How Much Money Can Your Library Save You?
I’ve been waiting to write about my obsession with our local library and can’t wait any longer! Local libraries are one of the best, free resources in a community. I absolutely RAVE about our library and people think I’m weird. Well, I’m embracing the weirdness and nerdiness because libraries are cool! Your library offers so much more than books and are an incredibly well-kept secret in the community. Let’s talk about how cool libraries are and how they support family budgets! To start, joining a library is absolutely free and is the best free membership you’ll ever have. A library offers books in multiple forms like physical books, audiobooks, and e-books, and they also offer many other resources you can checkout and take home such as: DVDs, Board Games, and Development & Sensory Toys. In the library itself they coordinate book clubs, offer story time to infants and toddlers, provide meeting spaces or remote work spaces with free wi-fi, and host community events. Like I said, the library is cool.
Library Books Save You Money!
Reading a good book is an experience like no other. Passing on a love of reading to my son is a huge goal of mine and so far, so good. My son is obsessed with books too and we are committed to reading with him every single day. Reading has been a part of our daily routine since he was born. Since my son turned 2, we read every morning after breakfast for 30-45 minutes - yes, my son is engaged with books for that long at his age. We also read before his daily nap for about 30 minutes and at night before bedtime for about 30 minutes. That’s about 90 minutes each day where my child is exposed to books, stories, images, creativity, learning, and emotions. He is starting to independently look at books which gives him some structured down time, building his confidence and self-regulation. If you are wondering how we worked with our son to enjoy books THIS much at his age, check out my blog on Book Illustrations.
As you can probably guess from the amount of time we spend reading to our son, we read a lot of books. Here, is where our local library has been a huge help to our budget and to the sheer number of book options available to us. On a monthly basis, we checkout about 100 children’s books. I’m dead serious. About 100 children’s books from the library circulate through my home each month.
The average cost of a children’s book is between $8-$10 dollars. So, obviously, we do not purchase all of the books that come into our home That would be an insane amount of money set aside for purchasing books. Just for fun, let’s do the math in cost savings for our local library just on children’s books: $9.00 per book x 100 books per month x 12 months = $10,800 per year for books.
My checking account is relieved that it is not forking over that amount of money each year on books. Phew! Thank you local library! An additional thank you to the local library because my son, like most kids, are insanely fascinated by one thing for a period of time and then one day – they have NO interest in it anymore. Here are a couple examples:
My son was OBSESSED with racoons. Why? I have no idea. It’s not like we saw a racoon in real-life or anything. He just saw it one day in a book where it was digging in a garbage can. He thought it was hilarious and so I found him some books with racoons in it. That lasted for about 3 weeks – he loved racoon books. Then, suddenly, he didn’t. I didn’t have to purchase a single book about racoons. I just went to the library.
My son thinks poop is hilarious. I mean what little kid, or adult, doesn’t? He sees our 2 dogs go poop outside, he goes poop on the potty, he comes with us to poop on the potty (TMI right), so why wouldn’t he be interested in poop? I literally found him books about poop. As I’m typing this, I can’t stop laughing… Yes, there are children’s books about poop. Would I ever purchase them with my own money? Well… the potty training books are the only exception!
One additional thank you to the local library for supporting our family when my son “ages out” of books. All kids are growing up and learning at an incredibly fast pace. The really cute board books that you can flip through in 1-2 minutes don’t really cut it for 2 or 3-year-olds anymore. They need something that is longer with richer story lines. The same concept goes for young toddlers approaching pre-school age who need resources to get ready to read themselves. The library saves all of us tons of money by providing books at all reading levels and ages.
Whether you like a physical copy of a book, an audiobook, or an e-book the library has options for you. You can download your local library’s app and checkout, request, and renew books online. For physical books, when you checkout books online, the library will pull all your books for you and put them in a dedicated pickup spot for you to just pop in and checkout. If you prefer audio or e-books, then you can just check them out online and they are available to you instantly. Once their due date occurs, they automatically get returned so you don’t have to worry about late fees! I, personally, love a physical book for both myself and my son. Checkout my previous blog about how I like to read my books to learn more.
But what if you don’t know what books to checkout or you aren’t sure if you want to purchase a book off Amazon? Well that was one of the reason’s I started Mama’s Book Cellar AND a library takes the risk out of purchasing a book. You can go to the library, walk down the aisles of thousands and thousands of books and pick some. Pick any book that you want, for free. You may find that the book was phenomenal or it was complete crap. Either way, you didn’t have to spend money on the book. It is a great way to discover new books or authors and see what other books you may want to read. As you find authors or genres that you and your family likes, you can request books. Many libraries are also part of co-ops where they share books across multiple libraries. So if your library doesn’t have the book you’re looking for, they can request it from another local library for you to checkout.
LIBRARIES ARE SO COOL!
The Library Lets You Checkout Toys and More!
Let’s say that you are not really an avid reader – that’s fair. The library can still be a resource to you. If you love watching movies and still have a DVD player, you can checkout DVDs and TV Shows from the library instead of purchasing them from the $5 Wal-Mart bin. Libraries have a wide selection of DVDs and TV Shows to choose from. If you don’t want to do the mindless scroll on Netflix and want to change up how you select your tv entertainment, try the library!
What about people who love game night? The library has board games to checkout for free too! Libraries offer board games for both adults and kids. So if you want to do game night with your mom or dad friends, take a look at the library to see what games they have to offer.
How about development and sensory toys for kiddos? Your library probably has them! Our local library has mega tiles, wooden sorting blocks, toy trucks, puzzles, and many Melissa & Doug toys. Another great offering from our local library are themed backpacks. These backpacks have a book and toy theme bundled together for you to checkout as a package. Some of the backpack themes have been: nursery rhymes, learning to share, counting, letters, and holidays. Again, as your child develops and ages out of toys you can use the library as a free resource to add to your toy collection.
LIBRARIES ARE AMAZING!
Libraries Connect the Community
I have met so many moms, dads, grandparents, aunts, and friends at the library. The library truly brings people together with free community events such as gardening clubs, local speakers and artists, and blood drives. For infants and toddlers, libraries can offer story times which provides structured music, song, reading, and playtime for kids while connecting parents and caretakers in the community. For pre-school and kindergarten kids, the library offers STEM activities which are structured activities around science, technology, engineering, and math. Another way the library connects the community is through their meeting rooms and free wi-fi. You can secure a room at the library to work and host meetings. For those who work from home and need to get out of your house every now and then (I do, I need to get out somedays), you can head to the library for a quiet workspace, especially for Teams or Zoom meetings.
I LOVE LIBRARIES!
Libraries Help You Learn and Explore
If you or your family are looking to learn a new hobby, to tackle a craft night, or even cook a new dinner dish, then your library has your covered. There are library sections for hobbies, crafts, and cooking. Sections of books. If you are looking for a family vacation because you seriously need to get out of the house and take time off work, then checkout some travel books at the library with amazing recommendations and things to do across the world.
I may swipe my library card more than my credit card… I LOVE THE LIBRARY.
How Much will the Library Save You this Year?
If you aren’t a raving fan of the library yet, then here is my last plug. You need to checkout this website to calculate how much money a library can save you each year.
https://ilovelibraries.org/what-libraries-do/calculator/
I did this based on my family projected usage for 2024, my projected cost savings is $24,387.50.
Closing
I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes about reading because I feel it captures the experience so perfectly. "I have lived a thousand lives and I've loved a thousand loves. I've walked on distant worlds and seen the end of time. Because I read." - George R.R. Martin.
Welcome to the fan club, new library lover 😊
