Money Blue Book

I have a little secret to share. Well it’s not really a secret so much as it’s a phobia that I’ve held since I was a little kid. Here’s the  secret – I am deathly afraid of household insects, but in particular – cockroaches. There, I’ve said it – the cat’s out of the bag – go ahead and laugh, but it’s not funny (maybe just a little bit). Funny or not, it’s something that makes my heart beat fast, makes my pupils dilate like saucers, and summons forth caveman like instincts to grab the nearest bunny slipper or rolled up U.S. News and World Report magazine for some self-preservation-inspired bug pounding.

The mere sight of the creepy crawly legs and wiggling antennas of the common household cockroach jetting out from dark corners and scampering across bathroom counters and kitchen floors utterly freaks me out. While I don’t instantly jump onto chairs, call my mommy, or scream at the top of my lungs like a little girl, I do become visibly startled and immediately shift into fight mode whenever I encounter a lost spider or resident evil roach in my apartment. I’m sure you PETA fanatics out there may be turned off by my disdain and opposition to the plight of roaches and other household vermin, but I don’t care. Roaches and insects have no place in my home and I’ll do whatever it takes to eradicate the pests. I’ve had too many unfortunate experiences and bad memories of living with roaches during my student years.

Fortunately, I’m currently at a place and time in my life where my financial means now permit me to live in a nicer home far away from roach, rat, and vermin infestation that used to plague the ghetto row houses and low cost apartment rentals where I used to live as a college and graduate student. It’s been a while since I’ve had to deal with the nuisance of roaches or had to arm myself with high caliber anti-roach weaponry to fight off the onslaught of the mighty cockroach horde. But sometimes, scenes on TV and real life will remind me of how things used to be. Right now there’s a really fascinating but disgusting show on the Discovery Channel called the Verminators that I absolutely love to watch. The reality TV show follows a crack team of household pest exterminators as they go from problem home to another, wiping out severe rat, roach, ant, maggot, spider, and even pigeon infestations. The reason I love the show is the gleeful delight and absolute warlike approach the personalities on the show exhibit towards their determination to kill off all resident bugs that infest the homes of their desperate clients. The exterminator pros show no mercy and go full out with their armament of sprays, powders, and oxygen masks to combat the invaders. One time they even brought out an actual gun to take out a mega-rat that was hiding in someone’s attic. The show, while visually horrendous, brings me back to my graduate school days when I faced a massive roach infestation of my own.

My Failed Battle Against The Impressive Roach Army That Resulted In Eventual Retreat and Surrender

Until recently, I’ve always had a roach problem wherever I lived. Even though I consider myself relatively clean when it comes keeping my home tidy, roaches always seemed to invade my home. Probably the biggest reason for that was the fact that much of my early life was spent as a financially frugal student. As I was primarily supported by my overseas-living parents during my early years, I made a conscientious decision to live in apartments and neighborhoods that were affordable, to help lessen the financial burden on my parents who had several tuitions and living expenses to pay for. But as a result of my cost saving measures, every place I’ve lived at was infested with vermin of all types – from rats to roaches. As indicated above, it wasn’t until my recent later years in my late 20’s that I’ve been able to move on up the financial ladder to higher class, vermin-free housing.

Probably the absolute worst out-of-control infestation experience occurred during my post law school years when I was still struggling to settle down with my fledgling law career and build a sustainable living. To keep expenses low and save money, I decided to move into a quiet garden apartment community in a suburb of Maryland. The commute was great, proximity to grocery stores was excellent, and the price seemed too good to be true – it was. Months into my lease, the nightmare began. While I maintained a clean apartment, washing my dishes after every meal and storing away all food products into air tight containers, I kept noticing the appearance of roaches. At first it was just one or two encounters a week. I squished the roaches with my shoe and flushed them down the toilet each time and hoped they would go away, but they never did. They simply started appearing in greater and greater numbers. It got to the point where everytime I turned on my bathroom light, I would see two or three small roaches hanging around the ceiling area or visibly trying to scurry into a wall corner. Each time I got chills and sweated profusely at the sight of the nightmarish invaders. Eventually, their presence spread from the bathroom and into the kitchen, and eventually into the living room. In time I started seeing them during the day as well, a warning sign that I had a serious problem. Roaches are biologically night animals. If you see one during the day, it likely indicates that you have a serious infestation as overcrowding under cabinets and refrigerators probably has forced them out into the open. For each single roach you see in the open, it probably represents hundreds more hiding behind your drywall or between your floorboards.

At the time I was busy with work so I had little time to deal with my apartment management and forcefully compel them to eliminate the pests. But in response to a few calls and complaints, my apartment complex hired an exterminator, but the roach baits they set forth were ineffective. Eventually I simply went full out and took matters into my own hands. I headed to Home Depot to arm myself with all that consumer bug fighting technology had to offer. I purchased every single roach bait, egg stopper, roach gels, boric acid powder, and roach spray brand I could find – everything from MaxForce to Raid. I probably purchased more roach motel traps and roach gel bait devices than I needed, but I was determined to eliminate their presence from my home forever. All in all, I probably had more than 60 individual roach bait traps for a small apartment that was only about 700 square feet in all. I lined all corners and walls with multiple roach baits, and inserted gel bait poisons into all cabinet cracks and wall corners. I also dusted hard to reach areas with a layer of boric acid, a white powder that is not grossly toxic to humans or most pets like cats, dogs, and birds, but is supposedly deadly towards insects as it eats away their hard shell skin thereby dehydrating them to death. However, while I started seeing piles of upside down roaches everywhere, indications that my baits were working, the onslaught kept coming. Everyday I would see dead roaches everywhere, but new live ones seemed to keep taking their places, gnawing on the dead roach carcasses for nourishment.

