You've Got Mail
I love mail. I look forward to going to my mail box every day to get the mail. One of the first things I ask my husband if he gets home before me is, "Did you get the mail?"
This could stem from the fact that I was born with paper on my butt and ink on my hands, since my dad was in the printing industry as a pressman the day of my birth. And I grew up helping out in his businesses, later pursuing a career in design and working for a printing company. I can remember as a kid my dad would show me things he got in the mail, paper samples, printed samples, samples of things with embossing and foil stamping, shiny finishes and metallic ink. I would ooh and ahh at how neat and how expensive they must be. Now I'm designing those same pieces and oohing and ahhing when the come off the press and I get to see the finished sample, I often smell the ink on the piece. It's a unique high and instant gratification from a job well done.
Or this could have to do with the fact that my job depends on paper. If it wasn't for paper and junk mail, I wouldn't have a job! Paper may be coming to an end in some businesses with letterhead templates now being produced and printed in black and white on "normal" paper with the letter right on them, and the paperless and electronic age booming, but I still love and am in love with paper.
The purpose of this post is to talk about the postage rate increase. I am somewhat annoyed by people complaining about the cost of stamps increasing. I think if more people used the post office, prices would not go up so much, but in the electronic/paperless age I spoke of above, it's become more difficult to use the post office.
My solutions is to open all of my junk mail and re-stuff things into the business reply mail envelopes. These are the envelopes that come with almost all junk mail: credit card offers, requests for donations, etc. The envelopes can be mailed at no cost to me (or you). I stuff anything that does not have my name on it back inside the envelope - coupons, newspaper inserts, inserts they send to me, etc. I stuff them inside, seal the envelope and take it back out to the mail box. You may be fearful of the "customer locator code" that is printed on the back of the envelope, but I can assure you, the majority of the time, this code is not specific to you, it's just to scare you and convince you to not mail junk back to them. And if someone does contact me and tell me they didn't get my application (and they know this because of the code on the envelope) I will tell them I am sorry, I got my mail mixed up, to send me another and I'll be sure to get it right this time!
If you are trying to go-green this may not be your favorite option. But you will have to decide on a personal level what to complain about -- using paper or spending more money on stamps.
Read more here: Postal Service Rate Increase.
