Being forgetful can be costly!

Photo credit:  iosphere freedigitalphotos.net 

All of my children have inherited my love of libraries and I'm so pleased. We often pop in after school to pick up some books from our local library, even though we have shelves full of unread books at home, or when we're in the city we visit the awesome Millennium Library and we can happily spend hours browsing.

This year visits to the library have cost me a small fortune though. 

We spent days hunting through the house for a book that Molly had borrowed but we just couldn't find it so I had to buy a new one for the library. 

Another time I forgot that I had put some of the childrens' books on my husband's card as I'd left our cards at home. When checking my online account a few weeks later it showed that me & the children had nothing on loan. It was only when sorting through the children's bedrooms that I found those library books….weeks overdue! Even though they were children's books we were supposed to be charged at the adult overdue rate as they were on an adult card. Ouch! Thankfully the librarian took pity on me and reduced the charges little.

I was then adamant that I wouldn't fall into that trap again so I planned to make sure that the children took their books out on their own cards in future.

The children signed up for the Summer Reading Challenge and they read the required books quite quickly but as I rely on the email notifications for making me aware of the due date I completely forgot about returning the books until a couple of nights ago. I panicked, wondering why I hadn't received an email and then I found it in my spam folder along with many other important emails #facepalm 

20 books were overdue by nearly 3 weeks! I kicked myself and couldn't believe I'd have another bunch of fines to pay…..and then in the early hours I woke up in a cold sweat wondering if I'd put all 20 books onto my card by mistake. The fines would be astronomical! I raced downstairs and logged on to my account, breathing a huge sigh of relief when I saw that the books were not on my card. It was still another £9 to pay out when we're on a tight budget.

Now that libraries have the self-serve scanner systems, without date stamps, am I the only one that misses the old-fashioned system of cards and pockets in library books?! 

I really need one of these kits from Waterstones: Personal Library Kits

Photo credit: Waterstones

I'm usually so organised and not normally so forgetful. Next time we borrow anything from the library I'm going to set a reminder on my phone & laptop and write the return date down on my calendar, diary AND weekly planner! If I don't, it'll be cheaper to buy the books….