Even my poor pet parrot was not immune to the onslaught. Even though he was never physically harmed, his cage was also slowly invaded by the swarming roaches. To protect my pet parrot to the best of my ability, I made sure to keep his cage clean at all times and placed his cage on a plastic lawn furniture table in my living room. I lined the bottom of the plastic table with a thick coat of boric acid powder to ensure that the only way that roaches could invade the cage was by walking through the white powder of insect death. However, day in and day out, I would look at my parrot’s bedding liner to find that the roaches had determinedly strolled through the boric acid powder and made their way into the bottom liner of his cage to seek out food products. When I pulled out the cage’s poop tray to clean it one time, I freaked out when more than 15 roaches scurried out from the plate and began crawling the walls, heading to the ceiling to escape like some horror movie. The nightmarish sight sent deathly chills down my back, made me sweat in horror, and even caused me to bleat out a few uncontrollable expletives. Although upon inspection, the bird cage invading roaches were covered with boric acid powder from head to toe, the resilient suckers simply refused to die. While most online commentators generally cheer the beneficial roach killing abilities of boric acid powder, I must point out that the effects are often slow and unpredictable.

Although I was incredibly busy with my job at the time, I eventually found time to storm into my apartment complex manager’s office to demand that they hire a competent exterminator to fix this emergency situation. Eventually the management relented and hired a more expensive crew to come in and flush the roaches out. The professionals came in with their roach pesticide sprays and laid down lines of defensive deadly roach pesticide trails designed to kill roaches on contact that trample onto them. Then they used a special roach flushing agent to spray into floorboard cracks and underneath appliances to flush out the roach colonies into the open so that they would walk onto the pesticide laden floors. It worked for a while – as there was a huge spike in dead roach bodies as the flushed out roach families were annihilated. But even with professional baits laid out to control the outbreak, the efforts were ultimately futile. The roaches continued to crawl around my dishes, hide in my television set, relax in my stove, and even find their way into my fridge of all places. The final straw was when friends came over to visit me and one of them sat down on my sofa only to stand up moments later with a squished roach on her butt.

Eventually, I shifted into lawyer mode and sent a very threatening legal letter to my landlord demanding that I be fully released from my apartment lease obligations, citing the management’s violation and breach of our contract to keep the premises a safe and reasonably livable place. There was simply nothing else I could do. After talking with the exterminator, I learned that I was fighting a losing cause. Because my discount apartment complex was so old and populated by lower income families that had a habit of illegally stuffing multiple families into one apartment meant for only one, sanitation and cleanliness were major problems. Even though I kept my own apartment clean, massive roach infestations in the adjacent apartments were causing them to spill over into my unit. At the end, I was released from my lease and left my ghetto apartment in a hurry. Ultimately, I had to pay substantially more in monthly rent to live at a new, clean, and higher class apartment complex free of roaches and vermin. My rent soared from $800 a month at my old place to more than $1475 for the new place. While it’s a lot more money, I don’t regret a single thing about my decision to pay more in rent. Freedom from roach infestations is definitely worth the heavier financial price. Saving money is great, but having that extra few hundred in my account isn’t worth the sheer torment of living with roaches invading your life completely and taking over your sanity.

Roach Infestations Are Bad For Your Health and Must Be Eliminated Quickly (Easier Said Than Done)

So other than the scare factor, why are cockroaches and the infestation that they bring to our homes so bad for you and I? First of all, it should be noted that not all insects are inherently bad. Some bugs like spiders and millipedes actually serve useful ecological purposes. Without their presence, our human existence would be inundated with out of control growth populations of pesky critters of all sorts. Most of these utilitarian insects help to control general insect population by building webs to trap, eat, and kill off other insects, helping to keep a lid on spiraling population growth. While I’m generally afraid of insects and roaches in particular, there are bugs that I have friendly, harmonious relationships with. When I see insects like lady bugs or even cicadas, I don’t mind picking them up with my bare fingers to inspect them. I see them as friendly insects that help the environment, so I’m not automatically afraid of them. Roaches of all breeds on the other hand are a different story – they are simply vile. While cockroaches live all around the world and come in all shapes and sizes, the breeds I’m most adverse to are the classic American and German cockroach. These two breeds are the most common roach pests found in American homes.

Roaches are the ultimate scavengers and harbingers of disease, germs, and insect fecal wastes. They have no qualms about walking through through poo or other disgusting solids and liquids. Their bodies frequently carry around all sorts of germs and potential infection spreading agents. One huge problem that they cause for inhabitants of homes that they infect is the creation of roach dust that they build up and leave behind. Roach dust is made up of decayed roach body parts and droppings that become airborne, infecting our breathing and embedding itself onto our hairs, clothes, and furniture. Roach dust is a powerful asthmatic agent that has the potential to trigger significant asthma attacks in sensitive people.

