Ok, what do you do when your reading can't keep up. I've a ton of credits, a pile of books and it seems like I'm spending a fortune in postage. I love the site but I'm sending out way more than I'm getting in mostly because I'm just way behind on everything. I hate to put my account on hold, but i joined this site to save money. Does anyone put their account on hold just to "catch up"?

susan/vt

Susan,

That is one of the great things about the vacation hold, you can still get your auto requested Wishlist books, you will retain your place in line for the FIFO for when you take your account off of hold, and you can even post Wishlist books by taking your account off of hold, waiting for the other member to accept the order, and put your account right back on Vacation Hold. It is really a great feature, you will still be able to post in the forums, send and receive PMs, get the NewsWire emailed to you. And you will get a chance to get some books read and save some postage in the meanwhile.

cheryl

currently my account is on hold so that I don't receive anymore WL offers right now until I can catch up on my reading...I have transfered some of my credits to DVD swap and gotten some gifts for family members so, that is a good way to spend your credits.  I also limit the number of books I send out and how often I mail...when I have enough money to mail out I'll post books take my account off vacation for about 30 seconds and then return it to vacation hold...long enough for my books to be offered to requestors.

I never thought about the DVD swap. I need to check into that. I just checked my transaction archive and see that I'm spending about $25 a month, guess that's not as bad as I thought. It felt like I just bought postage from the site and was doing it again.

Thanks for the quick response.

susan/vt

You can also sell credits at the Book Bazaar.

I have a HUGE TBR pile of nearly 400 books, although it is not as large as some I've read about on here!  I figure at the rate I'm reading it will take me 3 years to read all of these books.  However I can't stop ordering!

I used to use the library all the time, now that is a rarity.

I haven't put my account on hold because I hope to clear out some more of these books!

I put my account on hold just to catch up all the time.  It was on hold for 6months recently.  I had a house to sell, a house to buy and a cross country move to plan. So I put it on hold to stop any WL offers.  I had a lot of credits so I donated most of the books I had on my shelf to the thrift store.  They were all plentiful on PBS and I didn't want to move them.  I would just unhold it to post WL books.  Of course the downside to being on hold that long is that when I came off hold I had 30 WL offers in about a month. I had worked my way to the top spot on a lot of books. 

I'm thinking about going back on hold.  I just came back from visiting family and sure enough as soon as I took it off hold there was a WL offer.  So I might go back on hold through the holidays. I'll be traveling a lot and that way I can catch up MT TBR. I probably have a good 50WL books just sitting here waiting to be read. 

Susan - I would be willing to bet that one of my family members went to school with your kids.  And if you have been working at the same library for more than 15 years, we've probably met.

It's OK to put your stuff on hold to deal with shipping costs and to keep up with your ever growing TBR pile.  I do it all the time.  I need to in order to keep up with my family and still enjoy reading.  Some times, I just don't feel like doing any mailing, so I just put my account on hold and enjoy not wrapping books.  Out of our monthly budget, I plan for $50 in mailing (I read ALOT of books each month).  I try to sell credits as well to send more books.  And we actually make an effort to not have "too many" books in the house.  Take the pressure off yourself and put your account on hold until you start enjoying the process of reading again.

Kerry

Kerry,  Your name doesn't ring any bells and if we met,  it wasn't in TX. Feel free to PM me and I'd be happy to update you on the kids, if you are interested.

And thanks for the good advice.

susan/vt