It's fashionable to bemoan the ubiquitous plastic shopping bag. They're flimsy, they create litter, they end up landfills by the millions, they're a waste of the oil needed to produce them. Some places have proposed or enacted a "grocery bag fee" in an attempt to curb usage, and some have banned them outright.

It's likely they'll eventually be gone from our lives. To some extent, I'll miss them when they're gone.

Wait -- don't send the green squad over to tie a plastic bag over my head. In theory, I'm as appalled as anyone else by the things. As an apartment house manager, I hate fishing sodden sacks out of the shrubbery or pulling them down from tree branches. That scene from the film "American Beauty" of the plastic bag dancing in the wind was nice, but what the moviemakers didn't address is that it had to come down sometime.   Read More...

Here are today's hot deals from partner blog dealnews.com:

Emprex 22-inch wide-screen LCD monitor for $179.99. A $50 mail-in rebate chops the net price to $129.99. With about $9 for shipping, it's among the lowest total prices we've ever seen for a flat-panel display of its size.

L.L. Bean Super Deluxe Sling Pack for $10.95. With free shipping via coupon code 2373230, that's $18 off and the lowest total price we've seen.

Nintendo DS games from $7.89. Shipping adds about $4, but orders over $25 ship free. Even with shipping, each is at the lowest total price we could find.   Read More...

This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar.

When I was fresh out of college with my first high-paying job, I would insist on paying for everything -- meals out with friends, lattes at the coffee shop, even sometimes shopping purchases. I felt this deep need to step in, bust out my plastic and say, "I'll take care of it."

The burning desire to always save the day led me down a path to a lot of debt.   Read More...

What does (fill in name here), our server for tonight, really think of us? For an entertaining insider's look at the restaurant business and the diners who keep those servers hopping (and secretly complaining), check out Waiter Rant.

In one of his posts, "Waiter" -- a guy apparently renowned for his 1,000-yard waiter stare (think waiter Daviday on "Curb Your Enthusiasm") -- describes a confrontation between the restaurant owner and a fat guy with a fancy watch and a comb-over who insists on being seated now. This chump doesn't realize that the owner is an ex-cop who still carries a gun. We'll share a few snippets from this post here.   Read More...

"Lazy Man" noticed that some personal-finance gurus have a phrase they can call their own. David Bach has the latte factor. Dave Ramsey has the debt snowball. "Paidtwice" has snowflaking. Not to be outdone, Lazy Man at Lazy Man and Money has invented one -- "snowforting."

"I realize that Lazy Man and Money is going to nowhere if I don't coin a term and/or champion a cause," he wrote. So, what is this snowforting, other than another PF blogger's fascination with winter?   Read More...

This post comes from Lisa Wade McCormick at partner blog ConsumerAffairs.com.

A family of five now spends an average of $135 a week on groceries, according to the Food Marketing Institute's U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends report for 2008 released this week. Rising fuel costs and other economic concerns could force that grocery bill to climb even higher.

Consumers are already feeling the pinch of high food costs on their pocketbooks, and many have changed their eating and shopping habits, the survey found.

Consider:   Read More...

Is all the gloom and doom in the financial news right? "Millionaire Mommy Next Door" took the pulse of a small community she knows well -- five friends and their families -- to see if regular folks are changing their money habits. 

Each family had an interesting story to tell in her post, called "Is the economic downturn a big deal? The word on the street ...." Here are a few of the details:   Read More...

This post comes from Xin Lu at partner blog Wise Bread.

I first read about selling hair in "Les Misérables," when Fantine sold her head of gold to clothe her daughter, Cosette. The hair trade just seems like such an archaic idea, but, actually, high-quality hairpieces are still made from real human hair and there is a huge market for sourcing natural hair.

Here are some tips and information on how to sell your tresses for cash.   Read More...

Here are today's hot deals from partner blog dealnews.com:

Uvex Sportstyle 5 polarized sunglasses for $29.97. With $6.95 for shipping, that's $90 off the list price and the lowest total price we could find.

Craftsman 1,470-piece professional tool set for $8,599.90. Add it to your cart and it falls to $6,879.90. With free shipping, that's $1,850 off and the lowest total price we've seen for this bundle.   Read More...

Wouldn't we all love to have this dilemma? Inspired by a letter to the editor at Money magazine, "Flexo" at Consumerism Commentary wonders when it's appropriate to tell your boyfriend/girlfriend that you're wealthy.

The letter writer apparently had been burned by some guy looking for a sugar momma.

Flexo says, "It's probably not appropriate if you're on the first few dates, but if you're starting to pick out rings or talk about living together, I don't see how these decisions can be made without full financial disclosure."   Read More...