Cockroaches will consume almost anything organic and even somethings otherwise inorganic. They’ll chew threw paper, cloth, oils, bodily wastes, and any type of food or liquid product you leave behind. These little evil cannibals will even snack on the dead bodies of their fellow roach comrades they come across. Nothing is off limits when it comes to their diets. In their never ending pursuit for food, roaches often follow the footsteps of humans into homes and stay close to sources of water and food – which is why they are often found in bathrooms, kitchens, and places where food is plentiful (like near your dog or cat’s food bowl).

The one singular thing that makes them so terrible and deserving of a spot in the Bible as an Old Testament plague is the fact they breed insanely fast and are nearly impossible to get rid of. Female roaches can lay up to 40 eggs at a time, laying up to a 400 evil babies in a lifetime. Their lifespan is a year long and adult roaches can go for a month without food, and even up to an hour without oxygen. They can live off of virtually anything. Even the organic glue compound found on the back of stamps or the nourishment of your dead skin flakes can sustain them for weeks.

Cockroaches are also very difficult to kill. Not only do they run like Olympic track stars, their bodies are extremely well adapted to fend off damage. Because their breathing system is made up of tubes on their bodies called trachea, they can continue to live even after their heads or limbs are chopped off – talk about walking zombies. Also, have you tried to chase down a roach with your shoe before? It’s nearly impossible. It’s like playing whack a mole on steroids as they dart around so fast, it’s scary. They are able to quickly scurry into wall corners and flatten their bodies to avoid your newspaper punishment. They are also primarily nocturnal, preferring to come out at night. When they do, they are very stealthy and experts at staying hidden, invading your cabinets, sinks, toothbrushes, and your food stocks right under your nose. At the mere presence of light, they often smartly run for cover, unlike their more stupid cousin bugs that often sit there, succumbing to flattening attacks by humans.

How Do I Get Rid Of A Mild Cockroach Infestation, and Kill Roaches Using Roach Bait and Roach Traps?

The following words of advice are only suitable for those of you who have mild roach outbreaks in your home. If you only see a lone roach wandering around your home once every year, you probably don’t have an infestation as it probably piggybacked into your home via a plastic grocery bag or something like that. However, if you are seeing them every few days, particular during the daytime when they are supposed to be in hiding, you may have a serious problem. If professional treatment and baiting are powerless, your only recourse may be to move out of your home completely like I did and not look back (if that option is available to you). Some things in life are lost causes. In serious infestations, the roaches probably have spread throughout all apartment buildings or all parts of your house. They’ve probably inhabited your base walls and have set up massive colonies of roach eggs and roach nurseries that are nearly impossible to eliminate completely. Remember, a single female roach once impregnated can continue to lay eggs throughout her entire life, spawning hundreds of hatchlings from just a single individual.

If the roach outbreak is not so dire where moving out is demanded, hiring a professional exterminator might due the trick. Professional exterminators have legal access to much more powerful roach flushing agents and pesticides to kill those little critters. For those who have children and pets in the home and are leery about using toxic pesticides, professional exterminators also have access to potent roach baits and gels that are less toxic for humans and pets. They work by slowly poisoning roaches. Laced with attractive smells to entice a roach, the victim eats the bait and ingests the delayed action poison that will ultimately kill it. When it travels back into the wall boards, it brings some of the poisoned food with it to share with others. In time, roach baits can kill off entire roach populations if the problem has not completely spiraled out of control.

In my opinion, cockroach bombs and roach foggers should be avoided. Not only are they extremely toxic to humans and pets, but their limitations are very well documented and observed. The irritants do drive away roaches temporarily, but they are not effective in killing the populations completely. The roaches will simply run for cover and hide until the toxic plumes have faded. As soon as you move back into your home after the roach bomb has done its work, they will come back out to play. Also, don’t waste your money on those pointless electronic pest control repellent scams that you see on TV all the time. Supposedly, simply by plugging the electronic pest control repellent device into your electrical outlet and activating it, the system emits an ultra high frequency wave that irritates and drives away pests like roaches and rodents. These devices are supposed to be safe for both humans and pets. However, they’re pure junk and scams in my opinion. Both rats and roaches are extremely durable and hardy animals, conditioned to survive even nuclear devastations if it ever came down to it, so neither of them is likely going to be stopped by some pointless frequency wave. To get rid of them, you’re going to have to resort to good old fashioned roach food deprivation and chemical warfare. Ditch the expensive electronic pest control repellent devices and don’t waste your money.

For those of you with mild roach infestations, here are some home remedies and homemade solutions to help you kill them, exterminate their colonies, and keep your home free of pesky cockroaches. Much of your efforts will be spent targeting notorious problem areas like the kitchen and bathroom.

Household Solutions To Get Rid Of A Mild To Manageable Roach Problem:

1) Eliminate the Roaches’ Source Of Food, Water, Shelter, and Entry – Unless you live in a shared apartment complex that allows roaches to travel freely from one unit until into another, keeping your home clean is the most effective way to get rid of roaches. Cockroaches invade our homes usually to seek out food and water. Wash your dishes immediately after every meal and wipe down kitchen counters frequently, as roaches like to snack on greases and food oils. Vacuum your carpet and wipe down your hardwood floors and tiles as often as you can to ensure no food or liquid particles remain to feed the roaches. Fix leaky faucets as well as they offer roaches a free tasty source of water to drink from. If you have pets like cats, dogs, or even birds, clean the pet living areas frequently and make sure their food bowls are washed and cleaned after use. Dog food sacks are frequently targets of roaches – always seal them in special airtight containers. Also, make sure there are no open canisters of food or liquids anywhere in your home. Roaches can sniff them out and they will find them. Practice throwing out your trash bags on a daily basis. Trash cans contain all sorts of attractive aromas for roaches. Eliminate this prevalent food source if you can.

