Can you believe a month of 2009 has already past? I can't! How are you doing on your new year's resolutions? I'm doing pretty well - better then last year anyway. Not as good on my writing but my budgeting and devotions are going well.
Have you made any budget changes?
I have! Or at least I've stuck to quite a few. We cut out going out to eat this month and it was a lot easier then I thought. Knowing that we weren't going out made it easy. I knew I was making dinner every night (with a few exceptions for leftovers) so there were no nights that I "got lazy" and asked to go out. Somehow just making the decision made it easy. Like making the decision not to use credit cards. Works, amazing :)
I've also checked out some of the swapping sites I mentioned a few posts ago and I just wanted to share what I found out or at least my opinions of them :)
Paperbackswap.com - I signed up which was easy enough. If you list 10 books to swap they give you 2 free credits to shop around.
Great! I found 12 books I didn't need and put them up there. What I didn't anticipate is that these books would be requested so quickly. I have been signed up for not even a week and have mailed out 9 of my 12 books! Not a big deal except I pay for the shipping to each one of these places. The theory is that I will get credit for every book I mail. Once they receive my book and log in that they have received it I will get more credits to receive books from anywhere else.
Pluses: I can request a book from anywhere at any time as long as I have a credit. It's easy to search and find books you want and it's easy to upload. Now that I've mailed 9 books I'll have 9 credits for 9 free books.
Minuses: It is really hard to find the books that I want and you end up on a waiting list for the books you do want. Some of them I am like 70th in line to actually get them! So, who knows when I might actually get to receive a book I want. Though I did find one and ordered it but still I had to mail 9 to get one and I used one of my free credits anyway. With the money I spent in the mailing I could've bought a book I wanted but it wouldn't be 9 so eventually it will even out.
Swaptree.com - you put up the books you have to trade and then you find the ones you want - swaptree puts you together to trade.
Sounds simple but it's more complicated then you think.
Pluses: It's much easier to find the books I want - no waiting lists. You can trade DVD's for books, CD's for DVD's - whatever so you can get rid of DVD's as well as books which I thought was really nice.
Minuses: You have to have what someone wants in order to make a trade and it's sometimes hard to have what someone wants! I'm actually mailing a DVD to get a Golf book (I HATE Golf) so I can use that book to trade for a book I actually want. There's supposed to be a three-way trade option but I can't figure out how to use it.
So both of them are great sites for eventually getting that book you want. If you're an avid reader especially of fiction then you will find plenty. If you want DVD's then Swaptree is the place for you. It can save you money but it will take some work. But with a list like mine I'll take my chances on the waiting!
Stay tuned for February - so much coming and Cherie will be back :)
Photo by jenn_jenn
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