Work & Money 

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Get organised using the Web

We've got 10 handy ways the Web can save time and help keep you organised.

1. Clear out and sell on
2. Thank you cards
3. Your portfolio for investments
4. Organise a party
5. Birthday and anniversary reminders
6. Calendaring
7. Plan a car journey
8. Organise your email
9. Get customised news
10. Back up important data files

1. Clear out and sell on
Experts remind us that if we haven't used it or worn it for a year, it's time to get rid of it. Since one woman's junk is another woman's treasure, don't throw it out - auction it! And besides, online auctions are fun. Why not try out iVillage's online auctions? QXL and Amazon are also popular sites.

2. Thank you cards
If your family and friends have email access, try sending an eCard instead of a written thank you note. My children love making the electronic cards (complete with music and animation) and their cousins love receiving them. Check out iVillage eCards. Webshots and Hallmark are also popular sites.

3. Your portfolio for investments
Whether you trade in shares online or not, many sites give you free instant access to stock quotes for a portfolio of your choosing. This portfolio can include a combination of shares you own (and even record your purchase price and date) and shares you want to follow.

The free sites, however, make use of cookie technology to remember who you are, and thus give you instant access (no clicking needed) to the data you want. Try The Motley Fool, or if you want to pay a fee for some serious trading, checkout Sharepeople.com.

4. Organise a party
The old-fashioned way involved ordering invitations, addressing them, buying stamps, making a trip to the post office (boring!), mailing them, waiting for the phone to ring, writing down the RSVPs, then calling back those people who hadn't responded.

Sound like a lot of unnecessary work? Try the Web way. You can create an email invitation and send to your list with a simple click of the mouse. But wait, there's more: these sites also track RSVPs. Evite.com offers their service for free.

5. Birthday and anniversary reminders
There are three free email reminder services that give me an electronic head start on all my important dates. The largest of these is Lifeminders but MemoToMe also looks good. Etoys has a birthday reminder service listed under My Etoys - and they even send gift suggestions along with the reminder.

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