A new 'tougher' thread... and so it continues

Possession

MrsSpoons welcome and well done for beginning to tackle the problem. Debt Free Wannabe board might also have some ideas about how to awaken DH to the issue, I can see it would be really frustrating to be frugal yourself and see him still spending away. At last, I think DH and I are on the same page with spending, or even he's better than me. My downfall is I find it hard to resist a bargain, his is that he has no idea how to look for a bargain. But since he got made redundant in March 2010 we have both learnt a lot about cutting back. There's still more we can do, and if I lost my job we'd certainly have to do it, but for now we're afloat.

I confess I'm still in my jimjams! It's extremely rare to say that at this time, but I've made crispy mallow cake for the business, made the egg mayo, put the washing machine and dishwasher on, made stuffiing and done some more de-cluttering so not a wasted morning.

lizzyb1812

Smileyt - you are a genius - why did I not think that my library would be lending e-books? Cos I'm not a genius obviously. Just checked out my library and they do it. It looks like the titles have built in expiry dates - not sure how that works but it's not a problem. Going to find my library card and have a go right now! Ta!

smileyt_2

Need to go and do some housework, but quickly Westcoastscot, this is my understanding - if you buy a Kindle, you are tied in to Amazon's ebooks (although they do have free ones too) and can't borrow library books to read on that.

If you buy one of the other makes that can read epub books, you can borrow books from your library.

Of course, all this rests on your library having ebooks to borrow! So your first point of call should be to go to your library's website and see if they have ebooks to download. With the reader I've got, you download the library books using Adobe Digital Editions (free software on the web) onto your computer, and then drag and drop them into the e-reader, which is connected to your computer using a usb cable.

To buy books, you go to an ebook store on the web. My kobo reader has a wifi connection so it can connect automatically to the kobe estore and I can buy books and download them (it's called sync-ing on the kobo) straight onto the reader. You can get a basic kobo which doesn't have wifi, in this case you download the books onto your computer and then transfer them using the 'drag and drop' method and a usb cable.

You can't read Amazon's kindle books on other e-readers unless you get special software off the net and do something that sounds very complicated to me!! However the kobo and the amazon kindle stores seem much of a muchness to me as far as the quantity and selection of books goes.

The rest of it seems to be very complicated, as you can get ereaders that also surf the web and are more akin to tablets (to what?). Tablets, as far as I can understand, don't use the e-ink screens so you still have the glare of reading from a screen. With the e-readers like Kindle and Kobo and many of the others, they have e-ink which is matt and on a slightly greyish background so you don't get eye-strain.

I hope that helps. :eek: It seems terribly complicated once it's written down, and I am no expert.

Really must go and do the housework - I have a friend coming round later and really the house looks like a cross between the local tip and a giant dog kennel :eek::eek::eek:

ETA Lizzyb yes, the library ebooks seem to 'self-destruct' when the borrowing period is up, so you can't read them any more. You can return them earlier too if you want. It means no more library fines hurray!

ginnyknit

Gailey if you have a clarks shop they have a sale on and the shoes are £9 instead of about £30.
Smileyt I uploaded a kindle onto my PC free from Amazon so am hoping they have some good free books.

Done some housework - :j need to keep warm as its freezing here. DGS left a trail of crumbs probably so he can find his way back. He has had us in stitches this weekend and it gets easier every weekend now. I sit and make cards while he potters in and out of the hall - he ricochets off me and grandad all day. Just takne my Berocca (reduced from Mr T) so should be running round like a budgie on trill in a minute :rotfl:

Tater hash bubbling away so thats tea sorted, just got to find room for the first of DS's stuff as he is starting the process of moving back in today. Hopefully it will only be for 6 months until him and his girly (she is allegedly living at her mums :rotfl:) so they can have a holiday and find a house with no damp and walls that are not falling apart as you watch them. Estate agent has ended their contract early for them due to the state of the house and their new on will not be refurbished till April/May. Luckily they are putting main stuff in storage instead of in our garage this time - when will these kids of mine have some luck with their houses and get a chance to settle down??

orangesmartie

Talking about e-readers, I trated my mum and myself to a kindle each from Amazon.com. They were cheaper than in the UK and I bouht myself the touchscreen version which isn't available here. I don't think between us we've spent more than £20 on books since October (when we both used to spend blushing amounts every time we went to the supermarket) but have downloaded lots of freebies. I've also read books I wouldn't ordinarily read but they were free so I thought I'd give them a go and then been engrossed and gone looking for others by the same author (and bought those). There are books that I am gushing about and recommending to everyone which I never would have picked up in the shops. Also, my mum and I keep our kindles registered on my account, so whichever one of us downloads/buys books, the other one gets them for free too, so double the amount.

