Five ways to save money as a book lover

Not all of us are wealthy enough to be able to buy all the books we want. Don’t you wish that you could save money when making your book purchases? Don’t we all?

We all love having a full bookshelf or plenty to read next on our Kindle Library, so below are some great ways to automate this saving process and how to eventually save money as a book lover.

1. Keep an Amazon wish list and check it regularly to save money

Amazon has daily and monthly deals. When you create a Wish List of either kindle or paperback books, when you check it, it shows if there have been any discounts and how much. You’d be surprised how much of my Kindle Library is 99p books I got during monthly or daily deals! In fact, I know I picked up Jade City and Shadow and Bone for 99p each.

2. Sign up to Amazon’s daily 99p eBooks email

As I mentioned before, Amazon offers 99p books as part of its monthly and daily deals. You can sign up to receive an email daily for these deals. I find this useful as there are often books on there that I hadn’t thought to put into my Wish List but wouldn’t mind picking up for only 99p or £1.99 or whatever deal they’re on. It’s a great way to save money on books and also find new books you might be interested in.

3. Sign up to Bookbub’s daily discounted books newsletter

As well as Amazon, a website called Bookbub specialises in finding you great deals on books. In my personal experience, these books aren’t often as high profile, but it’s definitely worthwhile signing up as sometimes the deals are only available on a different website than Amazon. Like Amazon, they’ll send you an email daily of these deals.

4. Attend car-boot sales and support local second-hand book shops and charity shops

One of my latest hobbies is attending car-boot sales and going to charity shops to find cracking deals on physical books. I can’t tell you the joy I felt, and for how long, after picking up five books on my TBR for £1 at a local car-boot for the first time. This can obviously be hit and miss as some are better than others and it does mean venturing out quite early (I’m talking: be there for 8 am.)

Also, another way to save money is to visit your local charity shop. Charity shops are great as, like car-boots, they’ll often have second-hand physical books in decent-enough condition on at a really good price – sometimes offering deals such as 2 for £2 and such.

5. Borrow from your local library

Remember libraries? Yep – they’re still a thing and they’re still popular. Over the past decade, we’ve seen the rise of eBooks (thanks to Amazon mostly) and what people thought would result in the demise of the physical book. However, this was not the case at all – if you walk into any book shop on a weekend, you’ll likely find it more full than you’d think.

There’s something about the feel, the smell and the physical ownership of a book that can never be replaced. Are they as cheap as eBooks? No. Are they as easy to pick up and read from anywhere? No. But are they just a more tangible reading experience? 100%.

Go to your local library, get a library card (they’re free) and start loaning out books. Yes, you don’t own the book, but for many people, it gives them a chance to almost trial the book before spending money on it. You loan a book from the library. You fall in love with it. You take it back and buy your own copy for your bookshelf and to give to others to read.