Finding out how they are getting into your home is easier said than done. Oftentimes roaches found their way into your home via air vents, front doors, or even cracks outside of your home. Oftentimes, telltale signs like roach droppings – tiny brown pellets of slime, indicate the presence of roaches. Frequently, professional help is needed to help you pinpoint the entry way. Finding out where they are living in your home exactly is also difficult without expert help. But once you locate how they enter your home and where they congregate, a liberal application of roach pesticide spray along the access points will provide long lasting walkways of doom for these roaches.

2) Use Non Toxic Boric Acid Or Diatomaceous Earth - While I’ve personally had limited success with using boric acid or even diatomaceous earth powder to control roach populations, perhaps you’ll have more success than I. Borate powders are generally non toxic to humans, pets, and children although you obviously shouldn’t intentionally ingest them. Despite prolonged exposure, my parrot, my friend’s cat, and myself managed to remain perfectly healthy in the presence of boric dusted rooms. However, these powders are supposedly toxic and deadly against insects. As insects like roaches come into contact with the powder, the powder sticks onto their outer shell, causing gradual roach death. The downside is that boric acid powder kills very slowly and sometimes it may take days before the acid takes effect. But the plus side is that the compound can remain effective for years if the powder remains dry. Boric acid powders also allow you to dust in areas where the roaches are likely to hide and where humans and pets are less likely to come in contact with – such as in the crevices behind your kitchen appliances and spaces underneath your refrigerator.

Boric acid can be purchased at local retail hardware stores and most drug stores. They usually come in a squeeze bottle with a narrow spout that allows easy dusting once cut. Retail boric acid powder is usually white although some brands color the product light blue so you can see the product better. The key is to dust in areas where roaches are likely to walk through. Roach behavior usually dictates that they prefer to walk along edges where their bodies are in constant contact with some type of wall. Thus, remember to dust the boric acid under your stove and refrigerator, along wall edges, around door frames and open spaces inside of cabinets, sinks, and shelves.

Another product that is used by some is a form of illegal insecticide commonly called “Chinese Chalk”, because of their sale in many Chinatown locations. However the sale and purchase of Chinese Chalk is illegal due to the many child related poisonings attributed to the product’s resemblance to common classroom chalk. Supposedly, one can use the chalk to draw lines of kill zones on the ground to poison any roach or ant that walks across it. It probably works the same way as boric acid, but with substantially greater toxicity and health danger to humans. I don’t recommend using it – it’s illegal anyway.

3) Use Roach Traps, Roach Bait, and Roach Gels – Roach baits in all forms contain a combination of poison chemical and attractive food lures to entice roaches to eat them. They are actually quite effective if used in large quantities in strategic indoor locations where it’s dark and moist. Like boric acid powder, they both kill slowly. However, this slow killing power is actually the most effective form of mild roach infestation control because it allows the poison to be ingested and taken by the roach into the roach lair to kill the population at its source.

The baits can come in the form of a little plastic roach bait station (roach motel) or they can come in gel syringe form. The plastic roach baits are easier to set and tend to last longer in duration, but I think they are slightly less effective than roach gel baits. Gel baits are very effective but they tend to dry out quicker, not to mention the gels are messier and harder to clean up. The gels also need to be re-applied every few weeks for maximum effect. Roach gels should be lightly applied in corners, on plumping fixtures, on interior cabinet edge corners, and under appliances where it’s usually dark. Remember not to combine roach bait and roach gels with instant killing pesticide sprays. The objective with baits is not to kill them instantly, but to allow one infected roach to spread the poison love to others. Popular retail roach bait brands include MaxForce, Combat, and Raid. I don’t have any preferences or recommendations because they’re all about the same in terms of effectiveness. Try buying all three and using them all simultaneously if you have the money to do so – their poison chemical compositions differ somewhat.

4) Use Roach Insecticide Sprays – These aerosol powered spray cans contain a lethal dose of bug killing liquids. By spraying the roach insecticide chemicals along hidden baseboard floors and on dark and hidden areas underneath and inside cabinets where roaches frequent, you provide tremendous roach killing power on contact. The insecticide sprays contain a chemical that instantly starts to kill the roaches on contact should one wander across a sprayed area. While it’s great to know that it’s lights out for any roach that crosses its path, the sprays do not provide much residual or long lasting roach control. Only roach baits can target the roach nests and hit the source of the spawning problem. However, back when I had a heavy roach problem, I always kept a few bottles around at the ready. Chasing a fast running roach is much easier with a roach spray. It beats having to swing wildly like a drunkard with a shoe or newspaper.

