Saturday, June 21, 2008

Going out of town?

Home Ec 101 reminds us that we can hold our mail with a simple online form. One less trip to the post office!

But don't bother printing that confirmation page with secret code. Copy and paste the printable view to a Word file, then save.

No paper--no ink--no trouble! How do you save your "keep for records" e-receipts these days?

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

[" But don't bother printing that confirmation page with secret code. Copy and paste the printable view to a Word file, then save. " ]

________

... much easier to directly 'save' the page to your PC Hard-Drive, using your internet-browser's "Save File" or "Save Page As" command.

Just click on your browser's FILE menu for the SAVE command.

It saves the whole page that you're currently viewing. You can accept the default file name or rename it as you like. You can then view the saved file anytime
offlineor online... using your browser or PC file manager.

Anonymous said...

I take a screenshot. :)

Dianna said...

I do the same thing, except I print it to a PDF file.

Do keep it, though. They're really grumpy about changing your dates if you don't have the all-important confirmation number.

Michele @ Frugal Granola said...

I just save the "print preview" of the form into a folder on my desktop. It works well.

I love the online "hold mail" request feature. I use it every time we travel!

Thanks,
Michele :)
www.frugalgranola.blogspot.com

Meredith said...

You know, I have problems viewing the page offline, so that's why I started cutting and pasting.

It allows me to keep only the important part of the page and ditch the rest.

I keep a Word file going by month, with little snips of this and that all in one file. Somehow that keeps my files less cluttered than a number of separate issues saved by file.

Janel said...

I've done this for years and love it. I didn't know you could sign up online.

A quick note on plain paper in the mailbox (put the flag up! hehehe) with the dates to hold mail, your address and signature works too. I've done that more than once with various POs. :blush: They always take it.

Now I keep a stack of 6 or so "official" hold mail forms in my vacation file to pop in the mailbox when we're prepping.

Anonymous said...

I keep it pretty simple, I guess. I use web-based email, and I created a folder in my webmail program just for those kinds of things. All I do is click and drag the confirmation over to the folder, and wha-lah! I'm done.

Jaime

Anonymous said...

Generally I e-mail them to an account that is hosted by yahoo or gmail. This way I have the information in a search-able database. If I can't do that, I do print them off and file them in a 3 ring binder with our monthly bills. Incidentally I still get our bill by mail. I've had too many times when having that piece of paper has saved me upwards of $50, whether to confirm I paid a bill or to confirm I was overcharged, or even to confirm I cancelled a service and was still being charged!

All in all, I find the amount of paper I keep per year is minimal, usually no more than 1 1/2 inches per year, and this includes all our tax documents, receipts like the ones you mentioned, legal documents, and bills.

Anonymous said...

What a clever idea! I confess I didn't want the paper clutter, so I just wasn't printing out my e-receipts. So far, no problem, BUT i'm sure it will be sometime if I don't receive the services I've paid for.
Thanks for the tip!

~Karen_ said...

In the past I copied important info from e-recipts and pasted them as a draft. Now I copy and paste in notes, which is in Outlook with my email, contacts and calender.

Monica Wilkinson said...

This is the only way I have our mail held anymore. I've been doing this for several years and it has always worked very well!

Anonymous said...

If you use Firefox, there's a free add on called Screengrab that allows you to take a screenshot. I use it whenever I need to save a page - it's fabulous because I do a lot of online transactions (shopping and banking) and my computer isn't hooked up to a printer (I print from my husband's computer if necessary).

Edi said...

This is the method I'm going to use this week. I always was a bit worried that the little card you can mail in, might get lost and the mail would keep on coming. I've been discouraged in that, over the past few yrs that we have put our mail on hold - that for one or two of the days we'll be gone - we still get mail (find it in our mailbox when we get home).

I've talked to the supervisor at the P.O. - but they always say the same thing "must have been a substitute mailman".

I usually print off my reservations etc. and keep them in the binder that I will be bringing along on my trip (includes google maps, schedule for our traveling, activities for each day we'll be gone etc.)

Anonymous said...

If you have office 2007 or maybe even vista, you can print to Microsoft XPS file. So you are creating a file of exactly what you printed. I think it is downloadable from microsoft for people that don't have the updated versions of the software.

Sweetpeas said...

I generally just save as a text file. Might not be formatted perfectly, but enough to give me the pertinent information should I need it.

Anonymous said...

...there are many excellent, simple, and free Windows "ClipBoard" software utilities, readily available on the internet.

The normal Microsoft Windows
'clipboard' function only lets you copy/save one item at a time... but these other clipboard programs let you copy & save as many text or image items as you like -- for easy review/printing.


I've used "Yankee Clipper III" (FreeWare) for many years... couldn't live without it. But just GOOGLE 'Windows clipboard replacement' -- and you'll see lots of choices,

It's a great way to quickly save all those little items of interest that you encounter day to day on the internet.

Anonymous said...

For me (because I use microsoft) If its a printable page I just print it as a microsof document image (MDI file). Its the same as a pdf except you dont have to have the software to do a pdf file. Just hit print and instead of printing to a printer change the setting to the Microsoft Document Image. I do this with all my e-reciepts.

Anonymous said...

I almost never print anything out, unless it is coupons. I have this cute little program called CutePDF Writer. It's a free PDF writer that you can use to print everthing to PDF. Did I mention it is free. Go here to get it: http://www.cutepdf.com/

Tracey said...

Thank you Meredith! I have been thinking of doing this for a while but procrastinated until I saw your post.

Noodle said...

For those e-receipts: I save to an Adobe file via my printer. Quick, easy, and (most importantly) easy to find if I need it.