How Much Do I Spend On Books?

Posted March 10, 2016 by smutmatters in Budget, Reviews / 3 Comments

Hand holding a wallet or purse full of money with banknotes and gold dollar coins in a shopping and financial concept, vector illustration

This is a monthly feature for me to track my book spending. I don’t want to call this a budget, because I’m not really limiting the spending. Right now I’m more interested in just tracking how much I’m spending, not so much setting a certain amount to spend. So.. Here’s how I’m going to track it.

Tracking Rules

  • Tracking will be done a monthly basis.
  • Pre-orders will be tracked when the money is taken out of the account. Amazon pre-orders, for example, aren’t actually charged until they’re delivered, so a June release I pre-order in February will count for June, since that’s when Amazon will take the money.
  • I currently have $30.80 in Amazon gift cards and $15.00 in Barnes and Noble gift cards. They’ll count toward the spending, but follow the same rules as above.
  • I only have 2 Audible credits right now, but audiobooks will follow the same rules. The credits will be charged and count monthly, and any additional money I spend on Audible will count. But I won’t count credits used on books since the credits are counted when they hit my account.

So with no further ado, here’s my book tracking for February:

Audiobook Money Spent

Staked by Kevin Hearne 1 credit

Shadow Sight by EJ Stevens $2.13

Written in Red by Anne Bishop

Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn

First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones

The Paper Magician by Charlie N Holmberg

The last 4 were on one audio order totaling $18.03. The Audible receipt doesn’t break it down, so I don’t know how much the individual books were.

Physical Books Money Spent

None – $0.00

Ebooks Money Spent

A Fighting Chance by Shannon Stacey $2.13 (gift card)

Cupcakes, Trinkets & Deadly Magic $0.00

Final Assignment by Linwood Barclay $2.13 (gift card)

Ninja at First Sight by Penny Reid $0.00

Flirting with the Competition $0.00

Taking the Score by Kate Meader $3.20 (gift card)

Bulletproof by Avery Flynn $3.20 (gift card)

Delicate Ink by Carrie Ann Ryan $0.00

365 Days of Electric Pressure Cooker Recipes $0.00

Radio Silence by Alyssa Cole 1.06 (gift card)

Harmony Black by Craig Schaefer $0.00

 

Other Money Spent

  • Audible Membership: $22.95

 

Running Total

  • Audiobooks – $20.16
  • Physical Books – $0
  • Ebooks – $11.72 – all on gift cards, so no actual money spent.
  • Other – $22.95
  • January Total: $54.83
  • YTD: $106.51

3 responses to “How Much Do I Spend On Books?

  1. You did amazing. I had a hard time with February. Normally I do not take the money out of the budget until the book hits my door. I’m hoping March is better. I’ve got plenty on my TBR to keep me busy and figuring out this new fangled cutting machine I bought! Should keep me off the internet! 😉

    • smutmatters

      March is already shaping up to be significantly worse. 🙂 Plus I used all my gift cards, so I’ll have to start using actual money now, which always hurts.

  2. You did a great job. I need to start the Kevin Hearne series. I’ve heard great things. I hope you enjoy Anne Bishop’s series as much I do. Same with E.J. Stevens and Darynda Jones. I’ve listened to the first book in the Kitty series, but I need to get caught up on a few other series before I try tackling another series, but I did enjoy it.