CONSUMER BRIEFS / MAIL

Even though the price of a first-class stamp will increase by 2 cents to 44 cents on Monday, there are still savings -- of time and money -- to be had online, at the U.S. Postal Service’s website, www.usps.com.

You can buy stamps by the sheet and postage-paid Priority Mail envelopes. There’s an 8% discount on international Express shipping and a 5% discount for commercial Priority Mail.

The site also will send you -- with no shipping charge -- the boxes and envelopes you get for free at the post office. Once you have your stamped packages and envelopes, you can drop them off at a post office without waiting in line.

Through the post office’s Click-N-Ship service and third-party online vendors such as EBay.com, Stamps.com or Endicia.com, consumers can print out postage, at whatever rate their envelope weight and destination requires, on a laser jet printer at work or at home.