Need help with possible "roadgypsy" plan (Homer: coupon, 2nd mortgage)

[blueflames50]

Well, as many of you know our plans for our move to Alaska...everything was going smoothly... Plan A and Plan B all in place, both are progressing wonderfully.... simultaneously which we had not expected!

suddenly we have been blindsided with the possibility of our house selling a lot sooner than expected! holy crapweasel! HELP!!

Plan C: We may end up on the road this fall/winter heading down south for the winter an just wandering with the truck and trailer until weather clears to drive up to Alaska...we need helpful info with this.

Have any of you ever been roadgypsy wanderers???
How do you deal with mail when you have no address to forward it to???
An what about all the mail that no longer can be forwarded??
Bill paying I think I have covered by internet and credit card.
Any an all suggestions, helpful info throw it at us please!

[Sapperdoc]

Having moved plenty of times courtesy of Uncle Sugar in the last 20ish years, I've learned a few things. One being never trust military packers with antiques from the grandparents.

... Okay, I may have digressed slightly there.

In all seriousness, you can do a few things to handle the mail (or reduce it, which is a good thing even if you're not mobile, yeah? Who likes random non-personal mail??)

1) Set up your bills/creditors/due outs as automagically as possible. The intrawebs are your friend there, and sounds like you've done that already.

2) Take this opportunity to get yourself off the mailing lists you wished you'd never popped up on, like the mystery catalogs for kitten calendars. It'll cost you a stamp, but if you write them back and say "stop sending me random crap" they are supposed to do exactly that.

3) For the persistent mail that seems to come anyway, you could set up a PO box that handles remote activity, maybe Mailbox Inc or one of those companies, could box all your kitten calendars (if by chance you didn't REALLY want to get rid of them!) and so forth up and once a month ship it to a sister store where you are (probably for a fee of course) for pickup.

4) You always have the option to, if you're 100% certain you've contacted all creditors and explained things to the family, let things just hang out in the dead letter office. When you get where you are going, some of it may catch up to you, and some of it may just end up, well, dead. A fitting end to junk mail, I say! I also frequently ask myself why I feel compelled to open something just because my name is on it, even though it is yet ANOTHER capitol-one-ripoff-offer for a credit card I don't need.... But I digress! (again)

My sister lived in a converted school bus for years, if you can believe that, rolling all over the country, and she worked it out with the post office. They just had to stay in one place long enough for their mail to catch up! Course she didn't have these private package companies to work with back then either, or the internet. I'm not sure they even had electricity back then.... Shh, don't tell her I said that. Good luck and safe trip!

[roadfamily6now]

my mom never moves. She is my "catch all" for stuff like mail
I have only 2 bills that need to be paid when we travel, so those are easy pay via internet.
last time we were road gypsies, we were on the road for 4 months. We moved from CA to AK but we just kinda hung out somewhere between WA and MT most of that time.

[blueflames50]

Thanks Sapperdoc....it's more getting the important mail that we are concerned about..will check into "remote" mail box service or more on how to go about it.

Now I digress....my husband was mortified when I was gone all summer and asked him to do as I do with the junk mail...not that we have much at all anymore...hehehe you'll see why.

Junk Mail Help:
When you get 'ads' enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these 'ads' with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own
junk mail away.

When you get those 'pre-approved' letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope.
Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right?
It costs them more than the regular 41 cents postage 'IF' and when they receive them back.
It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight.

why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.
Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank.

If you didn't get anything else that day,then just send them their blank application back! If you want to remain
anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them. Depending on what it is I will leave my name on it and write "take me off your mailing list!"

You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them 41 cents.

The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them.
Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for it...Twice!

Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again You get the idea!

If enough people follow these tips, it will work ---- I have been doing this for years, and I get very little junk mail anymore.

[blueflames50]

Originally Posted by roadfamily6now

my mom never moves. She is my "catch all" for stuff like mail
I have only 2 bills that need to be paid when we travel, so those are easy pay via internet.
last time we were road gypsies, we were on the road for 4 months. We moved from CA to AK but we just kinda hung out somewhere between WA and MT most of that time.

Awesome 4 months on the road!! well we have a friend who happens to be a postmaster and we could ask him to help out but he's postmaster in another town....no family that we can depend on for this.
We also are trying to figure out if we haul hubby's gun collection along and ship it from somewhere or leave it with our friend to FedX it too us when we land in AK.

[freezengirl]

Now that is a wonderful way to be blindsided! Remember this was the biggest hurdle, the rest is just details.;-) Keep in mind the "adventure" mindset, letting go allows you to move on. I am so happy for both of you!

[freezengirl]

Hello! I believe you have a handy friend in Homer. ;-)

[blueflames50]

Originally Posted by freezengirl

Now that is a wonderful way to be blindsided! Remember this was the biggest hurdle, the rest is just details.;-) Keep in mind the "adventure" mindset, letting go allows you to move on. I am so happy for both of you!

Thanks Faith!! I can always count on you ta give me the "love tap" upside the head!! We will be landing in Homer (Plan A) when we get there!
hahaha..I'm up to my ears in details, and lists of details am the "mad shredder" today as I whip thru my office shredding anything not worth keeping!!! So far one whole 50 gal trash bag and much more to go!

[1stimestar]

If you know of what town you will be in at a certain time, you can have your mail delivered there under General Delivery. Then when you get there, just ask for your general delivery mail. They will ask to see your ID. It's as simple as that.

[freezengirl]

Yep, it is as simple as that but they changed the General Delivery time to (if I remember correctly) a two week hold time. You can arrange for longer holds at any given PO but you have to follow their procedure.