the person you sent them to marks them as received and you get a credit.

Save Money with Paper Back SwapWith your credits, you can then request books from other members.  (note: the first person from your household to sign up for PaperBackSwap gets two free credits when they list 10 books) Then, it’s just the same process, but with you being the receiver rather than the sender.

I’ve been a member since 2009.  I’ve sent 71 books out, and I’ve received 59 books.  I’ve only had one of the books that I sent disappear in postage, and one other that was damaged in postage.  Every other book I’ve sent has safely gotten where it was going and was accepted by the receiver.  The same is true of receiving books.  I’ve never had one get lost, and only had one that was damaged.  It’s a great community of readers, and a great source of books.

The selection of books is usually pretty good.  As you would expect, most of the newer books are a bit hard to get, but you can throw them on your wish list and the system will email you when one becomes available.  If one on your wish list becomes available, you’ve got two options.  The default is that PBS will put it on a 48 hour hold while it waits for you to either request it or decline it, or you can put it on auto-request which will automatically request it from the other member as soon as they list it.

If you’re an avid reader (or, really, even a more casual reader) you really should check out PaperBackSwap.  It’s  great, frugal, way to get books to read, and a great way to share great books with others too!

The Skinny On Time Management

By 1 Comment

The Skinny On: Time Management

By: Jim Randel

I recently did a review of The Skinny On: Credit Cards, by Jim Randel.  This book came along with that one and several others.  Disclosure: The publisher sent them to me for review.

As any of the other Skinny On books, this one is short and to the point.  Randel wastes none of your time filling you with fluff.  Instead, he breaks down several much more complex time management systems, adds a few things of his own in, and then presents it in a stick-figure laden slide show of a book.  Having read most of the books that he talks about previously, most of the information was merely a review.  The few things that Randel added in of his own were minor.  What I really liked about this book is that it can act as a quick and easy refresher of the principles that I’ve learned elsewhere.  If it were my first book on time management, I might feel a bit differently, and it might have been much more educational.

I did like it, though.  And it’s probably one that I’ll keep around to reread every once in a while for that reminder factor.  And since it’s nice and short, I don’t have to worry about taking a whole lot of time out of my schedule to reread any of the longer time management books that I have read, just a quick read through this one.

Save a Little Money with PaperBack Swap

By 4 Comments

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!