Consequently, I’m always on the lookout for reading material to add to my Kindle library (and if it’s free, all the better!), so I was very excited to see a post on the Free Stuff Times‘ Facebook page with a list of 40 free books for the Kindle. There are squillions of free ebooks available on Amazon, but the task of trawling trough them all is even less appealing than a tooth extraction, so having a manageable collection of suggestions is very welcome.

Also check out some of the earlier posts on the Free Stuff Times site for more free ebooks for the Kindle.

I’ll also share more free ebook sites with you as I come across them.

Free Stuff Times

And what better way to start than with a look at a site that deals with one of my favourite pastimes: shopping!

With Christmas coming up and a very gloomy world economy making everyone a bit twitchy and loathe to part with their money, the prospect of gift shopping is anything other than a joyous thing for many families this year. There’s not always the cash on hand to take advantage of sales at either online or bricks-and-mortar stores, so many people will be looking to take advantage of the old-fashioned layby where they can so they can pace their spending and stick to their budgets.

Unfortunately, paying by instalments is not usually an option when it comes to shopping online, but a new site has changed all that.

my Layby is an online department store that lets you by its stock choosing to either pay a regular instalment of have it delivered by a certain date (your choice). You have up to 52 weeks to complete your purchase.

The site stocks well-known brands across a range of categories including homewares , baby needs, gadgets, outdoor goods, holidays, toys and games, experiences and gifts.

All the goods on offer may not be the very best price available online, and you don’t get your goods until you have paid for them in full, but these drawbacks will be more than made up for by the ability to spread their payments over a longer period rather than shell out a wad of cash upfront.

Delivery is free and if the price of an item you have on layby drops while you are paying it off, the site will adjust the price down to the new one.

my Layby

I’ve always fancied one of my Facebook friend’s profile pics, which is a funky ‘posterised’ treatment of a head shot of her — you know, like Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe pop art poster — so I thought I’d give give it a go.

I found a tutorial on how to do it on the HowToGeek site, using Photoshop and Paint.NET (freeware for the not-so-affluent).

I’m no Photoshop expert by any stretch of the imagination, but the process was surprisingly simple and I was really happy with the result — that filter definitely hides a multitude of sins with not a wrinkle in site. Even better than mood lighting for whittling off a few years of an ageing facade!

Give it a try and experiment with the settings to see what variations you can come up with. Check out the other tutorials, tips and tricks on the site while you’re there.

Thanks HowToGeek!

In the past, I’ve covered Morgue File and Sprixi (unfortunately, poor old Sprixi has collapsed under the weight of its popularity and gone off air indefinitely).

Today, I came across another free stock photo library that you might like to take a look at if you, too, have a need for quality free images.

Photl.com has almost half-a-million images that you can use for just about any use, even commercially, which is a rarity. All the images are exclusive to this site.

All the photo images can be used as a whole or partially and there’s a download limit of 35M a day. You can search by keyword and filter by colour if that’s important to you.

To use the site, you’ll need to register (it’s free).

So,whether you need images for a blog, a newsletter, a school project or a commercial publication, check this one out.

Photl.com

Until now, if you wanted to print only a certain portion of a Web page. you probably highlighted, copied and pasted the text in question into a word processor and then printed the new document out, which was a lot of mucking around.

Fortunately, with a free little online editor called PrintWhatYouLike, you can now print just the portion of a Web page you want without any of the other elements right from our browser.

Using PrintWhatYouLike.com couldn’t be easier. Just enter the URL of the Web page that you want to print out in its search box, and click on the Start button.

When your desired page loads, choose the text size (great for the fine print), font (if the original font is hard to read) and choose the page elements that you want to include or exclude in your printout (background, images and margins).

Next, click on the area(s) you want to print and hit the Print button. All done!

PrintWhatYouLike.com

So, what happens with the cast-offs? Well, I’m sure that there are more than a few desk and bedside table drawers giving refuge to rejected models, but many people just chuck them in the bin.

Unfortunately, because mobile phones contain components that are hazardous to the environment if they end up in landfill, it’s important to dispose of your old mobile phones responsibly and recycling is the perfect solution — over 90% of a mobile phone can be recycled.

Here are a few options for doing this:

• You can pass them on to someone else who can use it;
• You can surrender them via the Mobile Muster campaign — Mobile muster is the official recycling program for the mobile phone industry in Australia. You can find out more about the program and how to recycle your old phone here.
• Donate your old phone to a charity to raise money for a good cause. For instance, you can help the Cerebral Palsy charity in your state here, support kids with cancer here, or donate to a charity of your choice here.
• You can even get cash for your unwanted mobile phone from sites such as Mazuma Mobile and Cashaphone.

Even taking a couple of kids to the movies can break the bank, particularly at a time when everyone is trying to tighten their belts with rising living costs.

Fortunately, there are still some family activities that can still be a lot of fun and not cost the earth — well, just the cost of some printing. If you’re looking for some free entertainment that the whole family can get into, you should check out the FreePrintables site.

You’ll find printable activities for the kids including colouring pages, games, puzzles and crafts. There are even school worksheets, but it’s probably best not to mention those while the kids are still on holiday.

There’s also sheet music for budding musicians, cards and invitations for the social butterflies, plus wrapping paper, labels, name tags, awards and certificates, recioe cards, stationery, party supplies, calendars and more.

FreePrintables

So, if you don’t know your sauteeing from your fricaseeing, or you have no trouble burning water, you should head to the Helpwithcooking.com site to get up to speed with all the cooking basics so you can wow family and friends with your culinary efforts.

On the site, you’ll find everything you need to know to cook just about anything including seafood, poultry, pastry-making, nutrition guides, food storage guides and more. Plus there’s a metric converter, a temperature chart and forums where you can share your tips and tap into the expertise of others.

Unfortunately, the site is totally devoid of illustrations — illustrations or videos are always welcome when people are learning new skills — but the written information is comprehensive and very readable, making the site still well worth a visit.

There are some recipes on the site, but its main aim is to educate you about food and how to cook it.

Helpwithcooking.com

One problem with finding a screensaver, if you don’t want to create one from one of your own pics, is finding a site that firstly has appealing images and secondly doesn’t download malicious payloads or annoying toolbars.

The NewFreeScreensavers site delivers on both fronts, plus (as the name suggests) the screensavers won’t cost you a cent.

While you can’t always believe sites when they claim that their downloads are virus-free, I’ve used a few of the screensavers on this site on my own computers and have never had a problem with any nasties as a result.

There are plenty of images on offer — check out the Christmas ones on page seven for the upcoming holiday season — with something to suit everyone.

You can download each screensaver individually or you can download a whole page at once.

You can also sign up for a free newsletter to be notified of new screensavers added to the site.

NewFreeScreensavers

That’s where the BBC Dimensions site can help you get a unique perspective on events past and present by overlaying them on a geographical location that you are familiar with so you can get an appreciation for its impact.

Just enter a postcode, city or country and select from the large number of events, structures, historic events and more on offer — anything from the Gulf oil spill to the first Olympic marathon to the Battle of Britain — to have them overlaid on the location of your choice to get an idea of their scale.

BBC Dimensions