And no this isn't about money. There are lots of things which you may not be using that might be useful to someone. It could be toys your kids don't play with anymore, books you've read lots of times, DVDs you don't plan to watch for a while — anything. Good thing about doing this is anytime you need something that you want to use once, instead of buying if your friends or neighbors have it, you could borrow it . . . and it would save you some money.
My husband is a reader. He regularly buys Readers Digest magazine and the small humor books. His collection is a tall pile. There are times that he lends those magazines but he logs the titles because he expects to get it back. Especially to those neighbors who also lends us household items like ladder or garden house, he would offer his magazines and books in return. So he sees to it that it is a mutual benefit.
Well Dennis, I think in part is why libraries are so popular. One thing I like about my local library is that they have institued a paperback book exchange whereupon people can exchange books they may have tired of with others. I think it is a good way to save some green, and also reap some benefits. I plan to go there to put a lot of my paperbacks into the rotation and just take a very few out.
Much as I would agree that in theory this would be a great way of saving money - I think it only really works if the person you are lending to has the same level of respect for items that you do. Especially as having tried it - instead of saving money - it turned out to be extremely costly on my part - particularly as - apart from the fact that each time I lent something to someone - not only did I rarely ever see the item again and if I did - it was never returned in the same condition as it was previously - but it lead to a whole lot of bad feeling all round too - which is why I now much prefer to never lend or borrow anything.
I couldn't agree more. If totally comes down to who is lending and borrowing the items, and if they have the same level of respect for the items as you do. Or if they have respect for you at all. I have a family member who is notorious for destroying borrowed items, and then gets upset when everyone says no, they cannot borrow something.
I have been badly burnt by lending out Items which have not been returned to me. More than once people have borrowed important and expensive books from me and have not returned and I can't seem to recall who had borrowed which book I have lost a valuable investment. Therefore , when I require the use of these books, I have to do without. I am done with the lending and borrowing as much as I can because in many cases all it may eventually involve is mostly the inconvenience.
The one thing I really like to borrow is books and dvds, especially if it is on something I am never going to use the book for again. For most other things, I tend to just buy what I need because it is so hard to find the time to return items to their owners.
I definitely hear you. It makes me not want to lend out my things to anybody because you have lent them out before to people who you thought you could trust, only to find out that you could not. It is bad enough to lend people things, and then have to keep asking them to return the item, but to ask for it back only to find out that they have broken it? It is awful.
It actually pains me to lend out my books to other people. It's bad enough that they return it with marks on the pages, sometimes, they don't return the books at all. So even though it's a great way of saving money, I won't be the one who's going to lend my books to people. Especially people who have no boundaries and doesn't know their limits. I'm not greedy or selfish, but when it comes to my books, I treasure them so much that I don't like them being torn apart or not being returned to me. I guess when it comes to school books that I'm not using anymore, I can part with them easily. The same goes for clothes that I'm not using anymore. DVDs are okay as well as long as I have watched them. Well... Except for my favourite series, I won't be lending those out. I like rewatching them from time to time. As far as me borrowing books or DVDs from other people, yes, I have done those. But I give it back on time and make sure that I don't destroy their things.
I would lend video games to friends and books too, but they take forever to return them! I don't know why! I always return things promptly when I borrow them. I know life gets busy, but make sure to return what you lend. You don't want your friends to think that you are stealing from them.
LOL. It is lovely to see that there are other people out there who are as preservative as I am when it comes to their books. I am exactly the same. Even when I receive a new book that I have purchased, I don't like to open the book quickly, because I don't want there to be an ugly crease in the spine? So lending my books to others is very tough for me too. They almost always come back with marks on them.
I don't lend things out because in the past I have loaned out special edition DVD box sets and had them returned scratched up with tattered boxes. If I have to replace my stuff , then loaning it out does not benefit me or my budget.
I have a concern for lending my stuff to people that may not take care of them. I prefer to just give it to ththe person or offer to do the job for them that they need the tool for.
I also don't like to lend my stuff, because I did that before, and I ended up with severely scratched DVD's, so like the others, I am now wary of lending my personal stuff.
I'm not a huge fan of either lending or borrowing. When you lend, there's always the possibility the person you're letting borrow it is going to screw it up or forget to bring it back, or keep purposely. When you borrow, I always feel weird and overly obligated to that person. I'd rather just buy my own stuff so I don't have to worry about any of this. I'm not a selfish person at all, and I don't mind letting people I really trust borrow stuff for a reasonable amount of time.
My friends and I used to trade DVDs like our own little book club but only for movies. It did work somewhat but since we were all young no one really cared that much to keep track of what items went to whom so in the end it was mostly just guesswork and we just tried to make it as fair as possible despite the disorganized nature. Nowadays I don't do much of this anymore since we have all pretty much gone completely digital, though in a way we still carry the tradition since we still share recommendations online and we still hash are our digital files with each other and I think this is a little less risky since there's no chance of losing any physical copies anymore n
Possibly when it comes to things many find useless, borrowing wouldn't be the word. Instead, it would be giving. People are likely to give you stuff - simply to get rid of it. Note, many people would like to sell these things with yard sales or on eBay or Amazon, but they might find nobody will buy it. In that case, giving would be a fast method to clean house.
It's not about money but yet this is the surest way of saving money from buying the books, the DVDs, anything. It is a lot of money that can be saved. I have so many friends who have something which I don't have. I borrow those things and he borrow things from me like books, magazines which he doesn't have.
