What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[Sally PB]

It would take a lot, and I mean a LOT of money to get me into one of those stores where people stand in line for hours (or all night) before the store opens on Black Friday. I don't do crowds for shopping, or for many other things, either.

The news footage of people stampeding into a store... No. I won't be there.

 

[Molpet]

The news footage of people stampeding into a store... No. I won't be there.

When I throw treats to the poultry, it reminds me of this.



I don't go shopping during the weekend even because of too many people.

 

[Sally PB]

When I throw treats to the poultry, it reminds me of this.

Yes!!!!

 

[Smokerbill]

When I throw treats to the poultry, it reminds me of this.



I don't go shopping during the weekend even because of too many people.

That's where internet shopping comes in handy.

 

[Sally PB]

That's where internet shopping comes in handy.

I agree for some things. But I like to look at some in person.

It's GREAT for books, when you know exactly what you want. I still love to browse in a bookstore. Which, sadly, are going away because they can't compete with online shopping.

 

[gtaus]

I still love to browse in a bookstore. Which, sadly, are going away because they can't compete with online shopping.

We lost our bookstores ~15 years ago in my town. I don't know what happened, but our main mall used to have all kinds of small shops that were fun to shop. They all left/closed down/were forced out. Now, our mall is mainly empty and hardly anybody goes there anymore. Back in the day, I always went to the bookstore, looked around, and probably picked up a book/magazine or two. I can't do that anymore.

Even our library is getting out of the book business. Used to be I would go into the library and spend an hour or so pulling magazines from the racks and reading them. Now, almost all those magazines are gone. You can get a digital edition of some of the magazines, but it's just not the same thing for me as having that paper in hand. I found more value in a hardcopy. Digital copies certainly have some advantages, but it's just not the same experience for me.

We still have a nice children's section in our library, full of colorful and interesting books for kids to read. That section of the library has more than doubled from years ago. However, for us adults, we have less than half the books on the shelves these days. True, we have access to digital editions of books and that probably far exceeds our physical copies in the past, but, again, it was fun to browse the bookshelves and look for interesting books whereas going digital just does offer the same experience.

I wonder how access to digital books and magazines really has affected us? I suspect many people of my age don't really enjoy reading stuff on a small electronic device. Maybe the younger kids are more open that concept. I'm just not.

On the plus side, it's a lot less expensive for our library to buy into some of the digital books and magazine services, offering us a much larger selection of works then they could ever afford to put on the shelves, so, in theory, we have better options today than ever. A person can certainly have a personal library of books on their electronic reader that was unimaginable back in the day when I was in college. And at a far lesser cost. I guess that is good for some people.

 

[fuzzi]

I wonder how access to digital books and magazines really has affected us? I suspect many people of my age don't really enjoy reading stuff on a small electronic device. Maybe the younger kids are more open that concept. I'm just not.

The younger kids don't read

We're losing our last and only used bookstore in town. I'm very sad.

 

[gtaus]

The younger kids don't read

Well, I spent 5 years in Elementary Education teaching children to read. Most of them, at that age, were all excited about learning to read. But we heap lots of tests on them and somewhere along the way they seem to lose interest in reading for pleasure. I always looked for ways to make reading time more enjoyable for the children. I like to think some of my programs helped a few kids.

We're losing our last and only used bookstore in town. I'm very sad.

That's too bad. I don't think those bookstores will ever come back once gone.

I read a lot of books when I was growing up. All the way through college, in fact. But I think kids today have many more resources like cable TV and internet which take time away from reading.

Although I do spend time on TV or the internet for entertainment, most of my YouTube watching is on DIY channels where I learn how to do stuff, or maybe do stuff better. Sharing ideas on the BYC forums has helped me a lot. I live out in the country, but the internet opens the world to me. I guess I am thankful for that even though I miss the gold ole days of browsing in our local bookstores (which are all gone now).