5) Use Water Jars (Vegas Roach Jars) - Another common household remedy to combat mild roach problems is the use of a so-called Las Vegas roach trap jar. It’s called that because the practice was recently popularized by a Las Vegas news report of its effectiveness in catching roaches. While I’ve never tried it out, the concept sounds rather interesting.  The Vegas  cockroach trap consists of a glass jar filled with coffee grounds (as bait), and a little bit of water that is placed against a wall. It is important that the roach jar trap is placed against a wall because roaches prefer to travel along edges where their bodies can maintain constant contact with a wall. Some people like to place Scotch masking tape on the outside of the jar to give the roach more traction. However, once they fall into the jar, the slippery glass surface prevents them from being able to climb out. Supposedly, cockroaches are attracted to these water jars. This type of homemade anti-roach remedy if effective, is a wonderful alternative to using toxic insecticides and baits. But frankly, I’m not fully convinced the technique actually works.

I’m sure everyone has their own secrets and methods to killing roaches. Feel free to share your ideas.

Cheapskate, Appropriately Frugal, or Brilliantly Simple? You Decide

Well we’ve finally reached the dog days of summer – the hottest stretch of heat sweltering days of July and August. For those of you who live in colder climates, bless your hearts – enjoy the mild temperatures while you can because colder weather will be upon you soon. But for everyone else who lives in a state or region that enjoys four seasons year round with hot and humid summers like I do, it’s time for all of us to get outside and enjoy that nice sunshine warmth.

One of the best ways to get some mild exercise, and enjoy the great outdoors with the family at the same time is to visit an amusement theme park like Six Flags, Busch Gardens, or Disney World. Now you might be thinking to yourself – wait, visiting an amusement isn’t exercise and it sure isn’t the great outdoors. Where is the huffing and puffing, and where are the essential greenery that make up the great outdoors? I guess that’s where you and I differ – I consider the great outdoors to be anywhere that’s not cooped up inside an air conditioned house or apartment on a summer’s day spent watching TV or playing Nintendo Wii. As long as you are out and about, walking around outside, enjoying the sun’s natural Vitamin-D inducing rays, you are immersed in the great outdoors my friend.

In addition, all that walking around, waiting in line, and strolling from roller coaster ride to concession stand is definitely exercise. It’s not exactly running an Olympic marathon, but you’ll likely burn off some needed calories in the process. The last time I went to Six Flags, my poor puppies (my weird slang for feet) ached after walking around all day. I visited the amusement theme park during pre-season so the lines were incredibly short and non existent, prompting me and my travel companion to walk around even faster to ensure we hit every single roller coaster ride and gaming stand by day’s end. It was a fun, but rather tiring and dizzying experience.

You’re Getting Off Track Again – What About The Free Roller Coaster Photos?

Now, anyone who has ever been to one knows that spending a day at the amusement park does not come cheap. In fact, most places are pretty expensive and if you’re not careful about your budget or keep a tight reign on careless spending on snacks and drinks, you mind find yourself blowing more money than expected – just like you do at the movies. At amusement theme parks like Six Flags, you can expect to shell out anywhere from $25 to $50 per person depending on your age and height, and even more on top of that for meals and other gaming experiences. At mega theme parks like Orlando Florida’s Disney World resorts, tickets range anywhere from $70 for young children to more than $160 for adults for multi-park access. Thus, any little thing you can do to cut costs here and there will help you save lots of money in the long run and prevent you from losing your financial mind.

Here’s a little tip I picked up a while back on how to get free roller coaster photographs of yourself and free on-board pictures of your friends at any amusement theme park. After every major roller coaster ride, as you’re walking down the exit ramp rather dizzily from the experience, you’re likely to bump into the ubiquitous roller coaster souvenir photo booth. At the stand you’ll usually find a sales counter along with multiple television monitors mounted high up, cycling through live digital photo shots of roller coaster riders taken in various stages of facial displays ranging from joy and happiness, to sheer terror (but they are usually all funny). The images are all photos automatically taken by strategically mounted on-ride cameras located throughout the track. Oftentimes, the cameras are installed on segments where the riders experience the greatest speed, resulting in a variety of funny displays of wacky and distorted expressions due to excitement, fear, or just plain wind resistance. Sometimes, all occupants of a single roller coaster car are displayed in one photograph, and sometimes only two or four people are displayed at one time. The photos on the display screen are usually numbered and park customers willing to purchase their own can do so. The instant photos are usually available immediately after the ride is over should you choose to buy them – and they frequently come in a variety of specialty trinket forms like T-shirts and key chains. The prices charged however, are frequently expensive rip off prices. A tiny wallet size photo may cost in excess of $15-20 each. Larger photos may be priced as high as $25-$35 each. Keychains and T shirts can easily cost in excess of $25-$45.

For those who want to get their roller coaster photos for free, you’ll have to act fast as soon as the ride is over. Usually the rollercoaster souvenir booth video displays cycle through the most recent ride results from one car to another before moving on to the next set of new vehicle riders. As guests exit the ride, the display screens update the photos with the latest riders, thereby gradually burying the photos of riders that came before. If you want to save some money, take the limited time opportunity to raise up your digital camera, zoom in, and take a direct digital photograph of the display screen when your rollercoaster shot cycles through. You’ll want to act fast as your photo will likely only be flipped through a few times before disappearing for good. If you’re quick, you just might be able to walk away with a high quality, free roller coaster self shot.

