I've discovered a very simple way to permanently reduce some of our bills: Call and ask nicely.

Last month, I called several car insurance companies. One of them has a discount program through my husband's employer, so combined with their already-low rate, we reduced the amount we pay by over a third.

Last week, I called the phone company, and a great customer service agent (wow, there is such a thing?) did some "bundling" voodoo that reduced our rate almost in half, with no contract or commitment needed. To top it off, we are getting a $50 Visa gift card as a thanks for ...giving them less money. I'll take it!

Today, I called Moriarty's bank, which reduced our rate by a percentage point. This will not make a huge impact, since we no longer use credit cards and are working to pay off that debt (as we travel our Road to Black), but it will probably change the order in which we pay down debts. Moriarty is our smallest debt, and according to Dave Ramsey's snowball principle, it should be paid off first. Now I think we may use Moriarty to pay off as much of Saruman as possible. Vader is smaller than Saruman, but has the lowest rate of all our debts.

So my money-saving tip is this: Call your utilities and creditors and ask nicely. What do you have to lose?

The Road to Black has become aware that the road to our house has been photographed by Google Maps. They offer an option to report an "inappropriate street view." I would like to thank Google for photographing a very appropriate street view of our house, viz. that the grass is neatly mowed and trimmed. I am sorry to report that this is not the case much of the time.

Our neighbors' houses have Christmas decorations, which means these pictures were probably taken around the time our son was born. That explains the grass: my brother-in-law mowed it while I was in the hospital, and it does not grow fast during the winter. (In our subtropical corner of the world, the grass never stops growing altogether.)

Our state's annual sales-tax free shopping weekend is a week away, and Living Well on Less had some excellent thoughts on whether you really save money on a tax-free weekend. Here are some tips for making sure you are better off at the end of the weekend:

Make sure you know what is tax free and what isn't. Texas will tax football pants, but not gym suits. Certain kinds of boots are taxed and other kinds are not. Be aware of what is excluded from the tax holiday.

Make a list. Figure out what you need, such as school clothes for your kids or new shoes for yourself, and write it down. Don't buy anything not on the list.

Make a budget and stick to it. Even if you don't usually use a cash budget, this would be a great time to make an exception. Leave your debit card and checks behind. (If you're like me, you don't credit cards at all; if you do, leave those behind too.)

Keep in mind that the tax-free weekend is equivalent to a 7% to 9% off everything sale. Don't pay full price for anything if you would not pay full price anyway. Shop in the same kind of stores you usually do — especially if you normally stick to discount, thrift, and consignment stores.

And finally... make sure you go on the right days. In most states, it's too late for 2008. Only Connecticut (August 17-23) and Texas (August 15-17) have upcoming sales tax holidays for school supplies. And unfortunately, many states don't have a sales tax holiday at all. Don't miss the boat!

I just got an e-mail from a friend whose other friend who was robbed two days ago at a local grocery store. I read the account of what happened, and it could have easily happened to me. And I should know better, having more background in law enforcement than the average person. So here are some tips, both for your benefit and to remind myself, on how to avoid being a victim of a crime while out in public.

1. Keep your head up. If you are aware of your surroundings, you are more likely to spot potential trouble. But there's more to it than that: an alert, confident person makes a very unattractive victim. Criminals like easy prey — the person not paying attention, the person acting nervous, the person not able to react quickly.
2. At the grocery store, accept "help out." The grocery store where the robbery took place always offers to help me out to my car, and lately I have been accepting because it's hard to load both the car and the kids. There are crime-prevention reasons to accept help, too: First, you will be with another adult, which is a deterrent to criminals. Second, having help to load your groceries — especially if you are also loading up small children, are pregnant, or have any physical handicap — will make you less vulnerable. Criminals see distractions as opportunities.
3. Keep your car locked. You should lock it even if you are getting out just for a minute — in fact, especially if you are getting out just for a minute. This leads to the next tip...
4. Never leave your purse or other valuables in the car. Again, this is true especially if you are getting out just for a minute. Criminals know you are least likely to lock up and most likely to leave valuables behind if it's only for a moment. They patiently watch for opportunities, and they move fast.
5. Be extra vigilant at school, day care, or the gym. These are situations in which women are likely to leave their purses behind, either because they are just running in to pick up their kids, or because they don't want to have to rent a gym locker. Bad plan: Criminals know that these are common habits. Even if you do lock up, they won't think twice about breaking your side window to get to your valuables.
6. Don't store your car keys in an obvious location. Burglars like to check the garage for easy-to-steal getaway vehicles. If you keep your keys in an obvious location like a key hook or basket near the door of your house (or worse, in the car itself), you may lose your car if your home is ever burglarized.
   
