Weird Times, Savings Tips and the Power of Romance
- Maggie Shayne
- 4 days ago
- 10 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
There will be both audio/podcast and video versions of this post here, on youtube, and on Substack this afternoon. I have a medical thing (no big whoop) in between. Please pardon typos. I'm literally out the door the second I hit publish.
Hello, darlings. I'm so happy you come around here to read or watch or listen to my posts, and I apologize that there wasn't one last Monday. Most weekends I can manage all three blogs with video editions and audio for two of them after a full week of writing. Last weekend wasn't one of them.
So how the hell are you, folks? If you're struggling, you are not alone. We're all in this together, (except the billionaires of course.) I feel like the old divisions are sort of re-shuffling. We're still divided, yes, but less and less party verses party, it's rich white men and the tech bros they finance against all of us. Every last one of us.
I've found a couple of ways to save that might help and I thought I'd share.
While we do NOT want to add to Bezos' wealth if we can help it, we also have to feed our families. I ONLY buy paperback, hardcover, or audiobooks from Amazon/Audible if I can't buy them anywhere else. If a book is exclusive to the 'Zon, Kindle Unlimited (KU) is the cheapest way to buy it. HOWEVER, Kobo Plus is a similar program to KU, where you subscribe for a monthly fee and read all you want, and listen to all the audiobooks you want. Or you can subscribe to audiobooks only for even less.
And if you want audiobooks ONLY, there are still cheaper options.
Let's take a look at the subscription programs:
Amazon KU: 11.99 a month for the ebooks and audiobooks you want to read. Audible: 14.99 a month for all the "included" audiobooks, which is NOT everything, plus one "Premium" title per month.
Kobo Plus: 9.99 a month for all the ebooks and audiobooks you want OR
Kobo Plus: 7.99 a month for audio only. (Same for ebook only.) CHIRPBOOKS
No subscription is needed at Chirp, making a different kind of program, which I love. And the audiobooks are nearly always priced lower or the same as other outlets. They have frequent deep discounts on things I really want to read. (I'm only reading in audio right now, as I'm just too busy to sit down and read for real.)
The real difference between Kindle Unlimited and the other retailers, is that Amazon requires authors to remove their ebooks from every other platform except Amazon. I hate it, because I literally can't pay my bills right now without having some of my series in Kindle Unlimited, and I can't participate in KU without putting additional coinage into Bezo's greedy, bottomless pockets and taking the ebooks off BN, GooglePlay, Apple, Kobo, etc, althought I'm still allowed to have the paperback, hardcover, and audiobooks elsewhere.
You might have less selection at Kobo +. That's the only real drawback. And the reason for it as the 'Zon's draconian competition-killing rules.
If Amazon's so great, Jeff, why are you so afraid of competition?
HUGE SAVINGS with the OOMA PHONE We were paying just under $100 a month for our landline phone (Frontier Communications is the provider. We kept it because there is no cell service for a few miles in either direction of our home. We decided to try OOMA a landline phone that runs off the internet. The cost was: $90 for the OOMA device itself. $35 to switch the old phone number over. Then $8 a month thereafter. It's working perfectly.
Cost the first year for the OOMA phone including the above startup costs: $221 Cost for each year after the first year for the OOMA phone: $96 Cost for the old landline from Frontier per year: $1151.88
SAVINGS: 1062.88 per year (minus the 90 +35 for the setup the first year.)
GROCERY HOPPING
That's not a typo. We are now hitting 4 different grocery stores each week. And I am well aware that it's a huge blessing to even have that many options. So many Americans live in food deserts where there isn't grocery store for miles, and getting there is difficult and expensive.
We start at the cheapest store first, Aldi, wherever if they have anything on my list, I'll buy it there. Aldi is especially handy for name brand laundry and dish soaps, which they don't have all the time, but when they do they run sales on them cheaper than anywhere else.
Next we go to Walmart, because that's the second cheapest place. often they run sales on name brand laundry, dish, and other cleaning supplies that are close or the same as the Aldi discounts.
Both these places carry plenty of organic produce, which is important to me. More on that below.
