Lasting Post

Lasting Post is a very useful site created by Chantal Richards. I read about the site in an article in 'You' magazine in The Mail on Sunday and I thought what a brilliant idea and a fantastic free service she has produced. Her site offers information and a guide for people planning their funeral and it also becomes a memorial site after you are gone. And it's free.

It may sound morbid, but sadly a lot of people don't plan their funeral so when they die, it is an added stress for the family and friends to deal with. This site provides an easy, straightforward way to avoid that stress and ease the time when you or someone you know dies.

Help a Reporter Out

Peter Shankman (an entrepreneur and the CEO of The Geek Factory, a PR and Marketing boutique firm) has started a very neat service called, Help a Reporter Out, to help all his reporter friends.

The premise is simple. Peter Shankman maintains an email list which is free to join if you are interested in helping out a reporter. You'll get about three emails a day from Peter Shankman, all with reporters looking for sources. The emails will all be labeled with [shankman.com] in the subject line, for easy filtering. If you see a query you can answer, you simply reply. (If you are a journalist, you can submit your query via this form on the site.)

I joined ten days ago and even though I haven't seen a query that I can answer yet, I enjoy getting the emails and reading about the different topics that reporters are looking for further information about. I figure that eventually there will be something I can help with or I will know someone who can.

It really is a fantastic idea. I think everyone wants to be able to help if they can and this site provides an opportunity to do just that.

MindMyHouse: Bringing home owners and house sitters together

MindMyHouse is a FREE global house sitting matching service.

If you are worried about the legalities, MindMyHouse provides a house sitting agreement for you to refer to and sign prior to the beginning of the assignment.

Commutefrom.com - where to live on London's commuter routes

Commutefrom.com is a new site created by Ian Jones to help you decide where to buy a house in commuting distance of the London area by supplying you with information such as commute times and house prices.

There is also a forum to discuss all things London commuter related.

(link via Web User News)

DailyLit - read books by email

If you love to read but don't always have the time, DailyLit provides an easy and fun solution. DailyLit sends books in installments via e-mail or RSS.

There is no charge to read public domain books on DailyLit and some copyrighted books are also free! (most copyrighted books require payment but you only pay if you like the free sample installments and want to continue reading).

It's very easy to start a subscription to a book. You can choose to receive the installments three different ways: daily, on weekdays only, or on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. You can also choose to subscribe by email or RSS and you can choose the time of day when the installment is sent to you.

Holiday (vacation) Checklist Service

Don't Forget Your Toothbrush is a useful site - and it's FREE! The site provides a handy customisable holiday checklist service.

(link via MoneySavingExpert)

FixMyStreet

FixMyStreet is a very useful website designed to "...help people report, view, or discuss local problems they’ve found to their local council by simply locating them on a map."

The site is easy to use - simply enter a postcode or streetname and area, then locate the problem on a map, and enter details of the problem. You can report all sorts of things to your local council via FixMyStreet, such as; pot holes, road markings, abandoned cars, dog fouling, graffiti, broken street lights, flytipping, damaged pavement, etc. The site is free to use.

LibraryThing: catalog your books online

LibraryThing is an online service to help people catalog their books easily.

You can also get recommendations by using the book suggester.

Choose to arrange your books on a virtual shelf or on a list. Have fun with it!
LibraryThing is very useful and also incredibly addictive!

Qjump: "the faster way to buy train tickets online"

Qjump is a handy site to help make more efficient use of your time and help you to save money when you need to travel by train.

Qjump: train times, book tickets, reserve seats for mainland UK trains.

Register your complaints

If you've ever felt the need to make a complaint about customer service, you may have wondered where to start. Now you can find free help at utellus.co.uk : "a new website where consumers can log on and register their complaint or positive feedback to an organisation."

There is a blog too.

(link via The Click at TimesOnline)

What can you claim?

entitled to offers free calculators to work out your entitlement to benefits and tax credits (in the UK).

Handyman service (London)

007Handyman is a family run business based in Dulwich, South London.

According to their website, "We are the cheapest Handyman service on the internet!" The prices do seem very reasonable indeed: £45 for the first hour and £35 per hour thereafter.

If you are in need of their services (gardening, carpentry, painting, decorating, plastering, and lots more) the area they cover is Kent, Surrey, SW London and SE London.

The team of fully qualified tradesman will help you "to do the jobs that you don't have time to do. No job is too small."

Citizens Advice: The ultimate survival guide to life in Britain today

The Citizens Advice service "helps people resolve their legal, money and other problems by providing free information and advice from over 3,000 locations, and by influencing policymakers."

Free 'learn to read' tutorials

If your child is struggling with learning how to read or you are opting to homeschool, you will appreciate the website called Starfall, a free on-line service to help children learn to read.

(link via Kevin Kelly -- Cool Tools)

How to get a human on the phone, not a recorded message!

The site, gethuman.com/uk provides telephone numbers and instructions about how to bypass the recorded message you get when you call certain businesses (like major banks and credit card and mobile phone companies).

"The gethuman™ movement has been created from the voices of millions of consumers who want to be treated with dignity when they contact a company for customer support."

There are also versions of gethuman for the US and Canada .

There's a gethuman blog too.

(link via The Click at The Times)

Website that helps users find a parking space

Locate residential parking spaces and local services with Park at my House.com

"Our aim is to provide cheap, affordable parking in high demand locations."