I purchased the annual subscription to peepcode.com which gives me access to all screencasts and PDF eBooks they offer for one year. If they add new material after I purchased, I still get access to it – as long as my 1-year subscription hasn’t expired. I’ve found the screencasts to be of great quality and very helpful for introducing me to new concepts, languages, and tools. It’s really nice to sit back with a cup of joe and watch an instructor sometimes, and these guys do a great job.

The Pragmatic Programmers write some of the best development books out there. The great news is now they offer everything in electronic format – including PDF, .epub (eBook), and .mobi (mobile version). At an average cost of around $24 for all 3 electronic versions, these books are a steal. Also, there is no DRM and the Pragmatic Programmers site states that you are free to distribute the files to other members of your team. I purchased around 10 books and simply placed them in a secure location for our team to download.

All in, I spent about $400 for a wealth of knowledge and portable information that I can distribute to our team. That’s hard to beat when you’re trying to continue and encourage the growth of your employees but the economy is telling you to take a hike.