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!