A recent blog post over on Consumer Reports is full of ranty goodness against supermarket self-checkout machines. The author expresses frustration because he has to do extra work at the store and can never get the machine to work right. He then makes the doomsday prediction that these machines will replace all human cashiers because they cut down on the need for employees. And a lot of his commenters share in his hatred of self-checkout and inability to actually use the machines.

I have to say, reading the post made me think of my dad...and the people at my Key Foods in NY. My dad hates self-checkout because, back in his high school days, he used to work at a local grocery store as a bag boy and cashier. So he hates that the machines are taking jobs from high school students like he was. And at my local grocery store in the city, they installed about 6 machines just before I moved in. It was such a pain to try to stop in the store one the way home after work. Most of my neighborhood was made up of senior citizens, and they just couldn't figure out the machines. What should have been a quick trip in for some milk and eggs would take 45 minutes because lines would build up.   More Here...

A posting on ConsumerCommentary.com made me consider how much laundry detergent I was using on my clothes. Sure enough, when I put my clothes in the washer with no soap at all, there were suds, meaning there was still soap in them from the last however many washes. Thinking about how much soap I had been wasting, I realized this could save a lot of money in the end.

This posting was actually a response to an article in the New York Times that says using too much soap in your washing machine and dishwasher can cause serious damage to the machines. Apparently, most people use 10-15 times more soap than is necessary. The reason for this is More Here...

Everywhere you turn these days, you're likely being encouraged to send back your census form.  These forms will be appearing in mailboxes this week. And because scam artists take advantage of being topical, they may be contacting you this week as well.

Because the Census is one of those things everyone is exposed to, but not many people really know much about, it makes it prime fodder for crooks who will be emailing and calling folks pretending to be from the government.

CNNMoney has an article about the possible  scams and has some things to keep in mind to keep you safe:

• The census questionnaire only has 10 questions.
• There are NO questions asking for your bank account, credit card number or social security number.
• The census will NEVER contact you via email. So don't open attachments or click links in emails that are supposedly from the census- these are fake emails.
• A census worker will come to your home if you don't return the form in a month but they will have the following:  
More Here...

As you may have read in my previous post, I've had a few issues with bedbugs and have been trying some natural remedies to get rid of them, which seem to be working, by the way. But there is one new, very natural, remedy to detect them that will save you from the most common way of detecting them, which involves waking up with itchy, red bites all over your body. Instead, before renting or buying, have a dog sniff the premises.

An article in the New York Times outlines how bedbug-detecting canines can save you a lot of pain and aggravation.

When I first read that a pest control company in my area offers dog services for bed bugs, I thought it meant that they would treat your dogs for bedbugs like you would treat them for fleas. Then, reading further, I discovered that dogs are actually used to sniff out bedbugs. This new process, featured in the Times article, has been researched by entomologists at (my alma mater) the University of Florida.
 
The article also provides some interesting background information which made me feel a little better about my situation. According to New York's Department of Housing Preservation and Development, bedbug complaints and violations have increased at an unbelievable rate in the last six years, from 537 bedbug complaints in 2003 and 82 violations (certified infestations) to nearly 11,000 complaints last year with 4,084 violations cited (nearly double that of the previous year).

So before renting an apartment or buying a house, it would be wise to have some sort of inspection done. According to the University of Florida researchers, the dogs can detect a single live bug or egg with 96 percent accuracy, much more accurate than a human inspection and in much less time. If you're interested, a couple of companies that offer canine services in the New York area are MandM Pest Control and Bed Bug Locators.

What do you think about this? Would you trust a dog to check for bedbugs? Enough to pay for this service?

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Student loan debt is one of those things that just hangs over your head. And for more and more students these days, they are an unavoidable burden if they'd like to attend college. I managed to avoid racking up too much debt during undergrad, but the idea of paying back my law school loans makes me a little sick to my stomach.

Fortunately, there are alternative  ways to escape student loan debt that doesn't require paying it back.  I knew about a handful of ways before, but a recent post on Moneyning has a round-up of  10 ways to eliminate student debt without paying them and there are many alternatives on the list that were new to me.

Some of programs they highlight are:  More Here...