You've Got Mail

You’ve got mail :-(

How do you deal with mail? Do you pile, file or just chuck everything – including an occasional bill or two? You may be missing some great deals and costing yourself extra time and anguish over lost items. We know, we’ve done it.

Designated Postmaster Having one person assume responsibility for the mail works best. Annette does a wonderful job as postmaster and has discovered that precision-sorting leads to efficiency, and efficiency de-stresses life.

Step 1: Trash Can Sort Daily, mail in hand, Annette stands by the recycling bin and reviews every piece of mail, even bulk mail. She once threw away a bank card that came in an unmarked envelope. This mistake cost her time. She had to call the bank and identify herself multiple times just to reorder the card. Real “junk mail” is tossed.

Step 2: Hot Stuff She immediately places bills and items that require a response – such as party invitations – into the red “hot file” in our desk-top filing rack. The remainder of the mail goes into a pile on a kitchen counter, where it is dealt with every two to four weeks.

Step 3: Sorting and Filing Day The filing process starts by laying the accumulated mail on our bed. Then the sorting begins – Annette makes the following piles and then moves the items to their “final resting place”:

- Magazines – into magazine racks - Catalogs – stored in an antique cradle - Receipts – divided into business envelopes labeled with the year and store name for easy retrieval when returning items; - Food Ads –into a kitchen cabinet next to the coupon caddy; - Food/Restaurant coupons –into an orange folder for use on date nights or kids reward trips; - Miscellaneous coupons – deals on fun parks, mini-golf for the kids, bowling, dry cleaners – yellow folder - Medical Bills/Explanation-of-Benefits – red medical folder; - Dental Bills – blue folder; You may think this process very labor-intensive, but imagine doing this daily. Annette’s filing process takes about one hour from start to finish. Beyond time savings, having things sorted where they can be found saves money. When we want to go out on a date, we pull out the orange folder (Food & Restaurant Coupons), find a two-for-one deal and go out the door. We save hundreds of dollars each year in dinner coupons alone. If a doctor or hospital over charges us, having the original paper easy to locate can save us hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Minimize the Junk Mail If an undesired magazine or catalog arrives in our mailbox, we call the company’s toll-free number and request removal from their list.

You can minimize unwanted mail by requesting removal from the Direct Marketing Association list.

Mail to:

Mail Preference Service Attn: Dept. 10425817 Direct Marketing Association P.O. Box 282 Carmel, NY 10512 You can submit on-line, it costs $5 for the “privilege” of saving a 37-cent stamp!

The end result is less unimportant stuff to deal with on a daily basis. Less junk mail in our landfills. Lower costs, because we don’t encourage companies to spend money on unwanted catalogs or mailings. And of course, more time to spend on things that really matter!

Steve and Annette Economides are authors of America’s Cheapest Family Gets You Right On the Money (A New York Times Best Seller) published by Random House 2007. The also publish the HomeEconomiser newsletter 6 times each year. For more info and lots of free money saving ideas visit www.AmericasCheapestFamily.com



You've Got Mail - To learn more about this author, visit Steve Economides's Website.

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