Wednesday, August 02, 2006

WFMW: Adventures in Shipping

Welcome to this installment of Works-For-Me-Wednesday. Please visit Shannon's blog for some really amazing solutions for your family. If you have a blog and want to take part in the fun, head on over! There are almost a hundred participants each week (and growing) and the tips have been so beneficial for our family.

Today I am going to focus on shipping and shipping costs. Recently, I blogged about a great cost comparison site that you can use when shipping your packages. This site basically does all of the comparing for you so that you know right away which is the cheapest shipping option.

I decided that since I have been doing a lot more shipping lately, that it would be a sound purchase to invest in a good quality postage scale. I went shopping to the big discount chains and could not find a scale anywhere. The scales available at the post office were very pricy and only went up to five pounds. More hunting and thinking later, I decided to check Ebay and their prices. I hit the jackpot. This week I received a thirty-five pound postage scale for a mere twenty-two bucks (this included shipping costs). I figured that combining this with my cost comparison site, that I could just start doing all of my shipping from home. This would save me the hassle of driving everyone over to the post office and I could do this on my own time…maybe when the children are napping or my son is in time-out? That is always a good time to get things done.

Now please bear with me, for those of you who are Ebay Queens and ship regularly, but I was not aware of some of the freebies you can get by shipping through USPS. For absolutely free you can do the following with the USPS site:

Print a shipping label
Schedule a Pickup (I mean schedule a pickup to your front door!)
Boxes (all shapes & sizes) - both flat rate and regular
Address Labels

What I want to know is, why the heck am I using all of my own boxes when I can get these for free?

Finally my last little tip, in this segment today, is regarding that handy little postage scale. Guess what else I am going to be using that little scale for? I am going to measure my food with it. It measures both pounds and ounces so I will be able to buy my chicken or beef in bulk, and divide into exact one pound packages. This will save our family more money because we will be able to be more accurate with the amount of food we are using. The chicken breasts I buy seem to have been injected with a super-duper dose of steroids. These suckers are huge. I will now be able to know that one chicken breast equals a pound, not three chicken breasts like I had originally thought.

I hope that you found this information somewhat beneficial. Give me a shout out and share your tips or, if you feel so inclined, feel free to tell me how great I am. I need a self-esteem boost today.

To my new visitors- take a peek around! My blog dishes up great money-saving solutions for your family every single day! Enjoy!

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13Comments:

Blogger green3
"Excellent tip! I had no idea I could get those boxes for free. I'm all over that!"

at 9:15 AM  

Blogger Katrina
"Great tips! I used the USPS Click-n-Ship for the first time a couple weeks ago, and it was easy and fast!"

at 9:16 AM  

Anonymous Jessica
"I didn't know that you can get all of that on that site! I'll have to take a look! Maybe when Christmas rolls around..."

at 10:33 AM  

Blogger Nikkie
"Great tip, I never knew you could get those freebies with UPS!"

at 12:11 PM  

Blogger thehomespunheart
"I've been interested in checking this out myself - so I appreciate the research you've already done for me! With little ones, I have found the hardest errand to complete is going to the Post Office. Now, I won't have to! Thanks!"

at 2:37 PM  

Blogger Julie
"Another good money saving tip when it comes to the US Mail is that books, DVDs, videos, software, etc can be sent via MEDIA MAIL (formerly called Book Rate mail) which is much cheaper than virtually any other method of mail. There's a similar option for mailing books to foreign countries called M-Bag which most USPS employees don't even know about. I mailed 8 pounds of books to Canada for $9 in an M-Bag; If I hadn't used the M-Bag it would have cost closer to $20."

at 3:39 PM  

Blogger Michelle- This One's For The Girls
"Do you have to go to a UPS place for the free boxes?"

at 4:09 PM  

Blogger Amy
"I actually ordered these from the UPS site (http://www.usps.com). You can get the boxes in the post office though too. It takes seven to ten days to ship the boxes so it just depends on how fast you need them..."

at 4:28 PM  

Blogger Overwhelmed!
"You know, I used to work from home and I had my own UPS account and they delivered all my shipping supplies to me and picked everything up. It was great. I'd forgotten about this and may have to re-institute this process.

And I may have to check eBay for one of those scales. It sounds great!"

at 6:31 PM  

Blogger amelia
"I didn't know about free boxes either! Way cool!"

at 11:20 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous
"about those mondo chicken breasts, I finally gave up on buying my store brand frozen breasts (in the 3 lbs bag) because they were so huge & the steroids scared me. Now I wait for the Perdue fresh breasts to go on sale for $1.99 & I stock up. they freezen fine in the original styrofoam then I thaw in the fridge or rinse under hot water to break them apart & microwave. much nicer chicken, still a good price & normal chicken size!"

at 6:09 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous
"Thanks for the tip, the free boxes really help with saving money, I also looked at the comparison page and when I read the comments a few people mentioned www.shippingsidekick.com so I checked that out and it had UPS and FedEx as well as USPS and DHL, so I could really find the best deal. Thanks for all the great advice."

at 5:42 PM  

Blogger Sis Sarah
"I won't tell you all the things I've done with those free boxes that they delivered to my house. You can get just about anything (except the stamps) sent to your home for free off the USPS website. Stamps cost a $1.00 to ship for insurance, but what I do is order a bunch at a time (like 100.00 dollars worth) and then I don't mind spending that buck. It beats stopping at the post office and waiting in the looooooong line just for stamps. You also can pick out way cute designs if your into that.

The other thing I would suggest is study a bit on the flat rate boxes. They are currently $8.85 to send, up to 70lbs!!! So if you have something really heavy but small sending it in that box can save you a bunch.

And don't forget media mail."

at 4:01 PM  

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