I actually bought mine for uni. I have a lot of reading material that is provided electronically, but I find reading on the computer really hard so i end out printing out reams and reams of stuff which i never look at after the module is over. I can now convert those documents into kindle format and take them where ever i go, which is handy for a few study minutes here and there and also saves me money on paper and ink.

So I don't look at e-readers as an extravagence, although the initial outlay is big, but it saves me time and money in other ways, so it has been a brilliant investment for me already.

paidinchickens

I am not converting.......I like books, the smell of books, reading in the bath, putting my fav on a bookcase and remembering the first time I read it and what I was doing in that part of my life

I may convert one day, but not yet. I still use pen and paper (old envelopes) for working out sums so I don't hold out much hope :rotfl:

We are one step nearer to having some chucks as in we have gotten as far as planning where to put them in the garden. Spent all day chatting and have got little else done

On a serious note I have 8 tubs of cheese spread (Aunt C brings up a tub a week) that need using up. The kids have gone on cheese spread sarnie strike and I don't know what else to do with it. I can't throw it away

I know you ladies will enlighten me

PIC x

westcoastscot

Thanks Smiley - shall check out my local library. Argyll & Bute are not known as innovators though shall keep my fingers crossed.
Orangesmartie I too have lots of e-papers to read for uni and mostly print them, it's one of the reasons I keep swithering about buying some sort of e-reader.
PIC yes, I love books too, but my small house has books lining every wall,including up the stairs, so need to try and limit what I buy somehow
WCS

D&DD

Sorry not been keeping up lost our wonderful respite carer at xmas so I've spent most of the weekend asleep :eek:
So damn tired atm need to sort my vitamins out I think..

Have managed to be quite productive since I crawled out of the pit today tho

Finally tipped my potatoes out of their sacks and got a morrisons bucket full so well chuffed with that they were only a quid and me and my mum split them between us..mine have been left outside too as I didn't get round to sorting the greenhouse out in time for them and they were also turfed out twice by foxes!

Have a roast dinner cooking with tatties we stored in hessian sacks from our little garden (arran victories),carrots from my morrison tubs and parsnips from the raised bed.
For pud we have a foraged apple and raspberry(frozen from the garden) suet pudding so feeling smug today lol :D Just need a cow for some custard :rotfl:

Wen hope you're feeling better theres a weird rash type of thing going round here atm comes up then goes down.. looks like chickenpox/shingles but isn't our doc's telling everyone its a virus (which is his standard answer to most things!)

wen3

Afternoon

Welcome to the new people to this thread sorry terrible with names.

Have just had dinner (roast chicken) an have enough left for another dinner tomorrow. Made a pavlova for after, that has all gone.

Thank you for the well wishes, Dr said to go back tomorrow and I do have an appointment but it seems so much better that I wasn't going to go as I don't want to waste the Dr's time but DH is worried and has asked that I keep the appointment.

On a completely different note do any of you have any ideas what to do with malt loaf,I know a little random but we have quite a pile as my Dad gives me a pack everyweek and we have a large surplus.

D&DD - Thanks for the info I am in the Kent are you near there? I thought it was shingles coming up so maybe it is what you have in your area.

D&DD

Mrsspoon sorry just spotted your post do head over to the debtfree board hun I stumbled onto there first when I joined and as you can see from my sig we were in terrible trouble..:o
They are a really supportive bunch and many have partners who are the same as your OH.. god love him mine still is:rotfl:

Wen do keep your appointment,may as well seeing as its booked anyway X Crossposted! I'm Surrey but I know of 3 schools so far where people have had it,my neighbours daughter 19 also who's at Uni in Kingston,my eldest son (20) had it for 3 days too.

I love my Kindle but still like to have certain books in print too eg my favourite authors and cookbooks.