Beginning in January 2022, "Cheat Codes for the Apocalypse Levels 1-3 for Beginners" and its matching workbook will be available exclusively through Amazon, and will be available for free in Kindle Unlimited (KU).
With the plethora of dystopian novels in KU, I think it will have a great chance of finding its readers there.
If you read on other platforms or devices, I suggest getting a Kindle Reader app. It may go wide again, but the timing is up in the air.
Don't forget that you can always order a print copy of Cheat Codes and the print workbook too.
I still send old-fashioned Christmas cards. Why? Because they are fun to receive, pretty to display, and they are a wonderful break from all the bills that arrive in December.
They also give me a chance to go through my address book and bring it up-to-date, recording new addresses of friends and family who have moved, updating cell phone numbers, and adding new kids to the listings.
This year, I finally bit the bullet and threw out all my old address books. I went through each and every one, bringing over the addresses of people I'm still in touch with, and people I wanted to get back in touch with. The newest book is on the left. The further I moved to the right, the more nostalgic I got. There were a lot of names to be scratched out: elderly relatives who have since passed away, friends of my parents and parents of my friends who are also gone now. Then there were the people who have moved a dozen times over the years, so I had to ensure I had the most recent addresses for them. The pink book on the end is from my high school and university days. I found my old college roommates' information (now decades out of date). I had friends that had migrated from the pink book to the red one that I could not for the life of me remember, but they'd obviously made the cut at some point. It was nice to remember (when I could) but those old names and addresses are ancient history now.
I also took a minute to update my new address book by writing down the phone numbers and email addresses stored in my contacts list on my phone. I don't have them all, but I have enough that I can contact a few people, and then branch out with the information they give me if I ever lose my phone. I should probably backup my contacts list to my computer before the end of the year too.
Take a minute to back up - or print out - your own contacts list from your phone. Cards are cheap ($2 a box at a dollar store). Postage costs a little more. But next year, you might want to consider stepping back in time to when Christmas cards were a thing. Sometimes the old ways have more value that you'd think.
I won't keep you in suspense.
Customer Retention Department.
Those are the words that dropped my internet bill by $60 per month. $720 per year.
I was on a two-year plan with my internet provider getting great rates, and when I hit two years and a day, my rates skyrocketed, so I started doing research.
Their primary local competition had sent out a flyer advertising that new clients could get a bundle of cable and internet and home phone for less than what I was paying for internet alone.
I could have just called the new place and cancelled my old plans. But thanks to a friend's advice, armed with the competition's flyer, and my current providers rates for new customers (and the deal they were offering their own new clients) I called customer service and asked to speak to someone in the Customer Retention Department.
Okay, that's the one catch. You have to call and speak to a human. For $50 a month or more, take a breath and dial.
I told them that I was an existing customer and that my last bill had increased substantially. They gave me the standard "your plan expired".
Then I pounced. I told them the rates the other company was offering (and they know this, it wasn't a surprise, but you have to have accurate information) and said while I was happy with my current service, I would be stupid to stay at the higher rate. After putting me on hold, I was unsurprised when the customer service rep came back and said they could match the competition's rates. I said thank you.
Bang, $60 back in my pocket! Because it wasn't a full cycle, it took a couple bills to get the low rate consistently, but I knew it was coming. I'd also taken note of the date and time I made my call, and what my new rate was before and after taxes.
Don't be afraid to try this. They LITERALLY have a department set up for this. They want to keep you as a client, but they aren't going to advertise that they will match competitors and lower your bills if you don't complain.
And now you know.
Just add water. It's simple enough. Even when water is scarce, these options are simple to make if you have access to clean water and a few other ingredients. They are high calorie and will last for months in your pantry. Even more, you can use them and replenish them often because, while they aren't overly nutritious, they are tasty.
5. Powdered iced tea. Loaded with sugar and a flavour that somewhat resembles tea, it is a nice break from drinking straight water. It can be made by the cup or by the pitcher. (If you're looking at drink crystals, don't bypass the Tang. If it was good enough for astronauts, it's good enough for you.)
