Digitally Preview Your Mail Each Morning with USPS Informed Delivery

Informed Delivery by USPS allows you to preview your mail each morning with a digital copy of each letter-sized item to be delivered to you via email. You can also log in anytime and see images of previous week’s mail. Additionally, you can see the delivery status of any packages coming your way.

If you’ve ever had your mail stolen, this gives you the ability to at least see what mail was stolen from you. Or you can see first thing in the morning what mail is being delivered, alerting you to anything of particular importance.

You will see the address side of mail delivered. You of course will not be seeing contents of that mail.

Learn more and sign up at informeddelivery.usps.com.

How Do I Find the Nearest Mailbox to Me?

My wife asked me if there is a way of finding the nearest local mailbox.  Sure, we know of a couple mailboxes within a mile of our home in the Conejo Valley but it's nice to be able to find other mailboxes when you're out and about.

She used to put letters and bills and such in the mailbox for our mail carrier to pick up, but with the rash of folks swiping things out of home mailboxes, she would prefer to drop letters off into a more secure "blue" mailbox.

The US Post Office has a "Find Locations" section on its website to find a variety of locations, including post offices, approved postal providers, self-service kiosks and collection boxes (aka mailboxes). Find your local mailbox at tools.usps.com/find-location.htm. This tool on the USPS site works great and provides additional information, including daily pickup times.

And of course since there's data out there on where the mailboxes are, there are websites that take that this data and create their own mailbox map. Mailboxmap.com does just this. Simply type in your location and the map will clearly lay out mailbox, post offices and UPS stores for your mailing needs. 

U.S. Mail First-Class Letter Rates Increasing by a Penny on January 22, 2012

The U.S. Postal Service announced in October that First-Class mail single letter rates will increase by 1 cent, from 44 cents to 45 cents, on Sunday, January 22, 2012. This represents a 2.2% increase. So save a penny and eliminate the hassle by buying some of those "Forever Rate" stamps before the price change!

It has been nearly 3 years since the last price increase for First-Class mail in the U.S. The last increase was a 2 cent increase effective May 11, 2009.

Who actually uses mail these days for paying bills? Do what I do and start utilizing online bill payment services. Paying bills online allows me to save money on stamps, save time (no more handwriting, tearing, stuffing, licking and mailing) and headache. Click here for more information. I use online billpay and direct debit/credits for 95% of my bills.