How can we save money on our post?

Pass the parcel
For parcels weighing more than 2kg, it's almost always cheaper to go though a web courier rather than the Royal Mail. Check out web parcel companies like Parcel2Go or MyHermes, who will give you a range of quotes from suppliers like Fedex and DHL.

Sending an 8kg, 40cm cube within the UK with Royal Mail costs £11.74, with no tracking and compensation up to £39. But Parcel2Go offer the same service with delivery tracking and compensation of up to £50 for just £7.46.

If you've got something large to move (like furniture), you can use a 'reverse auction' site like Shiply. You simply say what you want shipped, and couriers around the country post bids for the price ? you choose the lowest. Delivery companies love it, because it's a way to make cash from the spare space in their delivery lorries. And it works brilliantly.

Ordinary letters with the Royal Mail is no longer charged just by weight. Instead, the size of the envelope counts too. So a great, scrimping and saving tip is to package up your post into the smallest container possible.

For example, if you're posting just a few sheets of paper, fold them up into a small A5 envelope, rather than keeping them pristine in a large A4 envelope. In an A5 envelope, first class postage costs 41p... but in an A4 envelope, it's 66p. That's a saving of more than a third!

Really, no-one should sell thin A4 envelopes any more, except the cardboard 'please do not bend' kind for non-folding papers ? it's a con. Use A5 or smaller wherever you can.

Marvel at the price differentials here - the cost of a 'packet' of 50g, for example, is over double that of a 'large letter' of the same weight. The difference is a couple of millimetres. It may even be worth sending two small parcels rather than one large one.

Use the Royal Mail's online price calculator and guide to size formats to figure out how to make your packages as tiny, and cheap, as possible.

Second-class no more

It's easy to forget about second-class post, but often there's little difference from first-class. Officially, first-class post aims for delivery the next working day, while second-class post aims for within three working days. Notice that little word 'aims' though.

Will it fit?

If you do pay at the post office, always check that you're being charged the right amount.

For a while, the cashiers in my local post office automatically charged me for a packet rather than a large letter, without checking the size ? until I pointed it out. (It may have been a fiddle, but given the huge queues, I think they were probably just too busy to check.)

Now they do check ? probably they know not to annoy the crazy lady with all the small parcels!

Stockpile stamps

A first-class stamp is a first-class stamp. Even if the price goes up, it's still valid. So if you think the price of stamps is likely to rise above inflation then it may be worth buying stamps now and stashing them away for the future. Especially if you post a lot. While the future of the Royal Mail looks uncertain, it's pretty clear ? sadly ? that postage isn't going to get cheaper any time soon.