submitted by Shawn Marie Mann
I have a family of 5 and my husband stays at home with our children while I work a full time job. Many people have asked us how that is possible in this day and age.
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My response is that we use a ton of money-saving hints and activities. My number one tip is to use your library to get things for free and save money!
We are fortunate to have an excellent public library system that offers us endless opportunities to save money on everyday things.
Here are things we get from our library for free that other people pay for:
Books - The obvious, we get books via interlibrary loan rather than going to the book or thrift store.
Magazines - We do not have magazine subscriptions because our library carries most of the ones we want to read and allows people to check out back issues.
Internet - Our library offers WIFI for those with laptops.
Computers with internet - If you don't have a computer you can use one at the library with internet and word processing access.
Movies - We can rent them for free, other libraries have a small fee.
Software - Our library carries children's educational software you can take home and use plus computers in the library to use it there if you don't have one at home.
Music - We can get all kinds of CDs to listen to.
Puppets, games and puzzles - We can check these out for the kids.
Language lessons and other classes on CD - Yep, education at no charge.
Consumer Reports - This is a magazine yes, but the back issues and special issues help us to save tons of money over paying for the subscription ourselves so it should be mentioned separately.
Book clubs, free concerts, children's concerts and programs - All types of social and educational offerings, all free of charge.
Coupon exchange - Yep, they've got that too. Coupons are free money!
And this just scratches the surface of what your library can do for you. Any item or service you can get through them for free is more money you can put toward your financial goals.
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Copyright © 2010 by Shawn Marie Mann. All rights reserved.
