Friday 28 February 2014

Free ebooks from your local library

My Dad first mentioned about borrowing ebooks from the library a while ago and after asking them what book readers they are compatible with they recommended the Kobo. So when we spotted the Kobo for only £29.99 at WH Smiths we had to get it for his birthday.

Our first problem was getting the free books from the Kobo store onto the Kobo. I don't really think much of the Kobo's search feature, you can look for books but I couldn't find a way of filtering them in price order and searching for 'free book', 'free ebook' or simply 'free' all came up with results none of which were free. What I decided to do was log on to the Kobo bookstore via my laptop and from there I could filter search results into price order. Next I copied the book title into the Kobo search and up popped the book I wanted.

Next we wanted to work out how to get the ebooks from the library. Unfortunately their 'Computer Buddy' wasn't experienced with the ebook system so we turned to Google! Well we couldn't find any guides on how to get the library books on the Kobo. We found how to get an app so you can read the books on your tablet or mobile, even on your computer but getting them onto the Kobo was difficult.  If you want to get the library books on anything other than a Kobo then look here - http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/ebook-readers/borrow-ebooks-from-your-local-library-without-even-going-there-50005724/
It tells you how to download Overdrive Media Console - I can't really comment on this programme as when I downloaded it I could only get it to look for audio books rather than ebooks! (I tried the windows version).

So back to the drawing board! I thought I'd look on Kent Library's home page as that is our local library (hopefully other areas librarys have a similar set up). In the middle of the home page is this section called 'Do it online':

From here I went to 'Download' (I will add that you will need to have signed up to the library online) and on the page that opens you will see this also kind of in the middle of the page:


I clicked on the link I have highlighted - 'Go to Overdrive ebooks' and from the page that opens you can sign in to your library account using the 'sign in' link at the top right hand of the page. If you don't know your login details your local library should be able to help you. Just to keep things simple here is a picture of the login page:


If you click 'Account' near the top you will see a page that looks like this:


From here you can click where it says 'Add a Title' and you can find a book you want.

You can choose ebooks or audio books - these have a different logo in the top right hand corner of the book picture:


If there is a book you would like but the book logo is grey rather that black (like the picture below) then it means the book is currently on loan and you can select to put a hold on it.

When you have found a book you want and selected 'Borrow' it will appear in your Account. From here you can choose 'Download (EPUB eBook)' or you can read it in your browser. We are dwnloading it to get it onto the Kobo.

Now this is where it got confusing.. it seems to download as a .acsm file rather than a .epub which is what I was expecting. the Kobo wouldn't read that file type so after another google I found out that in order to read the .acsm file you should download 'Adobe Digital Editions' - You can find it here:
http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/digital-editions/download.html

I downloaded the windows version:

It was pretty easy to follow the steps to download and open. When I did I found the ebook I had downloaded in its library:


When linking the Kobo to my computer Adobe Digital Editions instantly recognised it and it has its own section on the left hand side (sorry no picture of this as I don't have the Kobo here with me!)

To get the book only the Kobo you just have to 'right click' on the book and then select 'copy to Kobo' and it will copy across.

Hopefully you will find this guide useful and will save you a bit of time searching the internet for help!

Tuesday 25 February 2014

Slimming world

Well as I'm trying to loose a bit of weight as well as making money I thought I would have a go at Slimming World. I'm doing this myself and not paying to sign up or get weighed every week. I have around a stone to shift (the last of the baby weight!) and I'm hoping I'll do it by the summer.

From what I've read about slimming world its more of a healthy eating plan rather than a diet. There are 'free foods' that you can eat unlimited (within reason) like fruit, veg, pasta, muller low fat yoghurt, baked beans, potato and some pasta mug shots. You are allowed 2 healthy extras a day (things like milk, bread and cheese come from this) and you are allowed up to 15 syns a day (a tablespoon of mayo is 5 syns I think, a packet of crisps may be around 10 depending on the type) They have a facebook group you can join for free and people always post up recipes and ask about syn values.

I've been near enough sticking to this eating plan for a week and have lost 2lb so I'm very happy (We had Macdonalds one day and I'm sure it was around 30 sins for my meal haha)

Actually I think I may start a page as a record of how many syns are in the food I like! 

Tuesday 18 February 2014

Earn money with Giffgaff!

Who would have though you would be able to make money from your mobile phone network, well with giffgaff you can! They call it payback and you can earn it in various ways.

