I have had a dentist bill staring at me for a few days now. I had budgeted the money to pay it, and I knew it was coming, but I still hadn’t paid it. Why?
I have run out of stamps.
Now, I don’t work all that far from the post office, but I just hate going to the post office. At my old bank, I could buy stamps from the ATM. I have yet to find a place where I can do that here. I hate having to go and wait in line just to buy stamps. Yes, I know there are usually vending machines at the post office, but my luck, they’re out of order or out of the stamps I need or I don’t have proper change so I either end up with way too many stamps or a whole lot of dollar coins. Neither of which I particularly need.
I also know that I can order stamps online for a $1 service fee. But it feels funny to buy less than $10 worth of stamps and pay an extra $1 when I could just walk to the post office.
So instead, I called the dentist. “Can I pay this bill over the phone?” “You sure can!”
Bam! 42 cents saved.
(Of course, I have a letter to respond to and a thank you note to mail, so I will have to hit the post office soon anyway. But not today!)
Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
Good call!
Or you can pay online with other bills…
The other option is to pay right when you’re done with the service so that you don’t forget 🙂 That’s what I do.
SCORE! good work 🙂 btw, i think i’m going to that same post office you mention in like 15 mins (underneath that big building on 7th st. next to Fedex and that hotel?).
Our company has a PO Box there and i’m in charge of checking it every week. it’s all good though, i’ll take any excuse to take an “extended” walk 😉 just sucks that it’s raining today…
That’s exactly the post office I was mentioning! I’m wondering how many times we’ve crossed paths in the area and had no idea at all.
You probably made more than $.42 …. With the days you gained by finally calling in I hope you made some interest too. . 🙂 Nice job
haha…but what about the cost of the phone call? 😛
You can probably also use your bank’s online banking bill pay feature to make this sort of payment. You can schedule regular payments for utilities or make one-time payments to regular businesses or individuals. You just enter in the payee name and address, the amount to pay and the bank will send a check for you.
With some banks, you might need to sign up for bill pay for them to add it to your online banking. But it’s definitely worth the time and money savings.
Whateverebay, the bill wasn’t yet due, so no interest had accumulated. Yet.
Tom – I suppose it did use up about 5 of my cell phone minutes. But I never use my entire monthly allotment either, so I’m not sure how to calculate the cost of the call!
I have two ideas for you. One is to buy stamps at the grocery store. The major grocery chains I’m familiar with allow this — hopefully you have this option, too.
The other (which several other people have mentioned) is to investigate your bank’s online bill pay. Your bank may not have this option, or it may not be free, or it may be a PITA to use — but Oh.My.Goodness. I don’t know how I ever lived without it. I can set it up to pay not only major utility companies and banks (loan holders), but virtually anybody in the United States. If my bank doesn’t already have a relationship with them where they can make the transfer directly, they cut a check and stick it in the mail, taking into account postal delivery time so the person/company gets paid as close as possible to the date I specify. It’s totally free for me, and it’s AWESOME.