The last time I was at Six Flags, I did just that for numerous rides. It sort of baffled me at the time why no one else was doing it though. As soon as I saw the screen display of my friend and I, I raised my Canon Digital Elph sky high to rise above the crowd of riders waiting to buy souvenir photos, and quickly snapped off a few free shots. As soon as I did that, everyone looked at me with eyes widened, and immediately took out their own cameras to do the same – frantically snapping their own self pics as the display screens flipped to images of them. Such frugal tips seem so common-sensical that we oftentimes fail to realize that we can easily get many things for free just by trying.

Financially or Morally Ethical? It’s Up To You – But Remember, You Did Pay The Price Of Your Pricey Admissions Ticket

While I doubt Six Flags, Disney World, Disney Land, Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens, or Cedar Point officials condone this type of free photograph taking, I’ve never noticed any signs or ticket stub fine print restricting this frugal (albeit freeloading) practice. Support the park and pay your $35 roller coaster souvenir photo at Kingda Ka or any other popular ride if you want. However, in my opinion, you’ve already paid for your price of amusement park admission, so you might as well maximize your budget by taking advantage of free photographing opportunities. Once you snap a photo with your digital camera, you can pretty much make as many digital prints as you want.

I suppose the lawyer part of me feels compelled to address one more concern. As for questions about copyright infringement legalities, don’t worry. Copyright laws only protect the rights of actual tangible mediums of expression whether it be an expression of writing, photography, or music. Yes it would be a possible copyright violation if you were to copy the digital photographs off of the souvenir booth computers directly and reproduce them (that might be considered criminal theft as well). But by using your own personal digital camera to take a photograph of the monitor indirectly, you are in the clear. Feel free to snap away. You are now your own paparazzi!

While I have my own convenient and jack-rabbity-fast high speed broadband connection at home, sometimes I just want to get out of the house for a change of scenery. Ever since I began the gradual transition from traditional office life to the work from home routine, I’ve noticed that it can sometimes be pretty boring working from the confines of one’s own house or apartment all the time. While working from home on the computer is great because it’s nice to be your own boss, loneliness and lack of human contact can become troubling issues, especially if you are working by yourself all the time. While it’s certainly very convenient to do business related work from one’s home office (necessary supplies, kitchen amenities, and even bathroom conveniences are only a few steps away), the work at home experience can be plagued by boredom and frequent feelings of isolation. Once in a while, I just want to pick up my laptop and head out to some cafe, restaurant, or public location, and momentarily work at an Internet accessible place where there’s random people milling about. That way I don’t feel so cut off from the real world.

One’s Home Office Can Be Any Cafe, Restaurant, Or Public Park With Free WiFi and Electrical Outlet Access

Since I’m trying to transition into running my own home based businesses full time and no longer work frequent contract attorney projects as a result, I no longer have an Internet equipped office computer outside of my home that I can go to everyday to get me in the right day job mindset. Sometimes it’s difficult to work from home because it just doesn’t feel like a real work zone and it’s so easy to get distracted and sidetracked. After all, my bedroom, home office desk computer, and television entertainment gadgets are only a few feet apart from each other. So at least once or twice a week, I enjoy driving out to local public places to swap my home office for a more productive working environment.

As a savvy saver and frugal fellow, I prefer to seek out suitable local neighborhood businesses and public work spaces that offer free but necessary business amenities like convenient restroom access, proximity to drinks and food, and most important of all – free or very affordable wireless internet access. While not all places provide truly free wireless Internet for customers (instead requiring them to purchase usage time or limiting free surfing to only an hour or two), there are places that do provide this particular perk. Free Wi-Fi hotspots are everywhere – at the mall, the park, in public places where people gather – you just need to know where to look. Many major fast food chain restaurants and many sit down coffee cafe shops provide free wireless hotspot services for customers to enjoy. Often times they don’t even require you to purchase anything – although I’d recommend that you at least buy a coffee or a light snack. You don’t need to purchase a three course meal, but on principle, you don’t want to be a freeloader do you? Speaking of eating and working at the same time, I do however at times question the wisdom of placing an expensive laptop in very close proximity to food and drink. Just be careful – your laptop and your caramel macchiato drink don’t mix!

The last few days, I purposely visited various popular WiFi hotspot locations to confirm and inspect the business’ free wireless Internet service offerings. Below, I’ve listed the places I’ve found to be the most widely available and easily found free wireless Internet locales. So long as you have a portable notebook computer that is WiFi enabled that you can suitably lug around, you are good to go for free web surfing. All you’ll need to do is run the wireless signal manager, search for the target business’ public wireless network name (also called the SSID), and you should be able to connect instantly to the WiFi service. For habitual free WiFi hotspot seekers who browse the Internet for hours at a time, I recommend investing in extra long lasting laptop batteries. Some of the places below either don’t offer electrical outlets for customers to use, or simply don’t have sufficient numbers to go around.

Some Of The Top WiFi Hotspot Places To Enjoy Free Wireless Internet

1) Panera Bread – This place is one of my favorite free wireless hotspot destinations for unlimited use. Panera has become a very popular choice for young professionals and home business types who want a relaxing place to access the web for free, while enjoying a tasty sandwich, hot soup, or one of their delicious salads at the same time (please bring back the Fuji apple chicken salad). There are lots of tables and electrical outlets available, but single Internet users should focus on the small tables, and leave the bigger ones for groups. The cafe is a common meeting location for small businesses and sometimes you’ll see such meetings take place in corners – as the place has sort of a trendy, Internet cafe vibe to it (at least that’s the case for the one near where I live). Panera Bread is a popular choice for free WiFi seekers but its popularity also causes greater strain on the shared Internet connection. I found the WiFi access speed to be very slow during peak usage times. Avoid using the WiFi from 12 pm to 2 pm if you can since that is when most people try to get on. Panera also heavily filters out many (ahem) questionable websites – I’m sure some of you hanky panky web surfers are disappointed.

