Browsing Self-help Books Online

I find recommendations for a lot of books at different groups that I visit. One group in particular recommends a lot of self-help books. Before even checking the library, I pop over to Amazon to see if they have the book. I then, browse the book through the little "look inside" feature. Not every book has this, but many do. If you click on the "Look inside" the page will bring up a good chunk of the book. Sometimes, you have to hover over the upper right corner, just above the book, for the "Look inside" to appear.

Obviously, they don't show you all or even most of the book. But much of it is available this way. And depending on if you're visit Amazon.com, or Amazon.ca, or Amazon.co.uk, different amounts of the book may be available, depending on the book. I sometimes read the excerpt to a book on another's country's Amazon site.

Clearly, this sneak peak is designed for shoppers to see if they want to purchase the book. I use it to see if I want to check the book out from the library. And then, perhaps I may want to own a specific book. Most of the time, though, with self-help books, I can get the gist of the information, enough for my tastes, in just the sneak peak. It's just another frugal indulgence of mine.

I mentioned the sneak peak feature to a friend who had ordered a book from Amazon, recently, and this friend was very surprised that this even existed. So, I'm sharing, in case you don't know this either.

Two Things

I check the responses from the survey on frugal indulgences from time to time. It's really fun reading what everyone does to treat themselves. And I tend to agree on just having time to do as I please as quite a luxury. I'm not sure that I always use those moments of time wisely, though. The mindfulness aspect is something that I need to work on. If you haven't answered the survey, it's quick and easy, and you won't be judged, graded, or even known by your answers. And if you've answered it once but have thought of something you'd like to add, you can do the survey again, adding answers to specific sections. You can see others's responses at the end, if you're interested. Or, you can wait until I compile it all into a post.

On the other topic, you can sometimes teach an old dog a new trick. I've started keeping our monthly budgets on an electronic spreadsheet, with Apple Numbers, the free spreadsheet program that came with my computer. I just began this at the end of April, so we will see how this works out. It was free, and I'm just trying it out for 3 months. If I like it, I'll stick with it. If I feel it's either more work, or not as accurate because I forget to add expenses, then I can always go back to my trusty pad of paper. I dislike the idea of spending any money to track my money, if I can find an easy way to do it for free.

That's about it for today. I hope that your week is off to a great start!