Bitcoin QT size

I’m trying to find an easy way to enable my website to accept bitcoin payments. I’m trying to test out Blockchain.info’s “receive payment API”. Near the bottom of the page, there is a PHP example which I like to test out. To test it out, I need to send bitcoin to Blockchain.info’s address, who will later send the bitcoin back to me. When I try to send 0.0005 BTC in my Bitcoin-QT client (v0.8.6-beta), I get the following message:

“This transaction is over the size limit. You can still send it for a fee of 0.0005 BTC, which goes to the nodes that process your transaction and helps to support the network. Do you want to pay the fee?”

There are only two buttons for me to click: Cancel or Yes. 0.0005 BTC is worth approximately 50 cents or 100% of the amount that I want to send. This is an incredibly expensive fee and not at all what is touted as a cheap way to send money. When developing and testing, one will likely need to send bitcoin through this PHP code many times, which means that these fees can add up, and all I’m doing is testing.