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So the last time I had to mail a package to my family in Canada I nearly choked on the cost of shipping. Perhaps you feel the same way if you have to ship packages across the country or internationally. Here are a few tips I picked up that might help lower the costs of shipping for you.
Register On Websites For Savings – FedEx is one of the shippers that has a program that rewards their customers for using them. You have to fill out a registration form, but you will earn points to redeem for prizes, all just for doing business with them. Their web form generator allows you to fill out the shipping information so that you can then print your own labels at home. Not a bad perk for something you had to ship anyway.
Split Up Your Shipment – Strange but true. In the same vein as why sometimes buying in bulk costs more, sometimes shipping one large package costs more than shipping two! If your package contains many smaller items and the shipping box is getting larger in size and not just in weight, you might try and divide it up into two or more boxes. Since the post office and other shippers measure the size of the box as well as the weight, it isn’t always cheaper to send it in one box.
Pack With Lightweights – Your recycled inner packing material like newspaper, might not be saving you as much money as you think. Packing peanuts might cost more to purchase, but might save you more money in shipping. The next time you ship something load the box up with different packing materials and way it, to see which one is most efficient to both cradle your goods AND save you the most money.
Free Can Be Good – If you’re shipping USPS and choose Priority Mail, you can get your supplies for free. The boxes and labels anyway. But be careful when using the “one size any weight” boxes. Unless you’re shipping something really heavy or from coast to coast, you’ll often spend more money than boxing it up yourself and just sending it Priority Mail. This is a good time to invest in a postal scale (an electronic food scale will do a fine job for lighter packages too), as you can check the size and weight of your package on the USPS website to see in advance how much it will cost to ship. Then you’ll know whether it pays to use the one rate box or not.
If some of these ideas were new to you, I hope that they might help you save a bit of dough in this recession when it comes to shipping a package.
I definitely spend too much on shipping!
You are so right about the cost. This is why alot of my gifts are now gift cards. Cheaper to send. Thanks for the tips. Who knew two boxes could be cheaper than one. Brennersmom
I'm always floored when they tell me how much it costs to ship stuff. Thanks for the tips!