This week I was very upset with myself when I saw that I had an overdue library book. The fine is $1.60 which I can certainly afford, but I hate having to pay fines. My library offers online access to your library card so you can easily see what books you have checked out, when they are due and what your fines are. You can also renew your books online. Since our trips to the library don’t have an assigned day my due dates are all over the place and can be hard to keep up with.
My solution to preventing future library fines is to review my card online every Monday. I setup a reminder in Google Calendar which will email me a reminder. Now, every Monday I will go online and see which books are due that week. I will automatically renew all books due in the coming week. This will prevent fines even if I don’t make it to the library. I will also keep a tote bag by the door where I will deposit all library materials that need to be returned. Now I can just grab that bag when I’m heading to the library instead of running all over the house gathering up books.
Since this is only the second time in my life that I’ve had a library fine I can’t be too upset, but I will still do everything I can to keep it from happening again. Especially now that Pumpkin loves the library and we are spending more time there.
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Friday, May 15, 2009
Avoiding Library Fines
Posted by Buffie at 11:01 AM
Labels: Frugal Friday, Tips
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5 responses:
We always take our rented movies back late. It was one of my goals at the beginning of the year to not have late charges, but we have once or twice. I never thought about setting up something to remind me to take them back. Thanks for this post!
Good idea to keep track online. I keep my printout of library loans clipped to the calendar, then mark the days when we have books due.
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This is one of my trouble areas. I am a repeat offender. Perhaps putting it on the calendar as a to-do would help.
:)
That is such a great tip! I just had to pay a small library fine last week, and they can really add up, if you're not careful. Love the idea of setting up a reminder every week in Google Calendar!!
Luckily my library sends an email reminder the day before things are due (I had to turn things in today actually). I also use my cell phone's calendar program for things like this. The alarm goes off to remind me to do whatever it is that I need reminded of!
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