How I Afford to Read

Now that I’ve talked about why I read and how I find time to read…you may be thinking, “Books are expensive! How do you afford to read?”

I’m going to share that information today!

I have paid very, very little out of pocket (I mean like fifty cents here and there at a thrift store or yard sale when I find a book I want to read) for books in the last 2 years. Here’s how!

1. The Public Library

I love the library and this is always my first place to look when I find a book I want to read.

2. Publishing Companies

If my library doesn’t have it…then I usually see who publishes the book and request a review copy (I work with several publishing companies already…so sometimes this step is really easy). This is simple…they send me a free book to read. Then I review it here on my blog.

3. Swagbucks

If you are not using swagbucks, what are you waiting for? I’m not super active with swagbucks but I still earn about $5 in amazon gift cards every single month…That adds up quickly and allows me to purchase books that I want to read!

I do not count this as out of pocket spending because I am very simply earning this money and it never goes into my bank account.

4. Graduate Studies

This is the same concept as swagbucks…I do surveys for Graduate Schools and they pay me in amazon gift cards.

The surveys can last anywhere from 1 minute to an hour…This week I did an hour long survey and they paid me $15. I found this concept on a blog (I don’t remember what blog) about 2 years ago…since that time I’ve probably made close to $200 doing this…so that is a nice book fund!

Here are some schools that I generally work with: UCLA, Yale, Stanford.

So, that’s how I afford to read books! Let me hear from you…

Do you have any creative methods of affording books to read?