4. Instant pudding mix. With some powdered milk and water, you can whip up a dessert in no time. There are also a ton of cake recipes on the net that use pudding mix in cakes to make them moist and add extra flavour.
3. Cake mix. With eggs, oil, and water, you can have a birthday cake with minimal effort. You can also find recipes to convert cake mix into cookie batter. When funds are tight and stops at the bakery are out of the question, this do-it-yourself option can be cheap and tasty.
2. Hot chocolate mix. I always have an open tin in my cupboard beside the tea and coffee. Hot chocolate (with or without marshmallows) gives you a break from coffee and tea and has a high caloric content to give you an energy boost. Plus, chocolate makes everything better.
1. Cup-a-soups. Chicken noodle and onion are standbys in my house. Chicken noodle for days when you have a cold but you need to eat something. Onion for flavouring in dips and gravies, and to sprinkle on roasts.
All of these have long shelf lives and aren't very expensive. They also don't take up a lot of shelf space. They need minimal preparation and are fast to make, all good things when time is also at a premium.
If you were holding off on buying a copy of CHEAT CODES FOR THE APOCALYPSE, now is the time to buy it on Kobo! Until November 21st, it is part of Kobo's November 30% Off Sale. With Black Friday sales quickly approaching, it would be great to have a list of supplies you need in case of a zombie apocalypse (or a winter power failure.)
Kobo Link - enter the code 30NOV at checkout. (It's free if you are a Kobo Plus member.)
The accompanying workbook is also 30% off with the 30NOV code at checkout. (It's also free to Kobo Plus members.)
We canned six pints of salsa last weekend. Gloves were used thanks to this timely reminded from the *first* time we made this recipe and didn't protect ourselves from the hot peppers. I can still feel the burn!
My mom used to can when I was a kid. Jams and pickles, mostly. I think my "help" consisted of washing and hulling strawberries until I got bored and went out to play. Then I grew up, left home, and didn't think about homemade preserves for the next twenty years.
I got back into canning when I bought a house with an apple tree in the backyard. I bought a box of jars and asked myself "How hard could it be to make apple jelly?"
Harder than it looked, it turns out. Jelly is not something to start with.
The next year I went strawberry picking. Coincidentally, that was the year that a friend's grandma passed away, and the friend gifted me all of her old canning jars and supplies, which saved me a ton of money.
If you're going to start canning, begin with strawberry jam. It's fast, it has about 5 ingredients (if you go by the recipe on the Certo pack), and it's next to impossible to mess up. Once you buy the jam jars, you can even make it in pots that you already own.
We've advanced in the last five years. We stared with jams and moved on to dill pickles and pickled beets. Then we graduated to sweet pickles and salsa (a lot more work.) This year we tried a pressure canner for the first time. We canned green beans. We opened a jar to try them and... they smell and taste like green beans from a can, so that worked. Now we have to figure out how to make them more flavourful. But they were the most basic thing we could try.
Our canning equipment gets a real workout in the summer, but if you want to try it, you can start over the winter. You might find some used equipment for cheap on online websites, and you can use frozen fruit since fresh won't be in season. If the "water bath" part sounds intimidating for your first time, you can even start with a freezer jam and work up to it.
Give it a try. Expand your skill set. And enjoy your toast and/or ice cream topping.
When my dad moved out of his house and into an apartment a few years ago, we ended up with a lot of stuff, including most of his old tools and his "just in case" lumber stash. It's been sitting around downstairs for ages, but this weekend we decided to get our wood together and get something done with it.
We organized all the scrap lumber we had. Between my dad's stash, and the stuff we had left over after taking down an old wood fence, and the bits and pieces you acquire over the years, we had stuff in the workshop, under the stairs, in the shed, in the wood pile, and a few odd pieces in the rec room downstairs. We pulled out all of the 2x4s, including all the leftover pieces, and I got to work.
