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Monday, December 17, 2018

I Love the Savings

Many supermarket receipts include a savings amount for your current shopping trip. This is nothing new -- stores have been including this information for a while. What is new is the receipt from the library for the two videos that I checked out this past week. Below the information about the titles of the dvds it says, "You just saved $49.98 by using your library. That is the suggested retail price of the items checked out."

I just thought that was a cool reminder of how much money our library saves us. I should start a running total to see how much I save in one year. While it's true that I likely would not have bought all of the items that I have borrowed from the library this past year, I did consider buying a copy of the Christmas movie that I checked out. So, I guess you could say that I really did save about $25 with this recent visit.

15 comments:

  1. Wow, my library doesn't do that. That would be great info to have. I suspect that libraries are having to market their services more and more in this age of electronics. I love my library but I've heard some say that libraries are struggling to stay in existence.

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    1. I think that you're right, Kris. It is so easy to get reading material and movies online, now, that libraries may be struggling to keep their funding.

      Delete
  2. How neat, Lili. Our library doesn't do that, but I would love it if they did.

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    1. Hi Belinda,
      I don't know how long ours has been adding this info, but I sure did get a kick out of it for these last dvds.

      Delete
  3. Libraries are a great place and I bet you can get more services than you realize. For instance, there are data bases that you can have access to at our library like Consumer Reports and medical ones that you would have to pay to use that are free from the library. With information, both good and bad, so easy to get by Googling these days, I'm not sure that people remember that there are places to get reliable data for free. I work at a library and I often forget this myself.

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    1. Hi live and learn,
      thank you for mentioning the databases available through public libraries. I know that our library tries to serve as a research source for academic purposes, where one can get online access to the full text of many scholarly journals and out of print books. While probably not nearly as complete as a university library, our little suburb, public library has enough to keep a geek like me happy with information. But this offering isn't well-known. For me, it took a little digging around on the website to find the databases. The other really great thing is free access to online newspapers which otherwise charge a subscription fee.

      Delete
  4. This is a reminder that I don't utilize my library enough. I'm not buying books, movies, magazines, etc. but it's more that I don't have time in my day to read, watch movies and since I hate all the ads in magazines, I never pick them up to read. I do request books once in a while and then just go inside to grab it when they notify me it is ready for pickup. I used to read all the time but since we moved to our home "in the city" 5 years ago, I lost a lot of things I used to do. I rarely read, I rarely bake goodies, and a few more things. Something very strange happened when we moved and I have no idea why I "lost" interest in a lot of things I normally did. Perhaps age is a factor. I might have to be more intentional about going to the library and browse for an hour or two once in a while.

    Alice

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    1. Hi Alice,
      I think we burn out on some activities over time. I know that I don't enjoy cooking as much as I did when I was younger, even baking. But also, sometimes we just fall out of the practice of doing something that we previously enjoyed, and we just need a nudge to get back into it. Feeling too tired to really enjoy old activities seems to be a stumbling block for many of us. I know I feel that way a lot. I hope your library offers something of interest for you, when you venture into yours, soon.

      Delete
  5. What an excellent idea to print the savings on library receipts! I love our library, and it has enriched our lives and saved us so much money.

    In our house, we pay a reasonable monthly rate for a very basic satellite TV package. It's our local channels and a few cable channels. We have the option to rent 'pay per view' movies through the satellite. They are $5.99 to $7.99 per movie. I utilize my library instead.

    Every Tuesday new DVDs are released. I peruse the weekly releases on FilmCrave.com and keep a running list of movies that I, my husband or son would like to watch. Then I go to my library's website and place the DVDs on hold in my name. They call me when I have DVDs in, and I stop on my way home from work and pick them up.

    Some weeks we have two movies come in, some weeks none, some weeks five (which is the check out limit). If we get to watch two movies for free from the library in a week, that saves us $11.98 to $15.98 over the 'pay per view' price.

    Two to three times a year we like to go to a matinee movie. It's always a new release that someone in our house can't wait for the DVD. Our favorite local theater charges $6.00 per person for a matinee. We always go knowing that by watching so many free DVDs from the library, we can afford an occasional splurge. And that's what the frugal life is all about!

    Angie

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    1. Hi Angie,
      thanks for the mention of filmcrave.com I'll check that out. I never even know what is out or on dvd. Wow! You are a library's favorite type of patron, using its resources on a very regular basis. The savings for your family must be substantial. You've been able to enhance your family time without any additional expense. Bravo!

      Delete
  6. I love to save money, because the means to do so is there, with a little time and effort. Thanks for the idea to use our libraries, as a resource and also as a relaxing place to spend the day. I haven't visited one in decades (as least two), so this will be on my list of places to see, also our neighborhood has constructed a new library. I thought to myself, why?, in the age of the internet, so until reading your post and viewer comments above, I hadn't thought about going.

    I've been a busy bee trying to gather discounts (mypoints.com, credit card bonus category spending, internet price matching) on a new stove from BestBuy; and to fix our flat tire free (Groupon and American Express Offers). Sam's Club will fix a flat tire free with membership.
    The annual membership is $45, but minus a Groupon savings of approx $25 ($15 egift card plus free fresh foods), and two Amex offers of $10 statement credit on $50 online samsclub.com order, the savings bought a year's membership plus flat tire repair free, when the quotes to a fix flat tire ran anywhere from $11 to $30. Taking a bit of time and effort to figure each purchase out was worth it.

    In terms of keeping record, I did that faithfully for years as a motivator and reminder of the actual dollar savings of figuring my purchases out beforehand vs buying impulsively. Sometimes procrastination or finding substitutions saved money too, and the dollar estimates of doing those was also recorded.

    YHF

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    1. Hi YHF,
      Your younger grandkids would probably enjoy visiting your library with you, the next time you have them for several days. You all could choose some dvds and books to use while staying at your house. I have a good friend who takes her granddaughters to the library, and they love the experience.
      I think you must be the "deal" queen. You always figure the most economical way to make purchases. I'm impressed!

      Delete
    2. The younger grandkids, three boys, will spend about a week with us, so we need to think of some activities to do. Great idea to rent DVDs instead of taking them to the movies. Not only saving on admission tickets but those expensive concession snacks.

      It may not sit well with most people to know the mental practices of a deal queen, for a variety of reasons, but I view it akin to paying the least amount of taxes, for which we would hire tax professionals to do the preparation. I recall that we both have doing our own taxes long hand, in common, too!!

      YHF

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  7. Hi, Just had to tell you about our great find. We have to drive about 20 miles to grocery shop. We usually go to two stores, Walmart and another local chain. This week I had planned only to go to Walmart as the other store didn't have anything I needed, but Walmart did not have the bread I wanted. So off to the local chain. When we walked in the door they had a few carts of reduced products. We buy only sugar free drink mixes and they had a whole cart full of Crystal Lite for .50 each! They were close to date but we figured that we would use them up quick and since it is dry powder it would last longer than a liquid. We bought 60 and saved $120.00 over the regular price!!!! (Happy dance!!)

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    1. Oh that is awesome, Sandy! $120 is quite a savings!

      My guess is the drink mix will be fine. Is it marked "best by?" When manufacturers use "best" instead of "use," it's more about the product's peak quality, which could be anything from flavor, to color, or texture, and not safety. (see this webpage: https://stilltasty.com/fooditems/index/17092 ) You should be fine.

      Have a great day, Sandy!

      Delete

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