Live Cheap and Large at the Library!

It's unbelievable how accustomed we are to shopping, to going into a store, handing over money or plastic, and coming out with something in our hands.

But the only way to spend less is to refuse to buy everything you want. Inevitably, there comes a time when you run out of money for restaurant meals and shows, or possibly (depending on your income level) for groceries and gas.

And it feels truly crummy.

But if you are or can become a frequenter of public libraries, there's one place you can go, and come out with something in your hands, and it's free! It feels sort of like shopping - you choose what you want, you stand in line to check out, you carry stuff away - but you can do it with zero in your wallet.

A library is a lot of things. It's a place to borrow books, of course. And magazines. And dvd's. And cd's. All those things cost a small fortune if you buy them, and take a lot of space in your house.

It's an idea market. You don't have money for groceries? Browse the cookbooks to find how to make dinner out of what you already have in the house. You need new curtains? Spend a while finding out dozens of ways to make them - with sewing or without. You want to lose weight? How many diet books does your library have? Select the sensible or junk diet of your choice. Look at beautiful pictures of places you'll go someday, of houses decorated gorgeously, of - okay, of the arrow-poison frog your kid is doing a report on.

If you don't like to ask for help, here's what you need to know:

The difference between a library and a pile of books is that, in a library, the books are carefully arranged to make them easy to find.

If you look at the spine of the book (the narrow part that faces outward on the shelf) it will probably have a code on it. Most libraries arrange novels by the author's last name, so that if you find a book you like, you can go back and get other books by the same author. Most libraries have mysteries in a separate section; once you find it, you can browse murder and mayhem to your heart's content. Many also have separate sections for science fiction and fantasy, for romance, for large print books. There will be some sort of label, like a sticker with a question mark for mysteries, or the letters MYS. Romance could be a heart, or ROM. Look at the book spines, and you can figure it out-it's supposed to be easy and intuitive.

The books that aren't stories are usually arranged by the Dewey Decimal System. Browse a while, and you can learn the numbers for your favorite subject. Crafters go straight to 745. Cookbooks are around 641. Your horse-crazy daughter needs 636. You don't have to learn the whole system, any more than you have to memorize the whole map of Cleveland if you live there. You just need to know how to get to where you want to go. Once you've learned your favorite places in the library (Dave Barry and other funny guys? 817!) you can go right to them, even in a strange library.

Some libraries have kid's books in a separate place, but some have non-fiction (books that aren't a story) for children mixed with that for adults, figuring that if you want to know about dinosaurs (567!), a kid's book or an adult book will tell you a lot of the same stuff. Movies about dinosaurs might be on the same shelf with the books, or in a separate movie section.

And of course, find out about Internet use. If you have to drop Internet access at home, you can probably sign up at the library.

Does your library offer programs? Story times for the children, movies for the teens, budgeting or gardening or knitting programs for the adults - all are possibilities. Summer reading club will keep your child's reading skills intact over the summer. There may be books on display that you'd like to take out. (You're allowed, if they're not locked in a cabinet or something.) There might be an art show going on, or a blood drive, or a concert. There may be a rack with pamphlets about other community activities.

But for me, the books are the main thing. Do you know how many books you're allowed to take out at a time? Ask about it, and you may be surprised. The limit at my library is fifty! You can walk in with no money and walk out with fifty books, dvd's, cd's, magazines.

And then you really feel rich.