After Walmart, we go to Grand Union, where everything costs more than the first two places. EVERYTHING. We have a few things there--the mushrooms, the tofu brand we like, just stuff the other two don't carry or the quality is just too substandard (like with the mushrooms.)
And finally, alst of all we go to this tiny, out of the way "Local Food Market" which is really a healthy food mart. Small, so they can't buy in huge quantities like the big box places can, so things usually cost more.
But some things surprisingly cost LESS, because they have big bins for oatmeal, grains, nuts, raisins, nurtritional yeast, dates, and many more items. A whole wall of bins. They also have spices in bulk. You scoop from a jar into a bag, weigh and label it yourself right there, and it's far far cheapter than buying spices in the grocery store.
A note on the organics
I am striving to buy organic as much as possible, since the felon took the regulations off farmers using Roundup, which contains cancer-causing glyphosate. Greens are one of the most contaminated of foods, and I'm having trouble finding organic ones.
It's always a challenge to combine healthy eating with affordable eating. Leaning into organics for the items we eat the most of will help a lot, and a healthy lifestyle will prime your body to be able to deal with and excrete toxins more efficiently.
Our ultra-healthful lifestyle also means we don't buy ANY expensive meat, dairy, or cheese and very few ultra-processed foods. I make most of our food myself from fruits, veggies, grains, and nuts. I won't bore you with the exquisite details. If you want those they're over at my foodie blog Eat Like You Give a Shit.
TV SERVICE
Dish Network and Direct TV are the most expensive ways you can watch televison. I long ago dropped my Dish Network and changed to YouTubeTV was way less. Was being they key word. It's gone up multiple times until it's now just ridiculous.
First I took stock of what I watch on there. News, and I've lost faith in CNN, Fox has admitted in court they are not news, but entertainment, so I tend to find more and more independent journalists on Substack and Youtube. The only news I still watch on my Youtube TV is MSNOW and the local station. MSNOW will begin its own subscription service this summer. Meanwhile, you can watch every evening show they have the next day on yourube for free. Maybe they'll change that once they start offering the service.
Most of the network TV shows also air on Hulu, not even the expensive Hulu, but the cheap one!
Many of the cellphone companies are offering cheap and free TV streaming services to their customers. Netflix and HBO Max for $10/month through Verizon, our current cell phone provider, for example. They also offer a Disney/Hulu/ESPN bundle for 10/month.
Speaking of Cell Phones
I'm about to look at how much the perks from Verizon are saving vs switching to something like Straight Talk, which uses all the towers, so there's coverage, but is way cheaper. It might be through Walmart. It's $45 a month for their silver plan, which looks like plenty to me. For two lines, $75. I intend to measure the benefits of the perks we are using vs the monthly savings of a cheaper cell provider that doesn't offer perks. It's on my to-do list. I think I can save us a pile here when I can find a day to devote to this job.
Finances Aside...
We are living through historic times of dramatic change in our nation and in our world. We are at a crucial crossroads as a species, I think. If we continue to destroy the systems that produce our water and our air, then we are on track cause our own extinction. And the changes that will prevent it need to happen NOW.
Anyone who is paying attention to science and currenct events with a discerning mind that isn't easily baffled by buffonery, knows this is true on some level, and that is a incredibly stressful.
So in addition to doing financial acrobatics to try to stay afloat, we need to take extra special care of ourselves right now. The physical effects of stress are a real as those caused by the flu. Stress hurts our bodies.
When we are stressed our bodies produce chemicals designed to help us either fight or run for our lives. Our hearts pump harder and faster and our BP rises when we watch the news. Measure for yourself! Other side effects of stress are stomach and intestinal issues, and a buildup of inflammation, which leads to countless disesases including many cancers.
Sometimes aren't consciously aware of the stress that's feeding into our minds and bodies. We're so busy, we're kind of oblivious to what how external input is affecting our physical apparatus. But it's happening, whether we know it or not.
Stress is a hidden killer!
How to Fix the Hidden Killer
There are multiple ways to help you alleviate stress.
