now THAT is how you do some shopping

I admit it: I have a major shopping problem. I spend a lot of time daily at amazon and other sites, browsing and looking at various things. My favorite thing to look at happens to be books.

I love books. With a book, you can go back in time to the Revolutionary War, you can explore the Lost City of Atlantis, you can go anywhere and do anything. All from the comfort of your bed, sofa, or a big cozy chair (or wherever you end up reading your book at) A book is the PERFECT thing for a person with an incredibly visual mind and an overactive imagination. A person like myself can spend hours in a good book, held by a plot far more complex than any television show. Yes, books are a beautiful thing to me. If you want to excite me, you give me a book that I don't have yet. For me, books are serious business.

No wonder I'm drawn to a literature-based curriculum like Sonlight. I love books just that much, and so far my children seem to have inhereted my unending thirst for a good book. So, we are constantly buying new books. I don't particularly care for used books; there is just something about the smell and feel of a new book as you open it to read for the first time. Some people get off on new car scent, I get off on new book scent. (don't ask, I'm just strange like this)

Now back on topic now that you have a general idea of the importance of books in my home................

A couple weeks ago, my husband cashed in the reward points on his debit card to get a $100 gift certificate for Amazon. Now, Amazon is a book-lover's dream. You can get ANY book there, in any language. And, most of the time you can get the books you want with free super saver shipping. Yes, Amazon is amazing.

I knew I needed to purchase some books to finish off my curriculum for this upcoming school year, so my first thought was to use the gift certificate to buy some of them. I went to Amazon and started searching out the books I need for core K, as I had purchased a used 4 day package missing 3 books. I had decided also to fill it out to the full 5 day schedule, since Sonlight is so genius as to print both the 4 day and 5 day schedules on all their guides. I love this about Sonlight by the way, I wish more companies did something like this. It is just one more of those little details about Sonlight that makes them so awesome.

Anyway, I got to Amazon and loaded up the books I need to finish off my core into my cart. OK, I was at $70-something with just those, so I started poking around at other books that may interest me. I played with my cart for 4 days before I got it how I did tonight. I knew I wanted to get as close to that $100 amount in one shot without going too far over it so that I don't have to play around like this again later with buying a bunch of books. This is my main shop for the school year and I was being as careful as possible. I ended up with a total of 11 books, all with free super saver shipping, and a total of EXACTLY $100. So I clicked on checkout.

Yes, I aimed to hit a certain amount, and I knew I could afford to go a couple dollars over right now but kept tinkering until I hit it exactly. I ended up with all 8 books that I needed for core K, one of the newer books from core P 4/5, a new copy of Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons, and a book that was written just for the ADD homeschooling mom. That last book is obviously for me.

Now for the amusing tidbits. When I clicked to checkout, I discovered that I had gotten a 4 for 3 deal in there and my order was $3.99 LESS than my $100. No big deal, it can sit for my next purchase in a couple weeks. Then once I submitted my order, I realized it. My mailman is like 70 years old, and he has to deliver a box with 10 books in it (one of the books, Hero Tales, will be available to ship in 1-3 weeks and will ship separately when it comes in). LOL I can just picture him grumbling over that package, he gave me the stinkface glare when he had to deliver a box with just THREE books in it a couple months ago.

Now I can place a $25-30 purchase every payday or two so that I can get the rest of our materials since I have the necessary books for the upcoming school year.