I love magazines but I hate paying full price for them, so I have devised a number of ways to avoid this fate (which ranks somewhere in my books between eating a sandwich and watching a gory movie):

• I subscribe to one magazine (and save 72% off the cover price, or something like that according to the ad they used to lure me);
• I subscribe to another magazine that I paid for with my Shopper’s Optimum points (you know, the points program that got me a whole bunch of stuff?);
• I buy all other magazines only at Wal*Mart, where I used to save 10% (Every day!) but now get to pay the US price (yay!); or
• I use my 40% or 50% off Michaels coupon to buy a magazine.

My savings range from 40 cents to a couple of dollars per magazine, but as long as I stay true to my goal of not paying full price, I’m happy.

Lately, I can’t step into a store without buying a magazine because of all the Christmas-related themes and ideas on the fronts of those green and red covers. I’m always drawn in by any magazine that promises to offer me 50 gifts under $50, including gifts for the most difficult person on my list. I love finding new cookie recipes (even though most years I can’t manage to bake even one batch of cookies from an old recipe!) and who can resist the fashion ideas for holiday parties, tips for entertaining and suggestions for fun things you can do with your family during the season? Throw in one or two heartwarming stories and lots of coupons (the Body Shop! Christmas cards!) and I’m a happy girl.

Now I just have to find time to read them. I read every magazine cover to cover, and I hate jumping around, so even if I buy a magazine because of the story on how to lose 50lbs and meet the man of my dreams, and that story happens to be on page 219, I’ll happily lose myself in all the preliminary pages, even the ones that aren’t applicable (warnings about how to prevent my child from coming down with colds this winter season or lies that people believe about hormone replacement therapy). I like building up the anticipation for the feature I guess. Lately, my magazine overload has had me jumping from magazine to magazine so I’m about 1/5 through three of the magazines. My goal is to get some quality reading done on Saturday on our way to the US to load up on Black Friday deals.

What is your magazine style? Which magazines do you buy and how do you read them?

Filed under: NaBloPoMo, Reading & Writing by jummy