7. Don't leave your car running. In cold climates, car thefts skyrocket in the winter because people leave their cars running to warm them up. Even if you lock the doors, a car thief finds this situation irresistible. This is even more important if you have kids in the car. Don't leave it running so the kids can have air-conditioning while you step out. If you will be gone long enough for them to need air-conditioning, then you will be gone too long for them to be left alone, anyway. Which leads to the next tip...
8. Never, ever, ever leave your kids unattended in the car. Not even older kids, and not even for a few minutes. You will not believe what can happen to them. I know of one person who was left in the car when she was a tween and was targeted by an exhibitionist pedophile. Thankfully, he did not make contact, but she will never forget the image.
   
9. If you are targeted for a property crime, don't fight back. Some of us would never fight back, but others, like myself, are likely to be impulsive and try to defend our property. This behavior, unfortunately, is what can turn a theft into an assault.
10. If, God forbid, you are assaulted, don't let yourself be transported to another location. This is a situation in which you should fight back. If your attacker takes you somewhere else, they are likely planning to murder you. Act accordingly.

The Texas Association for Infant Mental Health (TAIMH) brings to six the list of organizations denouncing "Baby Borrowers." In fact, this organization feels so strongly that the front page of their website is devoted to the subject. Thanks to commenter Carol for the update.

TAIMH contacted a number of the sponsors of "Baby Borrowers" and published responses from three of them on their website. Nestlé Corporation immediately withdrew their ads. In statements reeking of corporate Newspeak, Pervetti Van Melle (manufacturer of Mentos) and Combe Incorporated (manufacturer of Just For Men, Odor Eaters, and other personal care products) were not courageous enough to do the same and instead referred the issue to their marketing directors.

Knol is Google's newest launch. It's a site where authors can write articles on any topics they like. "Knol," if you were wondering, is a neologism meaning "a unit of knowledge."

ProBlogger wondered whether Knol will be a Wikipedia-killer. I love Darren's ministry very helpful site, but I have to say that if he is even asking that question, then he does not know very much about Wikipedia.

Wikipedia may seem both wide and deep (with almost 2.5 million articles in the English version, more than twice as many as when I first started as an editor), but casual readers may not realize how much isn't there. The Wikipedia community loudly declares that it is not many things, among them "a publisher of original thought" nor a "manual, guidebook, or textbook." And while anybody is free to add to Wikipedia, they are not free to add anything they like to Wikipedia.

At least several hundred entire articles are deleted every day. Over 3000 pages were deleted in the last 24 hours (including articles, images, user pages, and all other types of pages). That's not counting content edited out of existing articles, which is immeasurable (literally — there's no way to tell from the logs).

I imagine that little of what will likely be found in the Knols will overlap with Wikipedia's scope. And virtually none of it will carry authority remotely like Wikipedia's. Since anybody with an Internet connection can change Wikipedia instantaneously, one might think Wikipedia would not have much authority, but the net energy put into keeping Wikipedia sound is far greater than the net energy put into Wikipedia misinformation and disinformation. And that is why so many people trust Wikipedia. (More than they really should; even Wikipedia rejects its own self as an adequately reliable source for Wikipedia.)

Knols may give About.com a run for its money, and may nudge a few Wikipedia articles around in the Google rankings, but Wikipedia is a behemoth that won't feel much from the little flies that are Knols.

Of our debt villains, Moriarty and Saruman are with the same bank. I called to try to see if I could combine them and lower our interest rate or our total monthly payment (so we can focus on another debt, probably Vader, with intensity). No dice.

Opening a credit card is something I am philosophically opposed to, even one with 0% interest or a bonus for balance transfers. However, in this situation I am tempted. I would not be using it to make any purchases, and I would actually be reducing our credit card count to one (though the total amount owed would stay the same). What would you do in this situation?