I have wanted an outdoor Jenga set forever. Today was the day! I measured the wide of three 2x4s, and got a measurement of 10 3/16ths, or 256 mm. And away I went. I cut them, and my partner in gaming sanded the rough edges and took off the worst of the grime. Unfortunately, we had to quit before we were finished because our neighbours were having a barbecue, and they are good folks so we didn't want to be jerks with our power tools. We will try to finish the cutting and the sanding next weekend. Then we'll be staining and painting the pieces. I'm 99% sure I have some old deck stain downstairs. And we may go and pick up some small cans of different coloured stain on the cheap just to add some colour to them.
Even though we didn't finish cutting, we still got a good start on our 3-in-1 project. We gathered and organized the wood, got started on the Jenga pieces, and all the small leftover scraps were thrown into a bin for future burning, so we also have a fun bonfire in our future.
I'll post the finished set once it's done.
Herb gardens are generally easy to establish, with the benefit of several plants being perennial (coming back year after year without replanting.) I foolishly dug out a patch of garden thyme when I moved into this house before I realized what it was; now I'm trying to get a new patch established. My neighbour had managed to get a perennial oregano plant to take root, and that is my next goal. For now, I have chives. I also planted my first dill patch this year. We'll have to see how that goes.
Fresh herbs are a delight to add to any dish. But if you are fortunate enough to have a good crop, don't let them go to waste. Herbs are simple to dry, and can be stored in any airtight container.
You can use a dehydrator. That is what they're made for. I prefer a quicker method.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Wash your herbs thoroughly and dry with a clean dish towel. Clip any large leaves off the stem, or else they take a very long time to dry. Set your oven to 215F (about 101 C). Insert the tray and let them bake for about 20 minutes. At that point, check for dryness. The leaves should snap and crumble. The above photo shows parsley crowded on to the sheet. I should have done it in two batches, as it took almost twice as long as normal to dry. If the leaves are throughly dried, close the oven door and leave them inside till they cool.
Remove the rosemary and thyme leaves from their stems and store in airtight containers. (The same goes for oregano and mint leaves.)
We use our dried herbs all year long. Next year, I'm going to try to grow lavender (again, because I killed the plant I bought before I even got it in the ground this year) so I can mix my own Herbes de Provence.
Have you noticed that Safeway Canada is offering different compensation these days? They're still doing AirMile bonuses, but now they are offer gift cards or cash back as an alternative.
There's a reason for that.
In Canada at least, Safeway and AirMiles are parting ways. This is according to some Safeway employees I've spoken too. They haven't offered a timeline yet, but skuttlebutt says October 2022 is the end of the road. Since I use Safeway as a major sponsor, this is going to affect my point collecting strategies (and yes, I have point collecting strategies.) I can see the reasoning; air travel is getting freaking expensive, and it's not taking as long to earn the same amount of AirMiles. Air travel is also getting complicated between airline problems and airport issues, so it's hard to spend them as tickets. It's good business for them to stop doing business.
If you still want to use your AirMiles for travel or if you use them to shop on the AirMiles website, I think you'll be fine. If you didn't know you could cash in your AirMiles for goods and services, check out the options. I've got some good stuff from them, like a vacuum food sealer and a waffle/panini maker.
But if you want to really make them work for you, you might want to start now.
You can choose to collect AirMiles in two forms - Cash or Dream Rewards. If you aren't going to use them otherwise, consider moving them to Cash now. Why?
According to AirMiles.ca, you can convert up to 7125 AirMiles into $750 Cash towards in-store purchases per day. There may be limits and exclusions, so check before you shop. You have two options:
1. Cash it in and get "free" groceries now.
or
2. Cash them in now to get your "free" groceries. And then use the cash you were going to spend on groceries to purchase an equivalent amount in Safeway gift cards in a separate, second transaction while you are at the till. Don't give yourself time to chip away at the unspent money. You aren't spending any more of your budget than you already intended to, but you are giving yourself a gift-card cushion to use in the future. I believe that you can't use AirMile Cash Miles to buy gift cards, which is why you have to do it in two steps.
You can also do a combination of the two to help ease any money-crunches you are currently experiencing.
AirMiles have always been free to earn. But you don't want to get stuck with a bunch of points you can't use. You might as well spend them while there is still good stuff to get. Do your research, play it smart, and take advantage while you can.