Finding Free and cheap reading on Amazon

When I first started reading again, I limited my reading to stuff I downloaded off free sites and fanfiction, simply because my budget was still limited. The thought of spending money on books still felt too frivolous after more than a year of a very limited budget.

Then I met a young lady at my office who had a kindle as well, and we began to talk regularly. She was a long-time user of the Kindle, and had all sorts of tricks she shared with me. I'm going to share the same with you here, because I've been amazed at how well it works.

Tip #1:
If you don't have an account with Amazon (though you should with a Kindle), get one. They're free, and even if you don't have a Kindle, they're worth it for keeping track of what you'd like to get. Of course, this can also be done on most other sites these days, so if you have a Nook or other E-reader that works better with another site, just change Amazon to that site. Granted, I don't know if you will get quite the deals you will with Amazon, but books drop in price all the time, so you should get some at least.

The next step is to set up a special wish list for the e-books you want. Go crazy. Even if you don't buy them, this way at least you can glance at the list when you have money and decide what you would like.Amazon even has a nice little feature that shows items whose price has dropped since you put it on your wishlist, so you can easily see when things are on sale.

Check this list regularly. You never know when a secret sale price will appear. And when they do, you can just snap it up for your kindle.

Tip #2:
Get yourself Amazon cards when you have a little excess cash. I like to buy them every other paycheck, so long as I have the extra cash around. They come in all sorts of denominations, and you can just put them on your account, then use them when something good is on sale. So long as it's an Amazon card, it really doesn't matter what it says on the front. It all just goes into the same pool of money, and it's up to you how you spend it.

By the same token, when you get one for a gift, put it on your account so that it will be there later. No need to buy things right away, or save it until you're sure something is on sale. So long as you have it, put it on your account and use it when needed.

One warning here is that if you buy other things on your account, it will pull from this pool if you don't tell it not to, so be careful.

Tip #3:
Want some free Amazon cards? Join Bing here and earn them with searches. It's not the only reward you can get there, but it will definitely build up if you do it every day. I've gotten a number of books this way, and it's well worth it, even if you prefer another search engine. After all, you only have to do a certain number per day. So what have you got to lose?