I've been mailing holiday gifts to my neices and nephews who live hundreds of miles away for several years now. I've decided the cheapest route is the simplest:
1) Buy small, lightweight gifts: clothing, books, art supplies, CDs, DVDs, box of candy.
2) Pack them yourself: reuse boxes you have around the house, if possible. Use crumpled up plastic grocery bags you have on hand as a lightweight packing material.
3) Take them to the Post Office and splurge on a couple dollars of insurance. If you do that, the Post Office is obligated to keep better track of the gifts. (The post office once filed a package sent to me under the name of the sender rather than under my name. Since the package was insured, the entire staff spent a day trying to find the thing for me.)
I really believe this option saves a lot of money. I've done the online thing and found I ended up paying a lot extra in shipping and wrapping fees. Another time, the recipient never got what I sent and I ended up in the awkward position of needing their help to try to track down what happened.
If you have any tips that have worked for you, please share them in the comments below!
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2 comments:
I highly recommend FedEx Home Delivery. It's 2 days to places as far as Pittsburgh and Massachusetts. It's 4 days to South Texas. It's not the fastest, but it is pretty cheap. We shipped a 16-inch cube weighing 15 lbs for about $13 to Texas. Many packages in the 8-10lb range seem to be about $7-10 depending on where they are being sent. FedEx has a far better tracking system than the Post Office and I've never had a package lost or delivered late. You also have the option of having a signature required (no extra charge). I don't usually insure the items, because they aren't worth much in most cases and I've never had one lost in the three years now that I've been using them (probably 20+ packages per year). The best part is that you can drop them off at FedEx Office (formerly Kinko's) and don't have to worry about hours since they are open on weekends and late. The key is going to FedEx's website and signing up for an account. You can create and print the shipping labels on your home computer, get a discount on shipping costs, and it just bills the charges to your credit card.
Great tip! Thanks, Mike.
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