Comments on: Best kept secret to lowering expenses

By: Marie-Christine

Marie-Christine — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:42:15 +0000

Thank you again Kathleen for kicking off thoughts as you so often do. I totally agree that resolving minor but frequent annoyances is a huge plus, worth any price but usually totally worthwhile in gained productivity. In fact, I was extremely happy when I figured out way back when that you can (for free) just register directly on the PO website, and use it to quickly crank out pre-paid labels that let you zip to the front of the PO line and drop (we had a raving maniac, everyone was mind-bendingly slow, it was a daily horror).

After this article mulled through a bit, I had a very productive re-arranging of my home laundry facilities last week. Granted, the trip to Ikea was the usual bear and wasted an entire exhausting Saturday afternoon. But my simultaneous washing and drying capacity doubled for a mere E12.95! Yeah! I can even be more weather-independent. Just between us, I’d rather be sewing than doing housework..

By: Lisa DOWNTOWN JOEY

Lisa DOWNTOWN JOEY — Sun, 03 May 2009 20:20:04 +0000

I use the USPS online. You CAN use a 1/2 page to print your label. Speaking of labels, I NEVER use labels, just regular copy paper and take it to the box. The only thing I do is put a piece of clear tape 1/2 way over the bar code (this tip was given to me by my local carrier–all you need is the barcode to get it to it’s destination).

By: Noah L

Noah L — Fri, 01 May 2009 02:01:13 +0000

Ahhhh gotcha, ya it sounds like a worth while service if you hit that volume (not there yet but hopefully soon!)

By: Elaine Good

Elaine Good — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:15:20 +0000

Actually, there’s another shipping option, USPS Shipping Assistant, a software program from USPS that is run from your machine. Discount on the DC’s, you can buy postage or use stamps, keeps the addresses and records for you, and lets you order the free pickup online (if you need it.) The only thing I haven’t solved yet is the label size problem, but I admit I haven’t worked very hard to research it and the program is WAY better now than it used to be. And yes, I started using SA due to the annoyance factor (annoyance at the USPS and at Endicia and stamps.com. lol)

By: kathleen

kathleen — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 01:27:52 +0000

how is endicia better than using the post office website to buy and print postage?

It’s probably not worth getting endicia unless you’re mailing at least 30 mail pieces a month with delivery confirmation; that being the break even point on the subscription. Otherwise, endicia is preferable for a couple of reasons. The first is waste and annoyance. If you print a priority mail label from usps.com, it wastes an entire page, for me, that’s two labels. That’s annoying and wasteful. The other thing is you don’t have all of your customer’s info (date of mailing, cost, contact info, address) in a database. On the USPS site, it’s a one shot deal. Type the info in and you have to keep track of a piece of paper with all that stuff on it. Then later on, if you have a problem with delivery, you have to either page through all your manual printed out receipts and then type it in at usps to see what happened to it. Endicia saves a lot of duplication of effort. In endicia, you just search under the person’s name (whatever field) to find the record. You can also export all those shipping records for use later.

Either way, endicia or usps.com, you don’t have to wait in line at the post office for service.

By: Noah L

Noah L — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:20:24 +0000

how is endicia better than using the post office website to buy and print postage?

By: Lisa B. in Portland

Lisa B. in Portland — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 22:28:29 +0000

LisaB, but then I wouldn’t have clutter, the kids would have their own rooms, I’d have a back yard deeper than 7 feet, and could have a sewing studio (which equals room for industrial machines).

By: Sandra B

Sandra B — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:08:08 +0000

This reminds me of the Pareto Principle, which claims that 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort, ie 80% of our time is not giving us that much value. It seems to work in so many ways, 20% of our clothes are worn 80% of the time, 80% of our time is spent with 20% of our aquaintances, 20% of our clients bring in 80% of our income, my kids play with 20% of their toys 80% of the time (I keep trying to throw out the 80%, thereby changing the balance. I figure that 3 or 4 iterations should get us to one toy each and a tidy house)

By: Emily

Emily — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:29:23 +0000

Oh I love trying to figure these types of things out. Right now, as I finish up my certificate program, I’m working part time as a bookkeeper/office admin in a small architecture firm and it’s my job to find ways to cut little corners like this. I think it’s kind of fun to develop little systems that save time and money and keep things organized and flowing. I find making spreadsheets work for you (instead of the other way around) is one of the best ways to save time (and hence, money). For example, at the end of every month, it used to take me up to 3 days to create all the invoices for our clients (and I realize that there are software out there that can do it automatically but my boss has his own “design” for the invoice that prohibits me from using a rational method) and I’ve set it all up in excel so that now it only takes me 4 hours. The rest of the time I can now spend lurking on blogs!

By: LisaB

LisaB — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:54:35 +0000

Ah, but Lisa, you’re forgetting that more house = more stuff.