Books
Step one: Don't pay a premium. If you can stop yourself, don’t buy a book on publication date – you will be paying over the odds. Wait until the paperback version is released, borrow a friend’s copy when they have finished, or buy it second hand from Amazon where the quality is generally excellent. Alternatively, keep an eye out for bargains at library book sales, charity stores and jumble sales.
Step two: Try before you buy. How many books do you really want to keep on your bookshelves forever? A smart, frugal person should make active use of their local library and if you really fall in love with a great book you can buy it later on. Many libraries offer online services to search, request and renew books using the library catalogue.
Step three: Download. There are dozens of websites which now offer classic works of literature, educational texts and scholarly works, from Shakespeare's complete works to Algebra Demystified, to download and print, free of charge. Take a look at www.books.google.com, www.freeonlinereading.com, and www.promo.net/pg/ to get started. More books are being added every day.
Step four: Listen. You can listen to book serialisations or adaptations for free by downloading them from BBC Radio 4 and 7 websites. Alternatively, log on to www.librivox.org whose objective is to make all books in the public domain available for free, in audio format, on the internet. Books are recorded by volunteers, so the quality is variable, but it is a great idea.
Step five: Swap. If you have too many books weighing down your shelves which you really will never read again, why not recycle them? www.readitswapit.co.uk is a UK-based, online book exchange that is free to use except for postal charges. Members are given access to around 140,000 books and the site works in a similar way to eBay, with members describing what they want to exchange. The site also hosts lively forums for book lovers.