The most obvious one is recommending them, either by getting people to sign up using your referral link or by handing out sim cards (You can request sims from giffgaff to hand out) You get 500 points for this and that converts simply to £5.  If people don't use your link or have one if your simcards then you can still get payback if they add your giffgaff username to the 'who referred you' section when they register their new sim card. You only get 200 points for this (£2).


Get a free giffgaff Sim

The next way of earning payback is a bit different, they say to help out giffgaff members in their forum. How you actually earn and how much is all a bit of a mystery as there have been several posts on their forums and nobody actually knows! All I know is that you get paid to use their forum!

Giffgaff email you a monthly statement of your points and you can also check your balance online and they pay out twice a year (June and December). What else is good is they let you choose how you would like to be paid. You can choose cash via PayPal (only eligible if you've earned more than 1000 points), Airtime credit or you can donate it to charity.

Between June and November 2013 I earned a massive £55 for my December payback! I think that's amazing as I only pay £10 per month for my giffgaff goody bag. My statement for the next payback is currently at £30 (for December and January!)  I wouldn't say I am overly active on their forum - I signed in in 2012 and have only got 277 posts. I only really started using the forum when I realised you get paid for it (Would have been around May 2013). The forum is good though, lots of friendly people chatting about random things, as well as a really good help section if you need it.



Get a free giffgaff Sim

Monday 17 February 2014

The Money Shed

I've recently discovered 'The Money Shed'. Its basically a forum where you can get ideas on how to make money online and save money too.  I joined up a few weeks ago and have been made to feel very welcome on there, everyone is very friendly and there are no spammers.. yay!!

Its a great place to ask questions about business ventures or share information with other people about where you make money. There are topics covering things like Swagbucks, Gift Hulk and other similar websites and I've even had a few referrals from there :)  Actually there are loads of ideas on there from survey sites, youtube videos and even blogging... I really need to read up on how blogging can make you money!

Another excellent thing is that you allowed to have signature links to your own websites, you don't get to do that these days as often forums don't like you advertising your own businesses. Its a shame really but its another thing that I think is great about the Money Shed.

Anyway if you are looking to earn a few extra pounds join us over at The Money Shed

Homemade Anna from Frozen Costume


My daughter is going to a holiday club in half term and she has decided she wants to be Anna from the new Disney film Frozen. I can't seem to get a costume in her size (except from the Disney store but I refuse to pay £40 for it!) So i have decided to have a go making it myself.

This is Anna:





My version won't be an exact copy of it as I only have till Tuesday to make it but I'm sire its going to be better than some of the ones you can buy!

Official Disney one:



Cheepo one:





Cheepo 'Deluxe' version



I found a blue duvet cover in Asda that would be good for the skirt, it was a double sided one with different shades of blue. I managed to get a blue long sleeve t-shirt from Primark, its not as pale as i would have liked but as a last minute costume it will do. Primark also had a lovely fleecy blanket that would be perfect for Anna's cape and it was in the sale for only £2. For the black top I raided my fabric stash and found an old tracksuit top, one of the velour ones in black, perfect!

Update: well the cape went totally wrong! It was the wrong kind of fleece I think. As soon as I cut it to shape it started falling apart. I tried hemming it but my sewing machine chewed it up so had to do it by hand. She wore if for the day but it put so much red fluff over everything so she won't be wearing it again!  I'll be looking out for a better fabric for the cape I think.

I'll post a picture up when I get the chance.

Sunday 16 February 2014

MSE - 52 Week Challenge

I discovered the 52 Week challenge on the Money Saving Expert forums (MSE) back last August.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4744397

The idea is to save money each week, starting at £1 and increasing it by another £1 every week.

For example:
Week 1 - save £1   (total £1)
Week 2 - save £2   (total £3)
Week 3 - save £3   (total £6)

and so on till you get to

Week 52 - save £52 (total £1378)

Well I found the first weeks really easy but now I'm up to week 27 its getting harder so I am having to really look at where I am spending money and also trying to make some extra money so I can continue with this challenge. It does make it worth while when I look at my bank account and see that I have saved £378 (plus interest!) I'm just using an old savings account that I wasn't using for anything, the interest rate isn't great at around 1% but its better than the money being sat in a money box!

If you feel like having a go at the 52 week challenge sign up on MSE, there is plenty of support on the forum as well as lots of other money saving / making challenges!