Thursday, June 05, 2008

library bargains

John took the kids to register for the library's summer reading program this week. Like most homeschoolers, we spend a good deal of time at the library, and their summer programs are lots of fun. At one point, I had illusions of using the library to save a bunch of money on homeschooling books..., and dvd's, magazines, music, cd-rom's, we use it all...but I'm not sure how much I really save anymore. John told me he paid off the fines on all three library cards...$75!! Ouch! We had already racked up some fines, and before Tess' birth John had taken them to check out some computer games to keep them entertained during that looooong week...we didn't even realize the computer games were only allowed out for a week. They were all overdue to the tune of $1 a day. So were the little music cd's that Maria checked out. It all added up I guess. It's a never ending source of frustration around here. I had to stop them from checking out library movies recently because they would just disappear for weeks at a time and the fines were just insane. I decided it would be cheaper to increase the number of movies we have out from Netflix.

I guess it's still a good deal, it would cost a lot more to purchase all the stuff we check out for sure, but at some point we may be checking out *just books*...they are allowed out for three weeks and only 10 cents a day if they are late. Golly...checking out books from a library...what a crazy concept!


ps- click on the comic to enlarge it... :)

2 comments:

Jennie C. said...

Our library here lends books for three weeks with a one week grace period after that. Then, they mail a letter reminding you that the books are overdue. Instead of charging by the day and by the book, they charge $2 a letter no matter how many books they've had to type on it. :-)

Lisa Boyle said...

oops. I posted my comment to this one accidentally with my congrats message on Tess' pictures. Well, the good sentiments are there! :-)