2) Corner Bakery – Right around the corner (pun very much intended) is the Corner Bakery, which offers free WiFi for unlimited use and is also a great place to relax, eat, and surf the web for free. There is no obligation to buy anything either, although Corner Bakery offers quite a selection of pretty decent pastas, sandwiches, and soups. Corner Bakery franchises seem to be located mostly in the major states. As for the WiFi, I think few people are aware that Corner Bakery offers free wireless Internet for patrons, which probably explains why there’s less connection crowding. The WiFi speeds were much faster and less congested than that offered by other restaurants, including Panera. Electrical outlets are not plentiful, but they are available at certain tables.

3) McDonald’s – While McDonald’s used to charge for extended wireless Internet usage at participating restaurants, they’ve recently started to offer free unlimited WiFi use. Free WiFi access is now being offered at most McDonald locations. There is no obligation to buy – just power up your laptop computer and surf to your heart’s content. However, you might want to get used to nosy people peeking at your screen over your shoulder – McDonald restaurants are usually filled with all sorts of interesting characters. Also, aside from the unhealthy aspects of McDonald’s fast food choices, one other big problem with McDonald’s is that their restaurants lack electrical outlets. I wasn’t able to find a single outlet for my laptop.

4) Starbucks - While Starbucks coffee shops have started to offer free wireless internet access for coffee and tea drinking customers, this top free WiFi hotspot needs a little asterisk next to it. While WiFi use at Starbucks is indeed free, it’s only currently free for a single use of two consecutive hours at a time. Since Starbucks switched from T-Mobile to AT&T, customers must now register their Starbucks Card and use it at least once a month (buy a drink with it), to receive two consecutive hours a day of free internet use. While it’s not unlimited use, I needed to mention Starbucks, if only because of the fact that they have locations almost everywhere.

5) Caribou Coffee – I like Caribou coffee drinks much more than the unremarkable ones brewed at Starbucks, so I prefer to hang out at Caribou more often than I do at Starbucks. However, Caribou locations are not as widely available as Starbucks. But at Caribou, WiFi internet use is completely free and usage is unlimited. There is no demand that you actually purchase a drink, but it’s probably advisable to do so as a courtesy. If you want to use your laptop in a trendy environment decked out in wood to look like some type of ski lodge, Caribou’s the place to be. Plus, their daily trivia questions are not only whimsically interesting, but getting them right can also help you save a few cents off your drink!

6) Schlotzsky’s – Schlotzsky’s, like the slogan says, has a funny name, but provides serious sandwiches. If you enjoy relatively healthy deli sandwiches, subs, and wraps, this is a nice place to hang out. This New York style deli sandwich chain provides free wireless Internet access for its customers through its Cool Cloud wireless network. Most locations also provide free computer workstations for laptop-less customers to jump online and browse.

7) Public Library – While there seems to be plenty of odd and quirky folks who hang out at public libraries, not to mention the hordes of kids everywhere, I like public libraries, mostly because of the comfortable presence of people that it affords work at home entrepreneurs like myself. Most local libraries provide a wealth of free county sponsored services, including free wireless Internet access. Your tax dollars pay for them so you might as well take full advantage when you can. Most public county libraries also have free computers for patrons to use although sometimes you’ll need to sign up for a library card to access them. Because there are usually a large number of simultaneously connected users, public library connections are notoriously slower than average. I recommend bringing along electrical extension cords in case available electrical outlets are not conveniently located next to your desired table. Based on my observations, public libraries seem less strict about patrons stringing cables and cords around anyway.

8) Local University Library or Study Lounge – I recently returned to my alma mater’s university library to see if I could still access the library’s internet connections for free. Unfortunately my old school doesn’t provide free WiFi access for non active students, even for an alumnus such as myself. Students are required to log onto the network with secured passwords, and unauthorized laptops are denied Internet access. However, at another local college, I was able to access the school’s free wireless signal from a study lounge area, despite not being a student there. While not exactly publicly available, the signal wasn’t restricted. If you’re lucky to find a free university library WiFi signal, you’re quite fortunate. University wireless signals tend to be extremely fast and rarely congested – perfect for home business workers who want a change of scenery.

9) Unsecured Wireless Router – This one is controversial, but another interesting way to work somewhere besides from your home computer is to find a public work space where you can obtain a freely available WiFi signal from some random person’s wireless router. While most home network owners are getting better at securing and protecting their wireless broadcast signals, there are still some people who either purposely choose not to or neglect to do so (like my neighbor). If you don’t have ethical qualms about doing so, it’s an option. Be careful though, open wireless networks make it easy for hackers and evil-doers to access your computer and intercept data that you submit through the connection. I don’t think it’s very likely as it requires some fancy knowhow, but it’s a possibility. Keep in mind, while I’ve done this before in the past, this grey area practice is fraught with debatable legal issues.

