Welcome to Saving Money with Andrew!
Happy New Year! I hoped to bring you new money-saving content this week, but I contracted COVID several days ago and am only now starting to feel some improvement.
Many in the media are calling Omicron the “mild” variant, but “mild” can be very unpleasant. Having had three shots, I expected Omicron wouldn’t be too bad. But, it has been the most intense cold I’ve ever had, combining uncomfortable congestion with chills, fever and fatigue. I can only imagine it would have been much worse without my third shot, which I’m thankful to have received. It’s not too late to get a booster in most of the US.
One tip you have probably heard many times before—buy a pulse oximeter! When you are feeling really crappy it is very comforting to be able to check if your blood oxygen level is dangerously low (one of the telltale signs of severe COVID). They are widely available from just about anywhere for immediate delivery, just choose one with good reviews (I use one of the Zacurate models, available from Amazon). It was comforting during the worst of my symptoms to be able to confirm that my oxygen levels were normal.
One more week of quarantine with my family (all of whom were sick as well) awaits, and then we will hopefully return to “normal”, including regular issues of SMwA.
And now…Andrew’s pick(s) of the week:
China’s Reform Generation Adapts to Life in the Middle Class—a great read about China’s economic transformation. From the article:
I realized that even former students who taught in small cities were starting to become prosperous. In 2014, I sent a long questionnaire to about eighty of the people I had taught. Thirty responded, and of those twenty-eight owned both an apartment and a car, and their median household income was nearly eighteen thousand dollars. This year, when I asked the question again, the median income was more than thirty-five thousand dollars. Back in the late nineteen-nineties, they had usually started out with an annual salary of around five hundred dollars.
Also, the excellent All Creatures Great & Small returns for Season 2 on Sunday 1/9 at 9pm. It’s a well-done, relaxing adaptation of James Herriot’s series of short stories about the adventures of a small-town veterinarian in the English countryside. Catch up on Season 1 on Amazon.
Finally, I’ve enjoyed watching videos by The Hindley Street Country Club, Australia’s best cover band.
I hope this has been helpful. If you liked it, please share it on social media! Also, please send me your feedback, requests, and success stories.
Feel better!
Get well soon!