10 Quick & Easy Ways To Save Money When Buying Books

Are you raising bookworms? It can be quite fun…and expensive. Oy! Sharing my favorite ways to save money when buying books. You’ll love them! 

I LOVE reading. You can travel the world from your living room.

I’ve spent hours reading to my kids. I’m raising bookworms and loving every minute of it.

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Except for the part where I have to open my wallet and pay. Because let’s get real for a moment- Books are expensive! 

I’m a pretty fast reader. When I go camping for a weekend I can fly through a big stack of books. My daughter is right behind me.

In fact, I was telling a friend the other day that I will do anything to not pay full price because we read so fast!

Her daughter loves to read and often will lug 5-6 books camping just like I do. On their last trip, she ran out of books. *sigh*

She ran to the local bookstore to stock up. Thankfully she hit a sale but we were talking about how expensive it can be to keep our bookworms fed! 

I shared some of my favorite ways to save money on books with her for next time.

If you or your kids are taking part in reading challenges you are going to love these money saving ideas.

Make Use Of Your Local Library

Libraries have come a long way since days of being quiet tombs. Now a central part of our community and a buzz of amazing activities for all kids we can easily forget that they are still a great place to get books for free!

A few of my favorite features of our library is being able to reserve the books online making picking them up a snap! And the inter-library loaning system, where you can borrow books from other libraries.

Library Chrome Extension

This little gem came from another homeschooling mom and it saves me so much money!

I highly recommend if you use Chrome to use the Library Extension as it will tell you if your local library will have the book. If you aren’t sure how to install it I share it here:

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Kindle App – Free

Shown in the video above (or click here to watch on Youtube) . This free app from Amazon allows you to read e-books on your computer, tablet, kindle or phone.

I use Amazon com Free Kindle App (Amazon ca Free Kindle App) to read my kindle books even though I don’t have a kindle.

You can find a ton of great kindle books for free on Amazon.

Note: You’ll want to double check those since they are probably not free anymore but it will give you an idea of what you can get. 

Sign Up For Ebates

I highly recommend you sign up for Ebates before purchasing books online because you can get cashback for your purchases. If you haven’t signed up it takes about 5 minutes and you can find the walkthrough here.

You can use it at many online stores including Amazon, BooksAMillion, AbeBooks and the ones I’ll mention next.

Note: If you are using Amazon.com there is now an in-store option 😉 Below you’ll find a screenshot, click on the highlighted menu and find out how to save in-store with Ebates and follow the directions in the video.

If you are USA based Sign up for Ebates and start earning money!
If you are Canada based Sign up here for Ebates and start earning money!

Amazon Reading

Did you know? If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can borrow books, magazines, and more from the Prime Reading catalog and read them on many supported devices.

Prime Reading is a service that allows Prime members to read as much as they like from a selection of Kindle books, magazines, short works, books with Audible narration, comics, and more—all at no additional cost. The available content is updated periodically, and titles are added and removed.

Note: Prime Reading on Amazon.com is currently available for customers in the U.S.

However, unlike most Kindle Library services, a Fire or Kindle device is not required. Prime Reading titles can be read on any Kindle e-reader, Fire tablet, or the Kindle reading apps for iOS and Android.

Visit Amazon Prime Reading Catalog to learn more.

If you are not an Amazon Prime Member you can try the free trial here: Amazon Prime

Amazon First Reads

There are two ways to save money with Amazon First Reads:

1 With an Amazon Prime membership:

• You can download the Amazon First Reads title of your choice for free and a month before its official release date.
• Shop for all six Amazon First Reads titles in hardcover edition at exclusive prices. ($9.99 or less!)

2. Without an Amazon Prime membership by subscribing to the Amazon First Reads email newsletter.

• Receive information about new Amazon First Reads titles each month.
• Purchase a Kindle title of your choice each month, one month prior to their release date, for $1.99.
• Shop for all six Amazon First Reads titles in hardcover edition at exclusive prices. ($9.99 or less!)

Visit Amazon First Reads to learn more!

BetterWorldBoooks.com

Another online store a friend recommended to me ♥

You can buy new and used books from BetterWorldBooks.com.

The really cool thing about this site besides the great deals you can find, sale and free shipping (including international orders!) is each purchased book makes a difference in someone’s life through their literacy partner programs.

A quick search to see if the book I am looking for is there is always worth it to me. Plus!  Don’t forget you can use Ebates on BetterWorldBooks as well.

Thrift Books.com

A member in The Club also recommended Thrift Books. She found our book club book for just over $3.00, used. They have free shipping within USA and shipping to Canada is $3.99 a book.

Their motto is “Read More Spend Less”.  The price changes depending on the number of books you buy. The carry all kind of books and you don’t want to miss the rewards program. Receive a coupon for $5.00 every time you spend $50.00 on used books.

Barns & Noble

After sharing this post a mom told me that she buys books at Barnes & Noble . 

I checked around and it looks like they carry several formats and used books as well as brand new. As for saving money on books, I saw this deal Up to 75% Kids & Teen Books!

And the sale below if you are stocking up on Textbooks for your kids.

 Don’t you love it when other moms share their favorite hunting grounds for books? I do! 

I haven’t purchased from them myself but when I do I’ll let you know how it goes.

Book Depository.com

Brand new to me is Book Depsotiory.com.

Free postage worldwide! I was told about this great site by a mom who lives in Austraila.

Great option for those who don’t have Amazon or mailing is expensive.

Just type in the book title you want to find in the search below and hit “find book”!

Don’t forget to use Ebates! 

Free Reading Challenge For Your Teens ♥

I love reading and I love to encourage my kids to read as well. One way I do this is through reading challenges. I wanted to share a fun reading challenge for my teens that you can use for yourself or your kids 🙂

Just click below for your instant download.

Book lists are not included, you can find a few of our favorites here:

• Best Books of the 2016-2017 School Year
• 22 Books by American Authors for Older Kids
• And if you are NOT a reader but you want your kids to be: How To Raise A Reader When You HATE Reading!

Are you trying to feed a bookworm? What is your favorite way to save money on books?

Jen

PS. I love finding great ways to make my hard earned money stretch just a little further. Out of all great tips I shared above Ebates is my favorite 😉 Have you set it up yet? If not, follow this step by step guide to set it up once and forget it!