I don't think that's that cheap. When my fiance was renting her apartment she was paying $480CAD/mo for a single bedroom, with utilities included (electric & water). Her apartment was kind of crappy though.

The two bedroom apartment where I used to live two years ago is going for 710CAD/mo today.

We have a Roomba that was given to us by my parents. It's one of the higher end models that is supposedly self reliant. You set up a schedule (specify which days and what time it should vacuum) and it does the rest. It goes about it's business and when it's done it returns to it's dock and starts recharging.

Sometimes however it gets itself stranded under the couch, or tangled up in an overhanging blanket, or stops because it's dirt bin is full. It also doesn't like stairs, but if you get a good model it should come with two virtual walls which act as barriers. I'd recommend using one of the virtual walls to cordon off your entertainment system, the roomba can easily get caught by cables/wires.

For the most part we are pretty happy with it. Though like Matthew, it wouldn't take me that long to manually vacuum so I don't think I would ever actually buy a Roomba.

Edit: Fixed double negative!

I have trouble with cables/wires when vacuuming myself. Tie them into bundles with twist ties.

But then the pattern doesn't match (as in the special way they mow the baseball fields). It won't show up unless you have a fairly shaggy carpet, though.

[EDIT]

The carpet in my bedroom isn't shaggy at all, but you can still easily see where the vacuum traveled. Of course, moving bar bell weights around to vacuum underneath still shows the depressions where they were originally.

Does it use a litter box, or do you let it out? Obviously you have to use a dustbuster or similar to do the stairs, or are they uncovered? That kind of defeats the purpose of a Roomba?

My place is $600/mo not including utils. The cheapest non-ghetto place (and Albuquerque has a pretty crime-ridden ghetto. They used to constantly be on COPS until the city had to ban the show from filming here.) is going to be around $580/mo. My last place was in the 'student ghetto' and cost $300/mo utils included. That was a very lucky circumstance that would have normally cost $475 utils included. And it was still the worst-looking house on the block.

And that's too damn high.

Do your parents know?

I read an article yesterday about how "Postal 2" was too violent, dismembering people and burning bodies. I read it as Portal 2 and got pissed for about 30 seconds.

I don't think so, what they're saying is currently there is no cap on how much money they give people to live 100% subsidised by the state and that has to stop.

As I said, that much money is enough to pay for a mortgage on a massive house almost anywhere in the country and so the average income person is being hugely penalised to pay for those who do not work and live on benefits.

Just make a campfire in the middle of the living room with your old code listings, it'll be fine.

That can happen if the relief valve on your water heater gets clogged. Stop being a wussy.

I can't think of everything Thanks!

I'm guessing $6000 installed. The 90% furnace will lower gas costs better, plus the advantage of not needing a chimney liner(?), and is impressive when I sell the house. I rent a couple of rooms so expenses like a new furnace or even a lightbulb are a write off. I think I only get a 25% allowance for that though. The problem is getting thte cash to replace the furnace. I think I can take a loan from a pension, but the money will not be available until next month.

Economically, programs like that are stupid. The market is able to determine what is more cost effective by itself.

There is no incentive to lower the cost of a high-efficiency furnace if the government pays the difference. Thus prices stay artificially high. Also, it introduces a false, bubbled demand that will disappear on January 1.