Visit the Library to Save Money

Since last year, my family goes to the public library every friday. The reason we go is that there is a chess club (unofficial) whose members gathers at the library from 6:30pm until it closes at 9:00pm. My eldest son plays chess and enjoys going there to meet friends and having a sparring session. My other kids read and use the computer.

Meanwhile Daddy goes to the magazine section and read through as many magazines that I can get my hands on. When I first went to the library, I was amazed at the amount of magazines they had. I had never read so many magazines before. Before we started going regularly to the library, I had subscribed to Fortune, Business Week, Money, Barrons and a few other magazines. I have since stopped subscribing to these magazines because I can read them for free at the library!

Meanwhile, I noticed that Mrs Credit Card started borrowing DVDs from the libary (and we’re talking about the latest releases!). It made us realize that we should never subscribe to netflix or even set foot in a blockbuster video rental store! We could borrow the DVDs for three days (there are also CDs).

There are also about 10 computers that had access to the internet. I used them occasionally, but the connection was too slow for my liking (but hey, what did you expect?).

I have seen a few post in the past about cancelling one’s cable TV and subscribing to Netflix instead. I’d say forget about Netflix and go to your nearest public library. Another idea for those looking to cut their expenditure is to cancel your magazine subsribtion and check out your library as well. I found out that the library is one great resource that is probably under utlizied by most people. Your nearest public library may not be as good as the one near my place. But check it out before you subsribe to any new magazine or Netflix. You may end up saving yourself quite a bundle.