Books, frugality and hunger

I spend tons on books. I love books. Books to read. Books to look at. Cook books. Craft books. I just love books. So this is clearly an area for me to curb my spending. Not working across the street from a big box bookstore will certainly help, but I do also love to see that box on my doorstep from Barnes & Noble. So the easiest solution to this problem is clearly not to give up books (my mother would be devastated) but to find other ways to get them - namely, the library.

I've always been a big proponent of using the library, but I'll admit that lazy often gets the better of me and I break down and buy it rather than go to the library to look for it. I'm also all about instant gratification, so often I'll buy a book just to have it, even though I may not get to reading it for months. This is tough with using the library because you've got a finite amount of time with each book - I want to hold it forever. You must choose wisely and manage your desire. My local library is also open kind of odd hours, so I used to use that as an excuse as well.

Well under the new plan, the library is my new best friend. I've figured out how to request books online, which makes the experience much more pleasurable. The boys have also been enjoying going to the library. They have more books in their room that they'll ever get to, but they must have caught that lust for 'new' books from me. So I've already logged a savings of like $30 by taking out two books that I wanted. Here's the story of one of them...

While health and wellness isn't really part of the 18 month Cape initiative, it's always a goal of mine that ebbs and flows. The past few months have packed on some pounds and I'm back in healthy eating mode. A co-worker recently turned me on to these daily "Hungry Girl" emails. Check her out if you haven't heard of her www.hungry-girl.com I love her - great practical tips on eating healthy - but EATING. So she also has a cook book. Well I enjoy her daily emails so much I really wanted to check out the cook book. Normally I would have run out to a store and bought it. I think it's like $15 (softcover). I decided to practice the 'plan' and get it from the library. My local library had it in stock - GREAT! So there's tons of stuff that I love in it and it's been sitting on my kitchen island for a few weeks now with pages marked off for recipes that I want to try. I've already renewed it once and it's due back on Monday. It's now or never - seize the day - make copies!!!

So I bring the book into work to make copies. After eating my lunch (that I brought to work, I'm such a good girl ;-) I head to the copy room to copy the recipes that I like - there were about 75 of them. Yeah, we're not talking 3 or 4. I was thinking that this will take me a while and as a result I've been putting it off. (I know you're thinking just buy the damn book!) Well it did take me a while, about 25 minutes. Luckily it wasn't a busy time for the copy room.

I had just about finished without being noticed when a guy from the "other side" of the floor, a fairly attractive guy (by work standards anyway) walks in and is using the printer right next to me. And he's lingering, so I'm forced to open the copier lid to reveal (horror of all horrors!) my boldly titled "Hungry Girl" cookbook. Yep, that's me. Hello fairly attractive man I've never really spoken to - I'm a HUNGRY girl. He definitely noticed it and I'm not sure if he actually chuckled to himself or if I just heard it happening in my head. I was caught in my moment of frugality (is that a word) and even worse, red-handed with the self-defining "Hungry Girl" cookbook. Lovely. I had to laugh.