Three more Money Crashers articles

Money Crashers is continuing to crank out all those articles of mine it's been sitting on for the past few months. Three more have come out in the past couple of days, all on very different topics.

The first piece deals with a subject you've seen me cover here many times before: repairing your old stuff so you don't have to buy new stuff. One of the main tenets of the ecofrugal lifestyle, which is pretty much meant to be exactly the opposite of the dystopia in Brave New World, is "mending is better than ending," so we try to keep our stuff working as long as possible. We've successfully repaired all kinds of small items, including books with detached covers, ripped jeans, and Roman shades, but we're most vigilant of all with big items that cost us big money to begin with. We're rigorous about maintaining our home, car, bike, computers, and appliances so that we can squeeze as many years of useful life out of them as possible.

In this Money Crashers article, I explore this topic in detail. I explain which items it's most important to maintain if you want to save money in the long run, and how to do it.

6 Things You Should Maintain & Take Care of to Save Money Long-Term

The second article is about a newer topic that's been making news recently: universal basic income, or UBI. This radical new government benefit would simply give a flat payment to every single American adult each month, with no strings attached. Tech billionaires say this will be necessary in the face of the widespread unemployment they say is certain to occur as machines replace humans; politicians  argue that it's better than our current system of government benefits because there are no bureaucratic hoops to jump through, and no social stigma attached to accepting a benefit that everyone else is getting to. But opponents point out that UBI would be enormously expensive and wasteful, giving benefits equally to beggars and billionaires.

In this piece, I delve into the history of UBI, previous experiments with it around the world, the arguments for and against it (and the extent to which they're supported by the data), and the chances it will ever become a reality in the United States. And I examine a couple of alternative forms of aid that could offer many of the benefits of UBI with fewer drawbacks.

What Is Universal Basic Income & Could It Work in the U.S.?

And finally, I'm back on familiar ground with the subject of flooring choices for your home. This article is about the pros and cons of the most popular flooring choices, so it doesn't cover the paper floor technique we used in the downstairs room, but it explores the relative merits of hardwood, engineered wood, bamboo, ceramic tile, laminate, vinyl, linoleum, cork, and carpet. For each one, I cover such considerations as how it looks, how it feels underfoot, ease of installation, durability, cost, and, where appropriate, environmental considerations. (This last item apparently really annoyed one reader, who called the information useless and said, "I would floor my house with skins from baby seals if it looked good and added value to my house." I'm assuming, perhaps optimistically, that the majority of readers will not share this viewpoint.)

9 Best Flooring Options for Your Home & How to Choose on a Budget