Financial Tips | Money and Kids

Cashspeak! How to Save Money on Stamps - CASHSPEAK
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1/8/09

How to Save Money on Stamps

Every year it seems that the government is raising the price of stamps. Mailing letters, bills, and packages is getting more expensive. However, the good news is there are many alternatives you can utilize. You do not have to keep purchasing stamps to mail bills and letters. Nor do you have to keep paying whenever the price of stamps goes up.

The best way to avoid having to purchase stamps to mail your letters is by using e-mail. E-mail is fast, convenient, and easy to use. Best of all, e-mail is basically free. The only cost of e-mail is your monthly cost for an internet connection. However, there are many places where you can use the Internet for free (e.g., public library, your office, Internet cafes, etc.) and thus, do not have to incur this monthly expense. By using e-mail, your recipient receives your message instantaneously, and you can have multiple communications without having to attach a stamp to each communication.

Also, the Internet has made it extremely easy to send your friends and family pictures. You no longer have to get special padded envelopes and pay an extraordinary amount to ship your pictures. Sending pictures is now as easy as point and click.

The Internet also allows you to pay your bills on-line. Many banks offer their customers free, online bill pay. Basically, you tell the bank to pay your bills by telling the bank when to send payment and to whom. The bank sends the creditor a check and automatically deducts the money from your checking or savings account. No stamps, no mess, and no cost.

As shown above, the Internet can save you a lot of money because you will not have to purchase stamps to mail letters, bills, or even pictures. However, even with the popularity of the Internet, there are still many people who like to do things "the old fashioned way." As such, for the non-Internet users out there, you can still save money on stamps by doing two things, using your telephone or buying forever stamps.

If you want to say something to a friend, pick up the telephone. If something needs to be sent to somebody, send a fax (which uses a telephone line). When sending a fax, you use no ink and you do not have to print anything. Simply dial in the phone number and press "send." The machine will take care of the rest.

Some people may think that long distance telephone plans cost too much or that fax machines are too expensive and too complicated. Although I do not agree with either of these beliefs, there is a solution for people who refuse to embrace technology. That solution is the "forever" stamp.

Forever stamps are stamps that you can buy from any post office. These stamps can be used to mail a one-ounce letter regardless of when the stamps were purchased or used and no matter how prices may change in the future. Therefore, if you pay forty-two cents per forever stamp today but ten years from now a letter costs sixty-five cents to mail, you can still use a forever stamp that you purchased for forty-two cents.

The Internet is the best way to save money on stamps, but if you do not like computers or the Internet, you can always use a phone and/or fax machine. If those two options do not work, forever stamps are the way to go.

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