In today’s economy the value of cooking meals right at home has become crystal clear. Home cooked meals cost a fraction of the price of restaurant bought meals. They are also far more healthier, exposing your family to fewer preservatives, salts, and artificial ingredients.
Yet the price of cookbooks has skyrocketed. Even the average run of the mill cookbook can set you back $18, $20, or $25 dollars. More complete and in-depth cookbooks can easily run $50, $60, or more!
Your local library can be the source for some great cookbooks. The problem is that you have to be careful not to get anything on the pages. Not an easy task in the typical kitchen where spills, dustings, or splatters can easily stain a cookbook.
There is another option for getting great recent edition cookbooks at ridiculously low prices – Your Local Friends of the Library Book Sale. Here you can easily purchase best selling cookbooks for $1 or less a piece.
Most libraries have a volunteer group that helps the library raise money for improvements or the purchase of new books or equipment. These volunteer organizations are called Friends of the Library. The most common fundraiser for these volunteer Friends of the Library organizations are book sales. Volunteers will collect and organize book donations from the local community. Then once or twice a year they sponsor a book sale open to the general public.
This is a classical win-win situation. The Friends of the Library raise money for the library and you get recent, up to date books for a mere fraction of the cost. Generally soft cover books will run you 50 cents to $1 while hardcovers generally will set you back $1 or $2.
Among the thousands of books on every subject imaginable, you’ll find a literal treasure trove of cookbooks usually assigned to their own section of the book sale.
Last week I visited one of the book sales held in a Chicago suburb. I was amazed at the number and variety of cookbooks arranged neatly in their own little section of the sale. Literally hundreds of cookbooks were available for the bargain basement price of $1.
From Emeril Lagasse to Rachel Ray. Vegetarian cooking to seafood cooking. Fine French dining to cooking on a dime. There were cookbooks of every variety imaginable. Many of the cookbooks were the very same ones I had recently considered paying $20 bucks or more at the book store.
These Friends of the Library book sales allow anyone to try new chefs or new styles of cooking all at a dirt cheap price.
So how do you find out about these super frugal book sales? Simply go to booksalefinder.com which will allow you to locate the book sales in your city and state. I’ve been using this website for the last three years to locate great book bargains.
One final thing about these book sales. Many of the sales feature a preview night open up only to Friends of the Library members. The great thing is that anyone can become a Friends of the Library member and they actually encourage you to join. There’s no commitment required (unless you want to) but it will usually cost $5 or $10. This is another way the volunteers make money for the library.
By going on the preview night you get the best crack at the newest books and also get put on the library’s mailing list for upcoming sales and special events.
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I’m a sucker for cookbooks. I take cookbooks on a test run by checking them out at the library and then if I decide it’s worthy of owning, I add it to my wish list. I have a membership at a couple of our local bookstores which send me weekly coupons, sometimes for as much as 40% off which makes them much more affordable but not the $1 price of the Friends sales. I’ll have to check my local library for their next date.
Hey Nancy,
Using the library to test run your cookbooks is a great idea. I also like the idea of using coupons. Have you every bought your books from sites like Amazon.com?
Yes, I do use Amazon and/or Barnes & Noble but only if their purchase price is less than the price as the local bookstore (w/my coupon, of course!).
Great tip Charlie. I just checked out the website booksalefinder and found out that the community center 5 minutes down the road from my house is having a book sale in early December which I will definitely check out.
Hey Ray,
I’ve been to three of these sales in the past two weeks and picked up a lot of great books that were recently published and would have sold for $20 or more in the book store. Good luck with your sale.
I just bought three cookbooks from our public library sale and two of the three were cookbooks I had recently borrowed.
Lynn,
Thanks for stopping by. What’s worse is finding books at these sales that you’ve just recently purchased for $25 at the bookstore. =)
Here’s another idea:
http://www.allrecipes.com – you can sign up and make your own ‘recipe box’, you can adjust the servings! I love this site. I can search for any recipe. All recipes have ratings, reviews and suggestions.
If you need a ‘book’, you can print the recipes and keep them in a notebook inside page protectors. Best of all, it’s free.