I admit it---I love magazines. It's neither environmentally friendly nor frugal. I fully own up to that. But the fact remains, it's a vice of mine. Right now I receive:VegNews
Vegetarian Times (free)
Organic Gardening (free)
E! (in place of another magazine that went out of business--Plenty, maybe?)
Entertainment Weekly (extremely cheap 2 year renewal)
Mother Earth News (cheap automatic renewal)
Body and Soul (free)
Reminisce
Reminisce Extra--I was born in the wrong era, I tell ya. Love the 40's and 50's.
My mother-in-law usually gives me a few magazines at Christmas, just random issues of a few different subscriptions, so there's that too. And my mom gives me her weekly copy of my hometown newspaper.
But I do my best to decrease the environmental aspects of my magazine-loving self:
-When I'm finished, I give them to my mom or sisters if they want them. Those they return, plus the ones they don't want go to the Friends of the Library bookstore, where they bring in a quarter each, and benefit the library.
-I very rarely clip an article/recipe, instead choosing to type the information into my computer, so that I can leave the magazine intact and donate it.
-If there's an article I really want to read in a pop culture magazine (People, for example) I trot myself down to the library and read it for free.
-I have always been a fan of Archie comics, ever since I was a little girl. While they aren't magazines, per se, they're still made of paper and ink, and are expensive considering how quick a read they are. For years I rarely bought them, but recently discovered I can buy them much cheaper and paper-free through the app store for my Ipod Touch.
-I stopped getting our local daily paper delivered when they started offering a pdf version online. Love that!
-My husband was inundated by free professional magazines at work. Trust me, nobody but those in his field wants to read those, and frankly my husband rarely cracked them open. I went online and got them all to stop sending, except one. Still working on that one.
How about anyone else? Can't get enough of a good magazine or think of them as clutter and don't want them in your house?
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3 comments:
The only magazines I subscribe to now are HOMEMADE and Country Living. My Coke Rewards account is my frugal means to getting both. I donate the magazines or pass to friends when I can finally bear to part with them. Formerly, I subscribed to four other magazines, but let those run out. The library has magazines I sit and read, plus I can read some at my hairdresser's.
My plan is that when the ones that were free run out, I won't be paying to renew them. I will probably always keep VegNews, Mother Earth News, Reminisce, and maybe Entertainment Weekly.
I love magazines, but find it hard to part with them so I don't subscribe anymore. Most of the info from them I can find on the net. When something interests me, I just search for it, especially recipes. I have many still here that are slowly being recycled. I'm trying hard to get rid of all catalogs and we do e-bills on everything possible. But, I still love magazines!
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