Living on Less -- Cutting Back Yet Again
In my quest to live on less, I took what I consider to be a really big step. It's kind of silly, really, but to me it is quite huge. I actually had to take a deep breath and repeat several times that everything is going to be okay in making this decision. You'd think I was jumping into the deep end of a pool after just one or two swimming lessons.
I've made the commitment to not buy another book for at least a year. Instead, I will borrow any book I want to read from my college library or the city library.
There. It's official since it's in writing.
To celebrate, I requested a book through inter-library loan, and I'm really excited about it getting here and me getting the email that I can pick it up at the library's front desk.
And . . . I'm so excited about riding my bike to the public library to get a new library card. I haven't had one of those in probably ten years. Maybe even longer.
Plus, my college now has a bookshelf in the main hallway where one can leave books or take books. I check the shelves every day to see what new titles have been added, and just the other day I found one I've been wanting to read. So I took it. I'm going to add a couple of books I've decided I no longer need on my home bookshelf to replace what I took. I love this system. Booksharing.
Up to this point, when I wanted a book I just bought it. I had quite a few books at home, far more than I had space for (many of which were boxed up and taken to Goodwill when I moved into the smaller apartment in June), and I've just reached the point of thinking I'd like my money to go to other things, like travel (which, yes, would require me to buy a car of some kind -- but I've committed to at least a year of being carfree, and I'm sticking to that timeline). I really don't know how much I've spent over the year just in books. I imagine it's quite the amount, maybe enough to buy a plane ticket to Europe and back.
Which might be exactly what I do at the end of my year of not buying books.
I've made the commitment to not buy another book for at least a year. Instead, I will borrow any book I want to read from my college library or the city library.
There. It's official since it's in writing.
To celebrate, I requested a book through inter-library loan, and I'm really excited about it getting here and me getting the email that I can pick it up at the library's front desk.
And . . . I'm so excited about riding my bike to the public library to get a new library card. I haven't had one of those in probably ten years. Maybe even longer.
Plus, my college now has a bookshelf in the main hallway where one can leave books or take books. I check the shelves every day to see what new titles have been added, and just the other day I found one I've been wanting to read. So I took it. I'm going to add a couple of books I've decided I no longer need on my home bookshelf to replace what I took. I love this system. Booksharing.
Up to this point, when I wanted a book I just bought it. I had quite a few books at home, far more than I had space for (many of which were boxed up and taken to Goodwill when I moved into the smaller apartment in June), and I've just reached the point of thinking I'd like my money to go to other things, like travel (which, yes, would require me to buy a car of some kind -- but I've committed to at least a year of being carfree, and I'm sticking to that timeline). I really don't know how much I've spent over the year just in books. I imagine it's quite the amount, maybe enough to buy a plane ticket to Europe and back.
Which might be exactly what I do at the end of my year of not buying books.
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