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My last bundle were travel related magazines, and the places they review and suggest, are the same this year as they were last year. I LOVE a good bargain!

If you want to give back to the library, here’s a thought: pick the ONE magazine that you absolutely love, that you would subscribe to anyway, and donate a subscription. Go in and talk to the collection manager or circulation supervisor, and ask if you can have new issues automatically put on hold for you when they come in. (Larger urban libraries may not be able/willing to do this, but many smaller places will. We have several patrons who do this.)

Our perennial problem with magazines is inconsistent circulation statistics. We only continue to carry a magazine if we know it’s circulating, and that’s hard to know if people just come in, read them, and leave. (Some libraries do in-house stats, but many aren’t set up for it.) If you want your library to know that you appreciate a particular subscription, take the trouble to check it out and return it, even if you’re just reading it in the reading room. And suggest a “save this magazine” campaign, inviting patrons to donate subscriptions for magazines that the library is considering discontinuing.

Like Sarah, I read magazines at the library — and in fact my county library also allows us to check out back issues.

If you don’t want to take off your fuzzy slippers to read last week’s New Yorker, most magazines are also available online through your public library’s websites–click “periodicals” or “databases” to see what they have. You’re paying for those subscriptions via your taxes, so make sure you get your money’s worth!

Disclosure: I’m a Librarian as well as a tightwad…

One thing I do to save money on magazine subscriptions is to buy them off of eBay. You would be surprised how many magazine subscriptions are available out there at greatly discounted cost over regular subscriptions rates.

Also, the deep discounts (some as low as $0.17 an issue) help me get over the psychological guilt of not reading every issue.

“Free” is of course better, but deeply discounted is good as well in my book.

It dont get no better

Anything else I want to read in terms of magazines comes from the library. My library system has all the craft, home, etc. magazines in their collection and I can check out a year’s worth at a time if I want. Or I can check out all the ones for December. Or whatever.