Library sales are THE BEST!!!

I absolutely LOVE the library sales in our area. There are 20 branches to the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library system and each have their own individual sales throughout the year. This summer while driving around town with my husband, we were driving past one of the libraries and they happened to be having a sale. I had him stop so that I could go in and find some great deals. Children's books were 25 cents and adults were 50 cents. I walked out with several bags of books and only paid $7! (I also helped a kid boy a set of headphones for the computer when he was short $1.) 

THEN, there is the Friends of the Library store and cafe at the Main Library that sells withdrawn and donated books throughout the year for bargain basement prices. Also, there is another Friends of the Library store across town that sells withdrawn and donated books during special event sales for three days every couple of months. This location is much bigger than the store at the Main Library and is jam packed full with so many books, magazines, DVDs, VHS, cassette tapes, etc.

I absolutely love these sales!!

I put them into the calendar on my phone so I don't miss any. At the last sale in early November, I snagged a complete 2009 World Book Encyclopedia set for....$22!!!! Yes, you read that correctly, twenty-two dollars. Most of the books had never been opened because when I opened them to check them out, I got that awesome cracking sound that you only hear from brand new book binding. It is one of my favorite sounds. (To put this in perspective, a brand new 2014 set retails at $1,100.)

Yesterday, I went to a "sidewalk sale" at the Main Library store and picked up 38 books and a reusable tote for $8. That's $0.21 (twenty-one cents) per book, not including the tote. Book topics include art, science, world and American history, government, classic literature, ballet, handicrafts, biography, Shakespeare, foreign language, potty training, and couponing! (A couple random topics, I know!)

December 2014 Sidewalk Sale Haul

Why do I go so crazy for these sales?

We plan to homeschool and I don't plan to use very many textbooks (science and math texts though). However, I did find a Physical science textbook by my preferred science curriculum publisher Apologia for $2 at Savers a while back. It is the 1st edition and I did a quick search online and people are selling it for $12-$16 so I scored there too. The text also has a test and solutions manual that I snagged for $6, a student journal for labs for $3, and flash cards for $1.50. All of this brand new for the 2nd edition would have been $118! 

LIVING BOOKS is the plan. 

What are living books? 

www.simplycharlottemason.com gives the best description I could find...

Living books are usually written by one person who has a passion for the subject and writes in conversational or narrative style. The books pull you into the subject and involve your emotions, so it’s easy to remember the events and facts. Living books make the subject “come alive.”

We will use all of these books meshing Charlotte Mason's method and classical education. In both education methods, children read A LOT of books. I have been a HUGE book lover since I learned to read at 3.5 years old. The whole world was opened up to me because of my love for books and reading. I want the same thing for my child(ren).  

While I want to have a great home library to teach my children, I also want to be wise with how much money we spend. As a family, we try to use only cash when we go shopping so we are always collecting a lot of change. I save the change in a can and when I go to the sales, I take my can of change and pay this way. I have forgotten my can of change a couple of times or just didn't have it because I didn't know about one of the branch sales, but I try to only use this change. It makes me think twice about each book I purchase because I can only spend however much change I have. 

As of today, I have amassed a collection of around 300 books from library sales and a few Goodwill and Savers purchases. I haven't completely paid attention to how much I have spent but I believe it to be around $150. Maybe. I have a good average of about 30-40 cents per book. 

If you've read this far you might be thinking that I'm bragging. Honestly, it's not like that. I am so excited that my desire to homeschool will not bust the bank. So many homeschooling families spend thousands of dollars a year to educate their children. With what I have already collected, I probably could stop here and supplement certain areas with library books. I am so thankful we live in an area that has a huge library system that sells the books that they no longer have use for. 

If you were thinking about homeschooling but are worried about the cost, don't. You can do the same thing I'm doing and save your family thousands of dollars. Or if you just want to have lots of books handy to encourage your kids to read, yeah, you can get books from the library that are free. But beware of late fees. You might save yourself a lot of money going to the library sales and be able to keep the books forever. Once your kids are grown and no longer need or want the books, have a yard sale and maybe make more than what you bought them for. That's what I plan to do!!!