10) Public Parks or Certain Downtown Areas – In the downtown city area close to where I live, my local city government has decided to shell out money to provide free public WiFi access for all city residents that frequent the heavily trafficked area. The wireless signal area is populated by restaurants, shops, and lots of open sitting spaces – perfect for those who desire to work on the Internet and enjoy the great outdoors at the same time. In major metropolitan areas like New York City, there are lots of public places where the city government has provided complimentary wireless Internet signals for free public use. The only drawback with these places is that electrical outlets are usually nonexistent.

Oh great – well I hope this article doesn’t foretell or signify a trend that’s going to be widely picked up by the gas industry in the coming future. While they’ve been one of the most credit card friendly industries in the past, some gas station chains are apparently starting to scale back their payment options in favor of cash due to diminishing profit margins caused by higher gas prices and rising credit card interchange fees. The credit card interchange fee, a percentage of the total sales price paid to credit card companies by the merchant on every transaction, is usually fixed at somewhere just under 2% – but the dollar amount of the fee rises with the price of the goods or services. As gas prices have risen dramatically, so have the credit card acceptance fees that gas pump merchants pay, drastically cutting into their profitability.

I Always Use My Credit Card To Pay For Gas And Don’t Intend To Change This Payment Practice Anytime Soon

While I understand why some gas station owners and advocates are pushing for the move back to cash payment only for gas purchases, I hope this is not an emerging or widely adopted trend. Paying cash at the pump may work for some, but it’s not going to fly for me.

I take frequent road trips and one of the most appreciated benefits of fueling at the gas pump is the ability to easily slide into a gas station off the freeway, punch in my prepayment, fuel up, and get out quickly. With a gas credit card, I can do that easily. With just a quick swipe and the press of a few buttons on the automated gas pump, my car is instantly refueled without hassle. With cash payment, not only is the practice comparatively more time consuming, but it’s a major inconvenience for those of us who have grown dependent on using our credit cards to pay for everything. I rarely carry more than $50 worth of emergency cash in my wallet and dislike the annoyance of walking around with dollar bills and loose coins jiggling around in my pockets. My efficient credit card usage habit also stems from my view that handling paper money is inherently dirty and unsanitary. I’m by no means a germa-phobe, but I feel that money is one of those heavily transacted items that you never truly know where it’s been before. For all I know, the bills were last taken out and manhandled by some hairy, sweaty dude while he was sitting in a bathroom stall doing his business somewhere. Hey, you never know. With my personal credit cards, at least I know where they’ve been and while I’ve never actually cleaned them before, they are at least washable.

I don’t know what I would do if gas stations suddenly and uniformly stopped accepting credit card payments due to their displeasure at having to pay spiraling credit card interchange fees. While I sort of vaguely sympathize with their declining profit margin plight (not really), as an oil consumer, I’m bound to take my gas business elsewhere to a place that does accept credit cards. The convenience of using my trusty gas rebate credit card to pay for gas and earn cash back rewards at the same time is not something I’m willing to give up anytime soon. I’ve been known to stop at a low priced gas station only to drive off immediately after finding out the place only accepted cash payment.

In the Washington D.C. region, there is a chain of el-cheapo gas stations called Free State that is known for offering greatly discounted gas at prices that’s frequently much lower than that offered by more recognized competitors. However, the biggest downside is that they only accept cash payment. Obviously this is to keep prices low and avoid having to pay merchant fees to credit card companies for each credit card transaction. But for heavy credit card users like myself, this is a complete deal breaker. While I see them everywhere along my driving route, I always avoid Free State gas stations because of their cash only payment policy. I would rather drive across the street to a slightly more expensive gas pump than deal with the inconvenience and hassle of paying by cash. It’s just one of those expected perks in life that I’ve come to insist on and demand. Other local gas station chains sometimes offer discounts for cash payments, but I would still rather pay the slightly higher fuel rate just to have the benefit of paying by plastic. Besides, any potential cash payment discount offered by the pump owner will be unlikely to offset the nice gas credit card rewards that I earn using my usual method of payment. I don’t expect or intend to give that perk up anytime soon as long as they are around.

I Have Also Come To Rely On The Budget Tracking Benefits That Credit Card Usage Affords Me

It’s not just the convenience and speed at which credit card payment at the gas pump affords me, it’s also the record keeping benefits as well. I pay by credit card at gas stations, restaurants, and everywhere else because it affords me convenient and reliable expense tracking. Payment by cash requires me to retain all of my paper receipts to keep track of total monthly spending. Credit card payments on the other hand allow me to permanently record and retain transaction dates and pricing information on my credit card statement to access at a later time of my choosing. I can easily log onto my online account from home to review the frequency of gasoline fill ups and the amount of money spent per visit with a just few key strokes.

Change Might Be A Good Catch Phrase For Politics, But It’s Bad When It Comes To How I Pay For Gas

Knowing the pervasive and established nature of credit card payment at the pump, I think most major gas stations like Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, and Sunoco are unlikely to go cash only no matter how high gas prices may go, and no matter how badly their financial bottom lines will be hurt by having to pay higher transaction fees. Such brand name gas stations are likely to find other ways to cut costs than deprive consumers of this important convenience. Besides, switching to cash only would probably hurt their revenue stream more detrimentally than any potential cost saving benefits from going all cash due to loss of business volume. They’d lose the patronage of gas guzzling, dinosaur liquid loving, weekend road warriors like myself.