Exercise is one of the most important. If I don't exercise for a week, my blood pressure goes up. If I exercise every day, it drops down to the beautiful levels of my youth. It's a fact.
I get on the treadmill and walk for an hour most days of the week. I keep a good clip, but I'm also writing while I'm walking (flat treadmill under the stand-up desk.)
Meditation is a major part of this too. The combination of daily exercise with a daily meditation program is going to add years to our lives.
Meditation is simple. Just sit comfortably with the phones off. Set a timer for 15 minutes, and try to focus on counting your breaths. When thoughts come, and they always do, notice them and then let go and return to counting your breaths. I like to do 3 beats in, 5 beats out, and I usually also have a sound to focus on as well, to further distract my Chatty Cathy brain--in summer a waterfall or stream, when it's cold, a white noiseapp. I like crickets.
Diet is another key. Eliminate caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol. Eat lots and lots of veggies, drink water and decaf or tea, not high-test or fruit juice or soda.
Exposure is the final piece. We must limit how much news we consume. If you pay attention you will notice, as I have, that I'm flipping between different groups of talkign heads, who are usually all saying the same thing.
They latch onto the big story of the day, and tell it over and over again all day long. They have to fill the space with content, I get that. But we don't have to consume all of it. It's not a hot-dog eating contest, nor is it 50 First Dates. We can hear it once, get the info, feel informed, and then move on.
The final and most enjoyable way to ease yourself during these stressful times however is my final thought for today.
Read!
Escape the bullshit with books. I don't care if they are paperbacks, or hard covers, or ebooks, or audiobooks, they are the best medicine for us right now. Especially romance and women's fiction.
Here's why, (and I'll be doing a more throrough discussion of this soon right here.)
Romance the genre is the only industry in the USA that has been created by women (British women, in fact, before it came to our shores,) written by women, edited by women, agented by women, bought by women, read by women, telling stories about women.
It's the only one.
The stories are empowering to women like us. They are tales of women just like us, women we can identify with, women we root for.
Master storytellers pit these female characters against insurmountable odds, placeing obstacle after another in their heroines' paths.
One of those obstacles is likely to be a man. He is on the wrong side of whatever issues are happening in the book. He's stubborn but he's wrong.
He is usually wealthier and more powerful than our heroine (on the outside, at least) and that's because men are wealtheir and more powerful than women (on the outside.)
But somehow, this obstinate problem male is pledging his fealty to our heroine by the end of the story. He has seen the error of his old way of being. She has enlightened him with the powers of all women. We see things, we know things, we understand things, we have intuition, we can heal, we give life and sustain it.
So now we've traveled this path where our female had her strenghts and our male has his, But by the time the book ends, the heroine has both. He's fallen for her, he's hers to command, really. And we have all our own powers and all his as well.
I do not get why some feminists have a problem with this genre. I suspect they haven't read it and do not understand it.
But we do! We celebrate with our heroine every time she scores a point, tackles another problem, wins another battle. We ride beside her as she fights her way through the pages. Her inevitable triumph makes us stand up and cheer at the end or shed some tears as we share in her joy.
The romance genre is pure balm and pure empowerment for its readers. I am so glad and very proud that writing stories where the women always win is my life's calling.
Love you, sisters. See you next week!
Got Ghosts?
Jack used to be a shrink. Now he's a phony medium making a decent living while doling out sound psychiatric advice. The only thorn in his side is exposé loving journalist Kiley.
Kiley has exposed every phony medium and ghost-whisperer in her charming northeastern town. All but one, that is. Jack. Oh, she's tried to trip him up, but he always catches on.
She has never bleieved in ghosts Which makes things awkward AF when one shows up in her house––the Victorian monstrosity she bought with her inheritance and her savings and her sofa change.
The ghost is real. Kiley's world view is shattered. So who's she gonna call?
Jack thinks it's another trick. But only at first. When it turns out the ghost is real, he's in a dilemma. If he tells he's a fake, his business goes down the tubes.
But what's going to happen if he fakes it?
A RITA AWARD-WINNING SERIES
By a New York Times & USA Today Bestselling Novelist
LIKE * SHARE * SUBSCRIBE
Comments