Day 12

I haven't been keeping up with my challenge on the blog this month as well as I did back in June. Not because I am spending more money, but because I have been staying out of stores and therefore not spending as much money and having nothing to report. My husband did pick up some treats at the grocery store tonight and I can't find the receipt so will add that to my next expense report. We did spend $8.25 today at the meat market for 3 large cantaloupes, 1 package of beef sticks, and a large bag of onions. Which brings our total down to $487.08 left for the month.

I recently added an Amazon widget on my sidebar, about halfway down the page. I'm going to "go all Oprah" and have my 'favorite things' listed on there. Everything listed is something that I personally use/own and love. You may see that we like some of the same things, find a new product that looks interesting to you, just want to snoop around to see what types of things I like, or just ignore the widget altogether. Whatever floats your boat. :)

Books. I love books. My favorite place to find books is at

You are essentially bartering your books and just pay postage, which averages around $2.30 per book, though often a smaller paperback is much cheaper. They have over a million books listed on their site and if you don't see the book you are looking for you can put it on your wish list and they will contact you when it is available. I have done over 100 transactions on there since signing up 5 years ago and get almost all my books through there. If you haven't heard of it, do check out their site. Just for signing up and posting 10 books you no longer want (a good tip is to pick up books at garage sales for as little as 10 cents and post them, or clean out your own bookshelves) you get three credits so can start "purchasing" books immediately!

Amazon has quite a few books for good prices as well, especially when buying from the used section. One book I recommend is:

America's Cheapest Family by Steve and Annette Economides (what an appropriate name!). There is a lot that I don't utilize from their book. This probably isn't a book for someone who already is a huge tightwad. But I do think it is an excellent book for someone who doesn't know where to start to control their spending habits or wants to find a few more areas in which they can cut. Their story is enough to make this book interesting to anyone.

They show you how they manage to feed their family of seven on $350 per month, pay off their first home in nine years, buy cars with cash, take vacations, and put money in savings. They also show you how to live debt-free. It has earned a permanent spot on my bookshelf.

A few other places that have good prices on books are Ebay and Half.com. Don't forget garage sales, thrift stores, and library books sales as well.

What is your favorite place to purchase books?