I’ve always had a desire to read a lot to my children. I want them to develop a love of books, learning, and literacy. So reading aloud to them often is a personal goal of mine.
We usually read for about 30 minutes after breakfast. Sometimes it is in the afternoon; and on occasion we miss a day. So usually each week they are read aloud to for at least three hours. As a result, they both love books.
We’ve managed to buy or receive hundreds of books. Here are 15 tips I’ve used to spend less than $1.00 per book!
1- Buy books at garage sales. I have found some of the best books for the cheapest at garage and yard sales. Most that I’ve purchased have been 0.25 or 0.50 cents each. Tutorial on efficient garage sale-ing here.
2- Buy books at thrift stores. I have purchased the majority of our books at thrift stores. I clean them (outside and in) with lysol wipes and paper towels if the pages can handle the moisture. The average price I pay for very nice books at thrift stores is 0.75 cents a book.
3- Buy books from libraries. Many libraries have a cart of used books that you can purchase inexpensively.
4- Buy used books from Amazon. They are often 1 cent plus shipping, or you can get them for fairly reasonable prices with free shipping if you are a Prime member. This is a great option if you are looking for something specific.
5- Check books out at the library. This of course is the best deal as long as you don’t accrue late fees and your kids don’t destroy the books. We struggle with both late fees and our kids damaging books, so I don’t often use the city library. My son does check out a book each week at his preschool library and we keep it in his bag—except to read it. This way it goes back to preschool and doesn’t get damaged in the interim.
6- Have the books organized and accessible. This way you can find what you are looking for. I use these kid organizers and they work great! The kids have easy access to them and we are able to group them according to age, interest, and the type of book it is.
7-Fix the books up when they start falling apart. If you are proactive about doing the following, books will last much longer:
8- Keep the expensive and fragile books up high and only bring them down when you are supervising. (i.e. favorite pop-up and flap books.)
9- Participate in a book exchange. Most people own a few books that their kids are done with. Holding a book exchange with other moms is a great way to get new reading material.
10- Have a book-themed baby shower. When I was pregnant with my first, one of my baby showers had a book-theme. The guests loved it and I did too!
I ended up with so many fun books that my son and I loved to read!
11- Look for clearance and sales on books. I’ve found some great inexpensive books on Zulily.com, at TJMaxx, Ross, and at other discount stores.
12- Store books that your kids aren’t interested in right now in a closet or box. Pull out and rotate books as their interests and ages change.
13- Ask for books on birthdays and Christmas wish lists. Both of our kids received some of their favorite books from Santa and family members for Christmas and love them!
14- Buy boxed sets. Often you can get 3-6 books at a discounted bundled price. Box sets are a great way to save on new books and often make great gifts!
15-Write your name on the book before lending them out or taking them to family members’ houses. It’s so easy to lose track of books—esp. if your kid’s friend has the exact same book. By labeling them before you leave the house, if they get lost, the books will likely return to you.
Unless you KNOW your kid is going to love the book and/or it has a very sentimental meaning to you, I would discourage buying baby and kids books at full price. There are just so many ways to get books for cheap or free (I’ve just mentioned fifteen of them). If you are looking for something specific, I’d at first try Amazon books in like new condition before buying them brand new. Using coupons and discount codes of course is a great way to save as well.
What do you do to save money on baby and kids books?
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We have a huge and ever-growing children’s library in our home, the majority of which were purchased used. [Read more about our ever-growing library, and how we re-label our ex-library books so as not to confuse them with our real library books: How to Re-label Ex-library Books for Your Personal Library.]
This entire set of books for the Giveaway cost me less than $3. The total retail value, if you were to purchase each of these books in paperback format from Amazon, is about $92. (Mike Mulligan is unavailable in regular paperback form, but can be purchased as part of a set or in a travel pack, etc.)
As you can see from the picture below, my books–purchased used, for $3–are all in excellent condition. (Except for Zin! Zin! Zin! a Violin, which has a crease on the cover–in the top right corner–but is otherwise fine.) Several titles are Caldecott winners, one is a hardback and all of them came from a local thrift shop on the weekly all-books-half-off day. Each of these books has been loved by one or more people at my house.
Summer is typically major “library book sale” season, so be sure to check with your local library to find out their sale schedule. Our county has one large library system, with multiple locations. Every summer, there is a giant used book sale for the entire county. Throughout the year, each library location runs their own periodic sales. So I always hit the giant sale in the summer, as well as several local sales here and there.
**Local friends should check out the Loudoun Library Foundation’s 24th Annual Used Book Sale. {Next week!}
One of my favorite home-educating resources is Educating the WholeHearted Child by Clay & Sally Clarkson, and in it they share a humorous list called “Whole Book Fever.” (“Whole Books” are also known as “living books”–they provide the backbone of our Charlotte Mason homeschooling method.) One of the “symptoms” I identified with was You schedule your vacation around the annual community used book sale.
Yep, that’s me. I’ve had this year’s sale marked on the calendar since the date was published last year. In fact, the wonderful Mr. Native Texan even takes that day off work so that I can shop solo! (Isn’t he wonderful?)
Check your local thrift stores to see if they have any special book sales. As I mentioned above, the store where I purchased the ten books for the giveaway sells all books at half-off on Saturdays. Another favorite thrift store had so many books that they sold them for $5/box for months on end, just to reduce their inventory. And those boxes were big! I scored quite a few treasures during that time. Since then, the store has gone back to their regular book prices, but every once in while they’ll run another daily sale for $5/box.
Even without special sales, thrift stores can be an excellent source for quality used books. One store I used to frequent sold all children’s books for $.10 each! Check around to see which thrift stores near you have excellent prices, great sales and consistent inventory.
When I need (or want) a specific book, I almost never purchase it new. My favorite online retailers for used books are Amazon and AbeBooks.com. I’ve saved lots of money on necessary books by purchasing them used through these sources.
I always look for sellers with high ratings (5 stars), and generally purchase books in Like New or Very Good Condition. After purchasing countless books this way, I can recall only two specific incidents in which I was not happy with the condition of the book (because the condition did not match the description). In both cases, the sellers issued an instant refund. Which made me extremely happy!
Some folks would rather have fewer books in excellent condition, but not me. Most of our books are in very good condition, and purchasing them used allows us to enjoy many, many more titles than we could otherwise afford.
I would rather expose my children to a great quantity and variety of excellent volumes in good condition, than limit our collection to books in pristine condition.