Why Buy the Cow when the Milk is Free?

At least once a month or so, I go to Borders bookstore during lunch to browse. They have comfortable lounge chairs right next to the books that I like the most: the bargain books, travel books and investing books. When I do buy books, it's usually through Amazon where it's not only usually cheaper but tax free with free shipping as well. It's handy to go to Borders though and determine if I really want to buy a particular book. So often with real estate investing books, the title is catchy but the contents are sparse on details and repeat the same outdated info that isn't really pertinent to the California market. When a book uses examples of buying multiple houses for $150k, the concepts probably won't work in southern California. Today, I skimmed through 5 real estate books and wasn't tempted to buy a single one of them. I did pick up a book on Thai cooking which had gorgeous full page photos of the dishes and the areas in Thailand and another book on things to do in LA. I couldn't pass it up for $3.

Total spent today:
$0 brought lunch and then went to Borders
$14 2 books at Borders
$70 online prescription refills (2 prescriptions, you get 3 for the price of 2. I should have started doing this a long time ago!)
$47 inkjet refills for Canon photo printer